Why a Pulitzer-winning cartoonist has decided to go ‘Trump-free’
DONALD TRUMP and Opus the Penguin.
Last year was a double siren song that lured two ’80s-born species back into the national conversation. The builder and the marine bird.
Earlier, in a simpler, less-wired era, Berkeley Breathed, creator of “Bloom County,” had skewered Trump dozens of times in his Pulitzer-winning strip that featured sweet Opus, whacked-out Bill the Cat and an entire meadow of interacting human and animal denizens of the title lands. The Donald was painted as cartoon buffoon. Then last year, Breathed reawakened “Bloom County” after a quarter-century slumber, calling its return — in the immediate wake of Trump’s escalator entry into the presidential campaign — a “sparkling symptom of a renewed national ridiculousness.” And for much of the past year, the strip poked fun at the Republican candidate.
Now, Breathed isn’t laughing so heartily at Trump.
Editorial artists and journalists alike “look like kickboxers swinging underwater,” Breathed tells The Washington Post’s Comic Riffs of media attempts to land a critical harpoon into Candidate Trump’s hide. Which is why Breathed himself has decided to stand down.
“I have declared my strip Trump-free at this point,” Breathed tells Comic Riffs. “He may get only a glancing mention as subtext … even if he and his family get control of the free world.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/09/23/why-a-pulitzer-winning-cartoonist-has-decided-to-go-trump-free/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-arts%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
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Breathed was never a Political Editorial Cartoonist and is more of a social commentator. His interests are wide and I'm sure this current focus on the wild eyed Trumpalooza has him feeling constrained.
I guess he became tired of saying in every conceivable way, "No! Wait! Stop! Halt! Hold it! Look! Think!"
The article DOES say he will continue to take some swipes where necessary. 
