The Volokh Conspiracy
[Jonathan Adler, August 24, 2007 at 9:19am] Trackbacks
Free Opus!

Apparently some newspapers are refusing to run two installments of Berkeley Breathed's comic strip.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. Whom Did Opus Offend?
  2. The Other Offending Opus:
  3. Isn't the Opus Cartoon That the Washington Post Refused to Run Quite Tame?
  4. The Offending Opus:
  5. Free Opus!
rbj:
And the reason for the refusal is . . .?
8.24.2007 9:38am
AK (mail):
Nobody's saying, but the smart money is that the strips deviated from the Salonesque center-left self-satisfied contrarianism that is the strip's hallmark.
8.24.2007 9:44am
PersonFromPorlock:

...the Salonesque center-left self-satisfied contrarianism...

Be nice. Breathed is a Christmas-and-Easter kind of conservative, every couple of years. Heck, even Gary Trudeau poked fun at Ted Kennedy... once.
8.24.2007 9:52am
Wallace:

the smart money is that the strips deviated from the Salonesque center-left self-satisfied contrarianism that is the strip's hallmark

Salon will run the strips. It's the Wash. Post and other newspapers that won't.
8.24.2007 10:02am
PatHMV (mail) (www):
Based on the image on Breathed's home page, it looks like it's a Muslim issue.
8.24.2007 10:03am
rarango (mail):
Agree with pagHMV--something about jihadists -- No prohets are apparently harmed during the drawing of the comic.
8.24.2007 10:05am
Houston Lawyer:
Sad, I remember when he used to be funny.
8.24.2007 10:10am
PatHMV (mail) (www):
rarango, you have misspelled my name and thus insulted the honor of my family and my culture. I will now slaughter you, your family, and your countrymen until you submit.

Oh, wait. Never mind. For a minute, I forgot I was, you know, sane.
8.24.2007 10:11am
NaG (mail):
The Onion's AV Club had an interesting interview with Breathed that included some banter about his political views. I don't think he takes politics, or himself, serious enough to have a particular political slant.

I want my "Bloom County" back. I'll even be Breathed's mentee to make it happen, if he'd let me.

Mentee, mentee, manatee.
8.24.2007 10:12am
rarango (mail):
NaG: Amen! free not just opus—free Bloom County! Cutter John, Bill the cat, the anxiety monster, the roach and the whole crew. Pat HMV: Thanks! my first fatwa!!!
8.24.2007 10:17am
Felix Sulla:
I knew there was a reason I loved Berkeley Breathed:


Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he's a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.
-From his interview with The Onion, June 25, 2003, http://www.avclub.com/content/node/22539
8.24.2007 10:20am
Redman:

Not funny any more. Creepy, yes. Funny, no.
8.24.2007 10:26am
rarango (mail):
In addition to Breathed, I also miss Watterson and Larson. Those three strips were among the funniest and insightful to ever make the papers IMO.
8.24.2007 10:27am
PatHMV (mail) (www):
rarango, in one of Breathed's Bloom County collections, he had a picture that Watterson drew and sent to him. It was of Breathed, on a motorboat, stuffing his characters into the motor demanding that they produce him more and more royalties from toy sales and the like.

One of the most surreal things about the 1980s is the popularity of Bill the Cat, who was created by Breathed specifically to be the polar opposite of Garfield, intended to be so vile-looking that it would be impossible for Bill to become a plush toy or popular icon of any sort. But I suspect that somewhere in Africa there's a village clothed entirely of left-over Bill the Cat t-shirts.
8.24.2007 10:37am
Paddy O. (mail):
Going through my complete Far Side I was really surprised to see one that less than reverently referred to a Muslim belief about Muhammad.

Such a thing would never make it into the papers today. Ah, the free-wheeling 80s.
8.24.2007 10:41am
rarango (mail):
No Breathed fan can ever forget the citizen's of the Men's couch peering into their fruit of the looms after their tongue lashing by a feminist challenging them to find their personas.
8.24.2007 11:00am
I heart the 80s:
...intended to be so vile-looking that it would be impossible for Bill to become a plush toy or popular icon of any sort...

Actually, I've always thought he had "character".

p.s. Africa just got a lot closer
8.24.2007 12:19pm
Smokey:
PatHMV:
rarango, you have misspelled my name and thus insulted the honor of my family and my culture. I will now slaughter you, your family, and your countrymen until you submit.

Oh, wait. Never mind. For a minute, I forgot I was, you know, sane.
LOL! There's a lot of truth in that funny post.
8.24.2007 12:35pm
vinnie (mail):
Looks pretty harmless to me.
8.24.2007 12:36pm
WHOI Jacket:
Can we put up a "Save Opus" billboard?
8.24.2007 1:30pm
Crunchy Frog:

Apparently some newspapers are refusing to run two installments of Berkeley Breathed's comic strip.

The net effect being that more people will now see his strip than ever would have before. God bless the internets.
8.24.2007 1:38pm
Rubber Goose (mail):
Heh. I have a Bill the Cat stuffed doll on the back of my easy chair as I write this. Ack Pttthpht!
8.24.2007 7:18pm
Dave N (mail):
I must be living in an isolation ward. I didn't even realize Berkley Breathed was even doing a comic strip until today. I thought the music died when he killed off Bloom County.
8.24.2007 8:37pm
FantasiaWHT:
Now that I've read it...

huh?

Seems pretty tame compared to what COULD'VE been said
8.26.2007 5:20pm

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