The End of Berkeley Breathed's "Opus" (Salon)

[pokerfan]

Berkeley Breathed explains how our coarse national dialogue led him to end his strip.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/10/18/opus/index.html">The end of "Opus"

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Well, THAT* was unsatisfying...

I'm truly sad at the end of Opus...

:cry:


*By THAT I mean the article, not your thread.

[Cerridwen]

2. My dear CaliforniaPeggy

"I like turtles."

:hi:

[UTUSN]

6. Darling CA-Peg, your Subject title took my breath away with its clarity and honesty!1 n/t

[brer cat]

3. It will be like a death in the family.

I love Opus, and Breathed. I wish him the best with the children's books he will be writing.

[TexasObserver]

4. In the mid 1970s, he got his start doing cartoons for The Daily Texan

It's the University of Texas newspaper, and a superb newspaper it is.

We knew back then he was going to do well.

[chalky]

13. The Academia Waltz. Loved that strip.

Always had to read that and Groening's Life In Hell first before even looking at the actual news in The Daily Texan. :)

[redqueen]

5. Sad...

There'll always be great, classic cartooning. There'll also be radio. Concept rock albums. Theatrical movie dramas for intelligent adults. Little kids riding bicycles down a neighborhood street without a grown-up. Family dinner hours. Eleven-year-old girls who dress like children. Instant coffee. Buggy whips.

They'll just be much harder to find.

The very, absolute last comic strip characters destined to become true household words across America were invented 23 years ago: Calvin & Hobbes. There are and will be no more new ones.



I didn't know it was ending.

[dweller]

7. as long as we are allowed to post snippets, this one sums it up

(i can almost hear OPUS saying it)...

Your children's books seem to appeal to your gentler, Charles Schulz side. But how -- without Opus -- will you exercise your Michael Moore side?

I'll be on my couch Sunday mornings screaming at Brokaw and Stephanopoulos to call out the blathering bastards on their stupid fucking talking points and pin the dancing, lying, spinning Tasmanian Weasels down about something, ANYTHING for Christ Bloody Sake THE COUNTRY IS GETTING STEERED INTO CHAOS AND INSOLVENCY AND WAR BY ITS UNREAD UNINFORMED DULLARD SHEEP CONSTITUENCIES AND YOU JUST LET THE CANDIDATE SAY ONE MORE TIME WITHOUT OBJECTION THAT HE'S GOING TO CUT TAXES WHILE HE CALLS FOR FREE 24 KARAT GOLD FRANKFURTERS TO BE INSERTED INTO EVERY AMERICAN'S ASS JUST BECAUSE BUTT BULLION POLLS WELL.

You see right there why I can't have Opus involved with this anymore.


i couldn't agree more.
dp

[nichomachus]

8. Amen.

[nichomachus]

9. The one bright note

of a very sad (I will miss Opus so much) situation is that I now know what to say to my wingnut relatives when they try to shove another talking point down my throat:

I like turtles.

Being so poorly read, they will have no idea what I'm even talking about -- it will leave them speechless.

Thank you, Berkeley. You made me smile, snort, and laugh out loud for 28 years -- very few people have been able to do that.

However, I now have no reason at all to subscribe to the Sunday newspaper -- Opus was about all I read.

[starroute]

10. This completely and unfortunately ignores web comics

Comic strips are far from dying. They are thriving, mutating, and proliferating as they have not done since a century ago -- thanks to the Net.

Heck, even my far-from-artistic #2 son is busy teaching himself how to draw so he can express his headful of ideas in the form of a webcomic without depending on stick figures or on finding somebody else to do the art.

The form hasn't produced its classics yet -- and it's still aimed primary at Net-savvy 20-somethings. But it's growing and developing with incredible speed.

Much as I respect Breathed, I suspect he's just too 20th century -- and too mass-market -- to keep up. Something new is on the horizon -- but all he can see is darkness.

[Beregond2]

11. I haven't seen that comic in decades.

I had no idea it was still being written.

[pokerfan]

12. I read them on the internet

[AAARRRGGGHHH]

14. Bloom County ended on my 14th birthday

I was crushed and I cried. I could never really get into the concept of a Sunday-only strip, though I checked it out whenever I could.

I hope Mr. Breathed enjoys his retirement. He provided a great many laughs over the years.

[machI]

15. Kick