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Did You Enjoy the Bloom County comic strip?

posted a year ago by mtxmind (3296)
6 replies | jump to latest

I was in my early 20's when it started & loved it, especially in the early days. Had all the books too.

Towards the end of it's original run, it started getting stale & more ridiculous in the story plots (remember the whole Trumps brain transplanted into Bill the Cat plot?)

The followup Outland started out interesting, with a kind of "Farside"-esque vibe to it, but ultimately became a Bloom County rehash. After that, Opus had his own strip briefly, then a few years back, Bloom County was revived yet again as an online strip, but I haven't paid any attention to it.

Your thoughts? Memories? Favorite moments/stories?

[–] ShogunofYonkers (73530) a year ago

No, I was more of a Calvin And Hobbes guy, that strip had more heart. Doonesbury was pretty clever too.

Bill The Cat…
At my job we sometimes get annoying ‘advisors,’ you know, the sorts that can’t do your work but are paid a princely salary to criticize you and your colleagues for your work…
We had a slovenly, poorly combed big bum advisor show up one day and some of us boys immediately started calling the fatso ‘Bill The Cat’ right to his face.
We gave him no respect and made sure he knew he was trash.

He quit and nobody ever saw him again. We broke that BS artist with simple teasing. Fun times😀

[–] chilidoggg (13388) a year ago

The Doonesbury one I'll always remember is the one where Duke is somewhere in Polynesia with that Chinese assistant, and this local chieftain, with the bone through the nose and the big feather headdress, is explaining how they throw a virgin into the volcano every year to prevent earthquakes, and the assistant protests that it's barbaric, and the chieftain replies they haven't had an earthquake in 1,000 years, and Duke says "Well you can't argue with that."

[–] GolfnGuitars (2434) a year ago

Yes, I was a huge fan of "Bloom County" and I agree with most of your thoughts about it and especially "Outland" (I just didn't think it was nearly as great as "Bloom County" was).

My favorite storylines:

1) Steve Dallas deciding to form a "death metal" band. That entire storyline was gold, IMO (Bill The Cat finally getting to meet Ozzy Osbourne...the "Elvis Of Heavy Metal"). 😃

2) Spuds McKenzie (remember him?) running for President in 1988...done in because he was driving drunk and got into the car accident. But that wasn't the real scandal...it's that he was caught drinking 17 cases of Heineken! 😃

3) An individual strip where Lola Granola told Opus that she had a picture of Dan Fogelberg tattooed on her body. Opus' reaction ("WHO IN THE DICKENS IS DAN FOGELBURP???") cracked me up (I was a big fan of Fogelberg's music, so that one really stuck with me!)! 😃

4) The ending strips...they were great! Oliver Wendell Jones joining "The Family Circus" ("Court order...they're bussing me in." 😃). Steve Dallas going to Cathy's apartment/house ("I brought my toothbrush." 😃). Portnoy and Hodge working "behind the scenes" at "Marmaduke." 😃 I thought those were hysterical! 😃

FYI, you're a bit older than me...I was born in 1969 and I can't quite remember when "Bloom County" started (I want to say 1984 or 1985). However, I really didn't get into it until my Senior year of high school and my college years. I think the era where we had "Bloom County, "Calvin & Hobbes" (which Shogun mentioned), "Cathy," "The Far Side," et.al., was the"Golden Age" of comics for my generation.

[–] mtxmind (3296) a year ago

I can't quite remember when "Bloom County" started (I want to say 1984 or 1985

Started on December 8, 1980 (the day John Lennon was killed), but I remember first becoming aware of it around '82, or '83. I think that was when the strip started really catching on with the general public.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

The Deathtongue storyline was my favorite.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

Loved Bloom County. I had all the books.