Berkeley Breathed is one of the most unique cartoonists of recent decades. Bloom County is one of the comic strips that helped to make newspapers interesting again and helped define and popularize topical political humor throughout the 1980s and won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. Breathed also started a new trend, ending his strip on his own terms in 1989. Since then hes made two Sunday strips for newspapers, Outland which ran from 1989-1995 and Opus which ran from 2003-2008.
Breathed has also written and illustrated a number of picture books for kids of all ages including A Wish for Wings That Work, which was made into an animated special, Goodnight Opus and Mars Needs Moms which is currently being made into a movie. Breathed has been trying to get an Opus movie made at multiple companies over he years but to no avail.
This year is a banner year for Breathed and his fans. Bloom County is being reprinted in a series of gorgeous hardcover editions from IDW Press, the first volume of which is out now with the second scheduled for release in April. Besides two years of strips, the book also contains annotations, early comics from when Breathed was a student at the University of Texas and other extra material including many strips that have never been reprinted before.
Breatheds first novel Flawed Dogs, which is ostensibly for young adults, is out now as well. The book which manages to balance the dark and disturbing with the outlandish and hilarious is a love story between a dog and a human. Breathed was kind enough to take time to talk about his past, present and future projects, animal rights and the bullshit expectations of fraudulent beauty.
ALEX DUEBEN: As a fan of your work who wasnt reading Bloom County at the beginning, I was amazed to see how very different the early strips are from what it became, but at the same time the sensibility is there. You may not have known the subject or found the characters and their voice but it is undeniably you. The grandfather pretending to be Alexander Haig and so many little gags are what we would come to think of as Bloom County. When you read through the strips, do you see yourself in them or do they feel like the work of someone else?
BERKELEY BREATHED: I dont remember drawing a single one they were all done in a fog of sleeplessness and deadline panic in the wee hours of the morning. So yes, absolutely, it is an experience in creative dissonance when I read these things. I cant imagine that I had anything to do with them. People I trust assure me that I did.
AD: Given that you dont remember creating them, I have to ask, when you read them now, do you enjoy them? Do you think they hold up?
BB: An impossible question to ask an artist or writer-- whether they enjoy their own creations. I'd love to know if Spielberg could ever enjoy one of his movies once enough time is past.I certainly don't read my own work.But I DO enjoy reading it to my or other kids... and seeing them respond.
Does Bloom County hold up?Oh, much of it no. Far too timely to the times it was created. But I was surprised to find myself laughing at strips I hadn't seen for 25 years and reading as new again... usually not the ones mentioning Michael Dukakis or Ronald Reagan.Which goes to answer the first part of your question I suppose.
AD: You wrote in one of the annotations that editors had no idea what to do with all the pop culture references you used in the strip. Was it really that jarring and confusing?
BB: It was because it had simply never been done before. Hard to imagine now, I know, as awash as we are in the vomitious wave of pop culture snark that is the web.
But this was 1982. A daring comic was still Garfield eating lasagna.
AD: I wanted to ask about that time because you, Gary Larson and Bill Watterson are often mentioned together as voices who emerged on the comics page and then left the comics page on your own terms. Did the three of you know each other or ever have a drink together?
BB: Ha! Comic artists are renowned for being loners. I ran into Gary occasionally because we lived in the same town but we had NOTHING in common. Or Bill. Watterson and I shared a large number of letters with very caustic drawings at the bottom of each, as we struggled with copyright battles with our syndicates but we would have had little to talk about over a beer. I tried going to one session of the National Cartoonists Society. Perfectly ridiculous affair. I can talk film with people. I simply could not muster up any cartoon small talk.
AD: The first Bloom County book is out now. The others are in production. Are there any plans to reprint Outland and Opus once the Bloom County collections come to an end?
BB: Oh, the publishers of the new collection would love that you asked that question. Well see.
AD: I know that Im not the only reader who wants to know. Have we seen the last of Opus?
BB: Lives on only in our hearts, Im afraid. I like closure in all my stories. He has one.
AD: Broken hearted. Im now going to switch gears. Your work in more recent years, the picture books and now your novel Flawed Dogs, has been aimed at younger readers, or an all-ages audience. What made you shift and what do you enjoy about writing for this audience?
BB: I'm not a natural cartoonist. At all. But I am passionate about a good original story. A picture book is a very efficient way to tell a very basic, visual story. That pretty much defines the audience as children: the medium is the demographic. I found myself writing stories for the young.
