Franklin Avenue

Opus Encore
"Bloom County" creator Berkeley Breathed has come out of comic strip retirement and headed back to the Sunday funny pages; "Opus," which will center around one of Breathed's most memorable characters, launched this past Sunday.

The first strip consisted of a simple gag: We open with Opus sunning himself on the beach, reading a magazine when a fine young woman calls out his name. She gives him a big hug... and then tells him that "Guido regurgitated a squid. Let's eat."

Opus wakes up. He's not on the beach. It was just a daydream. He's back in Antarctica, sitting on a barren ice shelf with a crowd of other penguins. "Oh, and I suppose you're where you thought you'd be in ten years?" he thinks.

Yup, it's been almost 10 years since Breathed pulled the plug on "Outland" -- and 14 years, believe it or not, since he ended "Bloom County." In a Saturday L.A. Times piece, Breathed lamented the state of today's comics -- particularly the lazy, corporate-minded strips that just won't die (he specifically cites "Garfield").

I'll give it to him that the funny pages still haven't recovered from the triple blow in the early 90s, when he, "Calvin & Hobbes" creator Bill Watterson and "The Far Side's" Gary Larson all decided to retire.

But the comic pages aren't quite the virtual wasteland that Breathed makes them out to be -- you just have to search harder, or live in a larger city where the comic choices are more progressive. (Here's the clue: If your newspaper still runs "Hagar the Horrible," "Hi and Lois," "Beetle Bailey," "B.C." and "Blondie," be leery. Running one of them is passable, but running two or more, it's clear the features editor hasn't even pondered the comics page in several years.)

For one thing, the new generation of cartoonists were taught by "Bloom County," "Calvin and Hobbes" and "Far Side."
One of the most promising new comics, "Get Fuzzy," in particular has a quality reminiscent of "Bloom County." Its Bucky Katt even slightly resembles "Bloom County's" Bill the Cat (at least when it comes to hygiene). "The Boondocks" also has a "Bloom County" tone to it (although its recent "Condoleeza Rice needs a date" have been puzzling).

Another new strip making waves, "Frazz," takes a philosphical approach to youth, in a "Calvin and Hobbes" vein (but with no imaginary tiger). And just about every single-panel comic has "The
Far Side" to thank for inspiration.

But back to "Opus." It's nice to see Breathed back in the game, but it's also a reminder of how the cartoonist probably shut down "Bloom County" at least a decade before he should have. As it is now, the strip has missed an entire generation of popular culture. How would junior hacker Oliver handle the dawn of the Internet? Would he be at the forefront of piracy issues? Would Bill the Cat be a reality TV show bachelor?

Whether or not we'll see the return of old "Bloom County" characters like Bill the Cat, who knows. Breathed's last creation, "Outland," began as an entirely different strip from "Bloom County." But sure enough, Opus and Bill eventually showed up back on the pages. At least on the funny pages, you can go home again.