Customer Reviews

Classics of Western Literature: Bloom County 1986-1989

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I'd already owned all of the Bloom County and Outland books, this being my last purchase. I had seen it in the bookstore when it was published, but figured I already had the strips contained therein - why spend the extra money? I happened one day to be flipping through the book when I read the introduction, specifically the first page of said intro. There, in color bolder than life, was a painting from, Breathed claims, his early years, entitled Geshundeit. It was precisely this abrupt style of humor that brought me into the BC fold. The golden years of Bloom County, with Breathed's pithy observations of the late 80's, kept me there. If you want to understand the following Breathed has, this volume is the perfect place to start.

I was a fan of Bloom County and purchased this book when it first came out. A couple of weeks ago I picked it up and started looking through it once again, and I ended up reading the whole collection. A few of the topical references to the 1980s (Gary Hart, Tammy Faye Baker) are artifacts of the time-period, but I am amazed how well most of the Bloom County strips have held up over time. The ones dealing with Donald Trump are just as relevant today as they were 25 years ago, while many of the strips deal with timeless themes. The title "Classics of Western Literature" is obviously meant satirically, but the title actually strikes very close to the truth. A work of genius.

This is vintage berkeley. I enjoyed a lot of his stuff from that time period. Many political references that just made fun of the people of the time. Doesn't get more ironic or insulting than that in just a few frames. I liked the read and the way the characters evolved. Yea, Opus! Good stuff.