Customer Reviews

Billy and the Boingers Bootleg (Bloom County Book)

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Bloom County was a politically charged comic strip that was a Doonesbury for the 80's. Berke Breathed created one of the most bizzare collection of cartoon characters, mixing animals and people with neither one noticing. Billy & The Boingers Bootleg in part chronicles the metal band Billy & The Boingers which had Bill The Cat on tongue & Opus on electric tuba. They were metal gods and their crazy antics were an obvious swipe at all the Parents Against Explicit Lyrics action that was going on at the time. The events taking place in the meadow also find Opus getting a girlfriend, Lola, and other incidents that mirrored the times. For anyone who remembers the 80's, Bloom County remains a touchstone. The original release contained a 45 that had two Boingers songs and the back cover is a hilarious spoof of U2's Joshua Tree album cover.

This book is probably the best Bloom County book published, and not just because of the Burger Chef value meal-type "record" that was part of the book.

Breathed was, quite bluntly, a comic genius and social satirist. Those who characterize Bloom County as a comic strip miss the point. The strip was a satire and commentary on the go-go economy and society of the 80s, human relationships, and economics.

This book contains some of the best, funniest, most powerful stuff in Bloom County's history. Just writing about it makes me want to go into the basement and play with my Opus phone.

You can't go wrong with this book. Again, it appears to be out of print (most of the best comic works are out of print, unfortunately).

Bloom County was without a doubt the most insightful, funny, and beloved comic strips of all time. It's rabid following has never gotten over the disappearance of Opus and the Gang from the funny papers. That's because nothing has ever been able to take it's place. Could you imagine Opus, Bill, Steve, and Milo tackling today's issues? What besides G.W. Bush and Saddam would be in the anxiety closet. Alas, we can only remember the good times.

This is one of my favorite Bloom County books. It mostly took on an issue that has always been important to me, rock n roll. The gang takes on the PMRC by forming their own metal band Deathtongue. After battling Washington though, Steve Dallas caves in and Billy and the Boingers is born.

Long live live Opus. He is sorely missed.

Back in the eighties, I considered the "Bloom County" strip to be the best cartoon feature of the time. Therefore, reading this book was a humorous and nostalgic look back to another time in America. There were references to presidency of Ronald Reagan and the Iran Contra scandal, the nuclear arms race, the evil empire of the Soviet Union and the first president Bush.
For one moment, I forgot the time context of the strip. On page 50 boy genius Oliver W. Jones has created a teleportation device. In the final caption of the segment, his father asks him, "Could you put George Bush into the White House?" To which he responds, "OH, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS EXPECT THE IMPOSSIBLE FROM ME?!" At first, I thought the reference was to George W. Bush, but then realized it was about George Herbert Walker Bush. I laughed at that one because it certainly could be applied to both.
Cartoon strips provide us with humor and a cynical look at the political and social forces of the time. Therefore, if you have little knowledge of the events of the eighties, then you will have a difficult time understanding many of the cartoons. However, if you lived through them and were old enough to be politically acute, then you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

Ok for you Get Fuzzy fans, this is what I am talking about. On the cover of this collection we see Berkly Breathed using the Bruce Springsteen album collection set(from Christmas 1987) for inspiration. Take a look at the cover, Are You Bucksperienced just plagerizes this idea.

Okay - Bloom County Babylon, the 4th Bloom County book was really a compilation of material contained in the first 3 books. So.... depending on if you want a chronological collection of the BC Strips, or to complete ALL of the BC Books, this is either the 4th or 5th volume of Bloom County, and Berkeley Breathed is still in high-gear producing the funniest 'toon strip I've ever read. And by "funny" I mean laugh-out-loud, roll on the floor, tears streaming down my face, people coming into the room to see "WHAT are you laughing at?!!!?" kind of laugh.

In "Billy and the Boingers" Steve Dallas, the sleazy womanizing ambulance-chasing lawyer, finally decides that even HE has had it with defending murderers and child abusers. Bill the cat inspires him to hold auditions for a "New high-profit heavy-metal rock band". Requirements are only "Need to know 3 chords and be able to grimace musically".

Along the way Opus the Penguin gets engaged to sweetie Lola Granola, and the new Heavy Metal Group "Death-Tongue" makes their pitch in Los Angeles to recording companies, ending with a memorable visit backstage at an Ozzy Osbourne concert - back when Ozzy was the "Elvis of Heavy Metal". Back in Bloom County Steve discovers that he must give up cigarette smoking or his life expectancy is 6 months. He has Opus tie him to a chair where he is the model of self-control for 38 whole minutes before he breaks down and tells Opus "Get me a (...) cigarette before I stick you in a blender". Things get worse from there.

As in the previous volumes Breathed does a fantastic job of creating a surreal universe full of people and critters that we care about, but who are most importantly..... funny.

I've always had a slight preference for the early "Bloom County", before things got quite this surreal. Which is not to say that I don't enjoy this one; there are a great many very funny bits in here, such as Steve Dallas facing the government commission led by Tipper Gore in defense of the lyrics of the rock band "Deathtongue", which featured Opus the penguin on tuba (very appropriate for a heavy-metal band, wouldn't you say?) Hodge-Podge the rabbit on drums, Bill the Cat on electric tongue, and Steve Dallas a lead singer and songwriter. All of which is certainly pretty surreal. But sometimes it got even weirder than that, if you can believe it.

Not the best of the "Bloom County" books, and certainly not the one to start with if you aren't familiar with them, but funny and worth owning if you enjoy the series and don't have it.

Bloom county is by far one of the funniest comic strips ever made. The characters are funny the dialag almost every thing.
Billy and the Boingers Bootleg has to be the funniest bloom county book I can remmber.
Opus shows his emotions as the ways the others cant. When something is wrong it aways happens to opus. Bill the cat is very funny! And the rest of the charcters.
The best parts of this book is the one were opus has to keep steve from not smoking or he'll die. That one was very funny.
The other one is when Bill and opus become in a heavy metal band called death tunges. That was really funny. I highly recommend you get this book you wont be dissapointed.

If any one here has some of the books can you tell me what happens with opus and his wife? Do they get a divorce? Just wandering.

This is one of the most enjoyable editions of Breathed's works. Some of the stuff includes the introduction of Rosebud the Basselope, the Heavy Metal band (managed by Steve Dallas), and Opus gaining a girlfriend, Lola.