Which is not bad: kids understand and respond to story in ways adults do not.I had the best moment with my 6 year old boy yet when we both wept like idiots when Marley died in that ridiculous dog movie. And the filmmakers really hadn't given us reason to even love the damn dog.But it was the first time my son reacted to a fictional character and his disbelief was wholly lifted -- the holy grail for any writer.I want to deliver that. Who knows why. But it's why I write stories now and not cartoons.
AD: Ive read that Flawed Dogs started when you read about Michael Vick. What was it that compelled you to come up with this story and how did it end up as a prose novel?
BB: It was a photo in the New York Times of one of his brutalized dogs experiencing its first love from a human in a Utah dog shelter. He sat in the snow, folding his head, eyes closed, below the warmth of the womans chin. He had turned back into a dog while he had every reason to have been only a monster. That was my story. Too long and too brutal for a childs picture book. So time to find out if I could write a short novel.
AD: The book sounds madcap and it is, but its also very brutal. Was it hard deciding what to include, what to describe and just how far you could go?
BB: Not hard. Ive been doing it by instinct as a cartoonist for years. But I did have to be careful to walk a very fine line. I pan away at the moments that are simply too much. But I think I leave enough idea of the horror to linger in the mind of the reader. And yes, it is funny on purposethe humor leavens the horror and balances it into a digestible whole. At least I hope so.
AD: There are two really amazing images, both as written and drawn that I think really define the book. One is Sam the Lion and Heidy dancing, which however I describe it, wont do it justice. Where did this idea come from?
BB: From whence does the stuff from my id come? You're asking the wrong guy. I will admit that it suddenly occurs to me -- years later-- that I must have been referencing images and books from my past when I look at one of my illustrations. An image will pop into my mind in illustrating a moment in a story... and its all I can do to try to use my very limited drawing skills to make it appear remotely close to what's in my head. To see it actually approach the initial mental image is about as close to the exuberance of good sex as I can get without the actual sex. Puts masturbation to shame.
AD: The other great image is the dogs in the pound. Where did you come up with the idea for them to watch Lassie Come Home[/I[?
BB: Wouldnt that have been the favorite film of any unwanted, dog shelter wretch? We project our own dreams and hopes onto the characters in a film. They would want to be Lassiebeautiful, ageless and forever desired.
AD: I couldnt help but think about how few good pet stories there are. Usually animals just end up anthropomorphized. Other than Lassie and Flawed Dogs, do you have any favorites?
BB: I wanted to tell a love story between a human and a dog but from the dogs perspective. And to keep it real, I couldnt have the dogs behaving like people which is what happens in most dog movies of course. When we set this up as a film, I will be all over everyone that we keep these dogs, dogs. We may hear them speak, but their hopes and dreams stray no further than those of my pit bull sitting below my legs as I type this: to be loved by us.
AD: Theres a great line describing the people looking to adopt dogs as just as varied and imperfect and splendidly flawed as the dogs were. You placed the dog shows on the same spectrum of abuse and neglect that we exhibit towards animals. Was this one of your targets from the beginning?
BB: I could have written the same story about f*cking beauty pageants. Whether dogs or women, we have applied a bizarre set of physical expectations on the things we want. This is both cruel to those that dont measure up and corrosive to our culture. How fitting that Im talking to Suicide Girls regarding bullshit expectations of fraudulent beauty. I feel right at home with your beautifully diverse comeliness.
AD: How did you first become interested in and involved with animal rights and animal adoption?
BB: Married into it, Im afraid. I did quickly have a Come To Jesus moment when I received a postcard mailer from the Doris Day Animal Fund featuring a photo of a beagle puppy laying in the back of a metal cage in a research lab, a perfectly square patch of skin raw and bleeding from where theyd burned it to test new ointments or bandages or god knows what. Id never felt ashamed as a human before. Wed betrayed the one animal who goes to bed at night and probably only dreams of us. Im still angry. Listen, you asked.
AD: Patrick McDonnell who does the strip Mutts put out a book the other year, Shelter Stories, which was done with the Humane Society. Is there any chance of a Bloom County/Mutts team-up for animal adoption?
BB: Who knows? Hes still on the page, though. Ive moved my efforts to the movie screen, hopefully. I like sliding my messages under the door when nobody is looking.
AD: Fair enough. I know youre focusing on film right now. Mars Needs Moms is coming out next year. Could you tell us a little about that and what else youre working on?
BB: Working to get Flawed Dogs onto the screenalways a challenge. Disney is bringing Mars Needs Moms out in about 19 months. And Im writing the next project, which I look forward to talking about in about one year!
Until then, may I say SuicideGirls Rule.
