Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope

If this is what a 26 year absence can do for quality I am thinking of taking some serious time off. I have always liked Bloom County, but for fans rest assured this is not a pre-retiral money grubbing last gasp. I think it is fresher and funnier than the originals, For folks not familiar with the series worry not, it is current, funny and wonderfully drawn. Think the love child of Doonesbury (current politics and irreverence), Bill Waterson (imagination and beautifully drawn) and Breathed (bloke with a weird name), or maybe don't.I loved it. Best "new" comic I have read since Richard Thomson's "cul de sac".

This man is a genius.Every nuance of his prose and drawings oozes meaning. Lured out of retirement by the lunacy of the present US elections, Berkeley Breathed once again shows us what sideways humour is all about.

Excellent return to Bloom County from Berkeley Breathed. Had me laughing out loud from the start. Brilliant.

Few revivals can have been as successful. Bloom County is back and boy do we need it

So they return. I am so glad ...

Long time, committed Bloom County fans will undoubtedly welcome this volume with loud protests of joy, as well they should. But what about the rest of us?I have always greatly admired and enjoyed the work of Gary Larson and Bill Watterson. I was devoted to the first decade or so of Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury. As to Bloom County, well, I enjoyed some of the strips and bits, but never warmed to it as I did the others. But now, here, in this new book, (maybe it's me and maybe it's Breathed), this is a Bloom County I can take to heart.In an unusually earnest and revealing foreward Breathed addresses what led him to abandon the strip so many years ago and what led him to start up again at this late date. His essay may just be baloney, but I don't think so. The "Joy!" he lost and has regained in doing this new work truly does seem to be reflected in the pages, and that's delightful.All of the old gang are here, and each seems just a bit more interesting, funny, and deadpan perceptive than I remember from the old days. We start with Opus awaking from a 25 year nap, which right away struck me as a clever and playful way to revive the strip. Everyone gets to have fun introducing Opus to the new, modern world, which puts everything on the humorous comment agenda. Then we have riffs about Donald Trump, presidential elections in general, young love, middle age love, despair, the aforementioned "Joy!", and, of course, Star Wars.Some of the bits are just amusing, some are inspired, some are sharp and edgy, some are touching and humane - just like you remember. But there's also a bit of generous wry good will running through it all, which may be what I missed before and am happy to have now.Anyway, this was a bit of a flyer for me given my mild interest in the original Bloom County, but I'm very pleased to have had a chance to read this. It's faint praise to say that this is better than any other strip around, because that's not saying much. It's also fair to say that this is as good as the golden age strips, and that is saying something. A happy find, and welcome back Mr. Breathed.(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I've been reading Bloom County since I was a child, and enjoying the illustrations of Opus and Bill the Cat before I could even hope to understand the jokes. My father encouraged my love of comic books and 'the funnies' in the daily paper. It was a natural, easy way to encourage a curious little girl to read, and to this day I will happily consume anything from cover to cover. Every Sunday I looked forward to seeing my favourite strips in colour, as they appeared the one day a week. Later, as a teenager, I would find and enjoy his Bloom County collected works and finally, I too was in on the jokes.Getting familiar with these characters again has been a walk down memory lane. Not only that, but the touching blurbs added as a footnote to each page echo my own sentiments towards a seemingly simple comic strip that has followed me through my life. It's been a pleasure seeing all of these new adventures, and watching Bloom County come to life all over again. The homages to other now classic strips like Garfield, Peanuts, plus Calvin & Hobbes are surprisingly affecting. It's possible I never knew how much all of these kooky characters and their short but poignant daily messages meant to me. Thank you, Mr. Breathed, for returning them to the world.

Just enjoy,laugh out loud ,get weird looks on buses or trains,opus,bill,steve,cutter,enjoy these strips,make people, smile at you laughing out loud ,still the best ,just enjoy