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Return of the Penguin

Eight years after leaving newspapers behind him, Berke Breathed is back in November with a new comic strip named (and starring) Opus.

I was never an initial fan of Bloom County, even though it was a huge success.  The only reason I was never a fan, however, is because as a kid I didn’t know it existed.  The local newspaper didn’t carry it, the local library didn’t have any books (and I checked out every cartoon-related book they had), and the only real reference to Bloom County I was ever aware of was the odd Bill the Cat t-shirt that I thought was maybe just a really ill Garfield.

But I’ve since grown to love and appreciate Bloom County, and I look forward to seeing Breathed’s voice in the papers again, even if it is only on Sundays.  I’ll wager the political climate of the U.S. of A these days has something to do with Opus’s return.

Reading news like this makes me not only miss the comic strips that are long gone like Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side, but it also shows how a cartoonist can properly bow out when he’s finished but then still take up the pen again only when he thinks he has more to say.  It should be a lesson to the creators of the worn-out antics of Garfield, Cathy, and Marmaduke.  Give it a rest, guys (and gals).  Cap that ink and put those pens away.  Your time has come.  There are too many new up-and-comers and struggling comic artists that could be the next best thing to let that fat monday-hating lasagna monster keep taking up valuable newspaper real estate.

Luckily for us, Berke Breathed knows how to pace himself, and will only be in the Sunday pages, leaving plenty of room from Monday to Saturday for the “new classics” like Mutts, Zits, and Get Fuzzy.

No news on the return of Bill the Cat, though.  “ACK!”