Available now, Flawed Dogs
Go here for more Berkeley Breathed information.
Breathed has also written and illustrated a number of picture books for kids of all ages including A Wish for Wings That Work, which was made into an animated special, Goodnight Opus and Mars Needs Moms which is currently being made into a movie. Breathed has been trying to get an Opus movie made at multiple companies over he years but to no avail.
This year is a banner year for Breathed and his fans. Bloom County is being reprinted in a series of gorgeous hardcover editions from IDW Press, the first volume of which is out now with the second scheduled for release in April. Besides two years of strips, the book also contains annotations, early comics from when Breathed was a student at the University of Texas and other extra material including many strips that have never been reprinted before.
Breatheds first novel Flawed Dogs, which is ostensibly for young adults, is out now as well. The book which manages to balance the dark and disturbing with the outlandish and hilarious is a love story between a dog and a human. Breathed was kind enough to take time to talk about his past, present and future projects, animal rights and the bullshit expectations of fraudulent beauty.
ALEX DUEBEN: As a fan of your work who wasnt reading Bloom County at the beginning, I was amazed to see how very different the early strips are from what it became, but at the same time the sensibility is there. You may not have known the subject or found the characters and their voice but it is undeniably you. The grandfather pretending to be Alexander Haig and so many little gags are what we would come to think of as Bloom County. When you read through the strips, do you see yourself in them or do they feel like the work of someone else?
BERKELEY BREATHED: I dont remember drawing a single one they were all done in a fog of sleeplessness and deadline panic in the wee hours of the morning. So yes, absolutely, it is an experience in creative dissonance when I read these things. I cant imagine that I had anything to do with them. People I trust assure me that I did.
AD: Given that you dont remember creating them, I have to ask, when you read them now, do you enjoy them? Do you think they hold up?
BB: An impossible question to ask an artist or writer-- whether they enjoy their own creations. I'd love to know if Spielberg could ever enjoy one of his movies once enough time is past.I certainly don't read my own work.But I DO enjoy reading it to my or other kids... and seeing them respond.
Does Bloom County hold up?Oh, much of it no. Far too timely to the times it was created. But I was surprised to find myself laughing at strips I hadn't seen for 25 years and reading as new again... usually not the ones mentioning Michael Dukakis or Ronald Reagan.Which goes to answer the first part of your question I suppose.
AD: You wrote in one of the annotations that editors had no idea what to do with all the pop culture references you used in the strip. Was it really that jarring and confusing?
BB: It was because it had simply never been done before. Hard to imagine now, I know, as awash as we are in the vomitious wave of pop culture snark that is the web.
But this was 1982. A daring comic was still Garfield eating lasagna.
AD: I wanted to ask about that time because you, Gary Larson and Bill Watterson are often mentioned together as voices who emerged on the comics page and then left the comics page on your own terms. Did the three of you know each other or ever have a drink together?
BB: Ha! Comic artists are renowned for being loners. I ran into Gary occasionally because we lived in the same town but we had NOTHING in common. Or Bill. Watterson and I shared a large number of letters with very caustic drawings at the bottom of each, as we struggled with copyright battles with our syndicates but we would have had little to talk about over a beer. I tried going to one session of the National Cartoonists Society. Perfectly ridiculous affair. I can talk film with people. I simply could not muster up any cartoon small talk.
AD: The first Bloom County book is out now. The others are in production. Are there any plans to reprint Outland and Opus once the Bloom County collections come to an end?
BB: Oh, the publishers of the new collection would love that you asked that question. Well see.
AD: I know that Im not the only reader who wants to know. Have we seen the last of Opus?
BB: Lives on only in our hearts, Im afraid. I like closure in all my stories. He has one.
AD: Broken hearted. Im now going to switch gears. Your work in more recent years, the picture books and now your novel Flawed Dogs, has been aimed at younger readers, or an all-ages audience. What made you shift and what do you enjoy about writing for this audience?
BB: I'm not a natural cartoonist. At all. But I am passionate about a good original story. A picture book is a very efficient way to tell a very basic, visual story. That pretty much defines the audience as children: the medium is the demographic. I found myself writing stories for the young.
Which is not bad: kids understand and respond to story in ways adults do not.I had the best moment with my 6 year old boy yet when we both wept like idiots when Marley died in that ridiculous dog movie. And the filmmakers really hadn't given us reason to even love the damn dog.But it was the first time my son reacted to a fictional character and his disbelief was wholly lifted -- the holy grail for any writer.I want to deliver that. Who knows why. But it's why I write stories now and not cartoons.
