Customer Reviews

Happy Trails: Bloom County Selections

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Bloom County's departure from newspapers on 6 August 1989 was met with only moderate sadness, as within a very few weeks most of those same papers would begin carrying Breathed's follow-up strip, the Sunday-only Outland. But it was still a very sad event for those of us who had followed the strip from its earliest days as a "rural Doonesbury" to its emergence as a surrealistic, fourth-wall breaking, somewhat sentimental, and delightfully askew look at the follies of the world we all share, as seen through the eyes of Opus the penguin, arguably the Pogo of the late twentieth century, and his friends at the Bloom Boarding House.

This last collection of Bloom County takes us from January to August 1989 - the last seven months of the strip - and includes some parting shots at Donald Trump (whose brain somehow finds its way into one Mr. Bill D. Cat), Mary Kay cosmetics, 1-900 phone services, runaway consumerism, and the questionable nature of what humanity considers "progress." Opus pens his autobiography (which Milo extensively rewrites and sells off as a Movie-of-the-Week), Rosebud (recently "outed" as a female playing a male role) gives birth to 63 "jackabasselope" offspring, and Steve Dallas returns to he "Neanderthal" roots... just in time for the Trump-brained Bill to buy the strip out from under everyone. The last few weeks of Bloom County show the cast moving on - Steve tries to get into action comics, Oliver's transferred to Family Circus, Portnoy and Hodge-Podge end up cleaning up after Marmaduke, and so on. As for Opus himself... well, you'll have to read the book to find out. Suffice to say, the final six dailies serve as a suitable transition from Bloom County to Outland.

Highly recommended to Bloom County and/or Berkeley Breathed fans. It's not the BEST book in the series, but that doesn't make it any less of a must-read.

I remember reading this book early 90's and it literally made my stomach ache with sadness to read the final 10-15 pages. Opus had always been the tear-jerker character of the series and the way Breathed plays him in the final books of Bloom County is really sad for true fans. The nice part is what he does to Steve. All I can say is "HE's BAAAACK". (He's bad!) Great book for true Bloom County fans.

Cheers