AD: Ive read that Flawed Dogs started when you read about Michael Vick. What was it that compelled you to come up with this story and how did it end up as a prose novel?
BB: It was a photo in the New York Times of one of his brutalized dogs experiencing its first love from a human in a Utah dog shelter. He sat in the snow, folding his head, eyes closed, below the warmth of the womans chin. He had turned back into a dog while he had every reason to have been only a monster. That was my story. Too long and too brutal for a childs picture book. So time to find out if I could write a short novel.
AD: The book sounds madcap and it is, but its also very brutal. Was it hard deciding what to include, what to describe and just how far you could go?
BB: Not hard. Ive been doing it by instinct as a cartoonist for years. But I did have to be careful to walk a very fine line. I pan away at the moments that are simply too much. But I think I leave enough idea of the horror to linger in the mind of the reader. And yes, it is funny on purposethe humor leavens the horror and balances it into a digestible whole. At least I hope so.
AD: There are two really amazing images, both as written and drawn that I think really define the book. One is Sam the Lion and Heidy dancing, which however I describe it, wont do it justice. Where did this idea come from?
BB: From whence does the stuff from my id come? You're asking the wrong guy. I will admit that it suddenly occurs to me -- years later-- that I must have been referencing images and books from my past when I look at one of my illustrations. An image will pop into my mind in illustrating a moment in a story... and its all I can do to try to use my very limited drawing skills to make it appear remotely close to what's in my head. To see it actually approach the initial mental image is about as close to the exuberance of good sex as I can get without the actual sex. Puts masturbation to shame.
AD: The other great image is the dogs in the pound. Where did you come up with the idea for them to watch Lassie Come Home[/I[?
BB: Wouldnt that have been the favorite film of any unwanted, dog shelter wretch? We project our own dreams and hopes onto the characters in a film. They would want to be Lassiebeautiful, ageless and forever desired.
AD: I couldnt help but think about how few good pet stories there are. Usually animals just end up anthropomorphized. Other than Lassie and Flawed Dogs, do you have any favorites?
BB: I wanted to tell a love story between a human and a dog but from the dogs perspective. And to keep it real, I couldnt have the dogs behaving like people which is what happens in most dog movies of course. When we set this up as a film, I will be all over everyone that we keep these dogs, dogs. We may hear them speak, but their hopes and dreams stray no further than those of my pit bull sitting below my legs as I type this: to be loved by us.
AD: Theres a great line describing the people looking to adopt dogs as just as varied and imperfect and splendidly flawed as the dogs were. You placed the dog shows on the same spectrum of abuse and neglect that we exhibit towards animals. Was this one of your targets from the beginning?
BB: I could have written the same story about f*cking beauty pageants. Whether dogs or women, we have applied a bizarre set of physical expectations on the things we want. This is both cruel to those that dont measure up and corrosive to our culture. How fitting that Im talking to Suicide Girls regarding bullshit expectations of fraudulent beauty. I feel right at home with your beautifully diverse comeliness.
AD: How did you first become interested in and involved with animal rights and animal adoption?
BB: Married into it, Im afraid. I did quickly have a Come To Jesus moment when I received a postcard mailer from the Doris Day Animal Fund featuring a photo of a beagle puppy laying in the back of a metal cage in a research lab, a perfectly square patch of skin raw and bleeding from where theyd burned it to test new ointments or bandages or god knows what. Id never felt ashamed as a human before. Wed betrayed the one animal who goes to bed at night and probably only dreams of us. Im still angry. Listen, you asked.
AD: Patrick McDonnell who does the strip Mutts put out a book the other year, Shelter Stories, which was done with the Humane Society. Is there any chance of a Bloom County/Mutts team-up for animal adoption?
BB: Who knows? Hes still on the page, though. Ive moved my efforts to the movie screen, hopefully. I like sliding my messages under the door when nobody is looking.
AD: Fair enough. I know youre focusing on film right now. Mars Needs Moms is coming out next year. Could you tell us a little about that and what else youre working on?
BB: Working to get Flawed Dogs onto the screenalways a challenge. Disney is bringing Mars Needs Moms out in about 19 months. And Im writing the next project, which I look forward to talking about in about one year!
Until then, may I say SuicideGirls Rule.
Available now, Flawed Dogs
Go here for more Berkeley Breathed information.
VIEW 25 of 25 COMMENTS
drunkfurball:
I have several Bloom County anthologies (And one Outlands). I love his work, and I still take comfort in the humor in those pages to this day. The world needs more like Opus.
sammysuicide:
Bill the Kat, and the rest of the Krewe, rock still makes me happy!