Bloom County was a popular comic strip by Berke
Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980 until
August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and
culture through the lens of a fanciful small town
in Middle America, where children have adult
personalities and vocabularies and animals can
talk. It grew out of a strip called The Academia
Waltz, which Breathed drew for the student
newspaper while a student at the University of
Texas.

Characters

Core characters
Opus is a large-nosed penguin with a herring
addiction who lost track of his mother during the
Falklands War. Initially Opus was only a bit
player in a throwaway gag. But his hopeless
naïveté made him a favorite, the center of the
strip, and the subject of two "sequel" strips
(Outland and Opus) and a children's movie. 
Milo Bloom is a ten-year-old newspaper editor and
probably the most world-wise of the whole bunch. 
Steve Dallas is a former fraternity member,
unsuccessfully practicing lawyer, would-be
womanizer, manager of Deathtöngue, legend in his
own mind, and antagonist of the group. 
Bill the Cat is a large orange cat who bears the
characteristics of someone entirely burned out on
LSD. He's been a cult leader ("Bhagwan Bill"),
televangelist ("Fundamentally Oral Bill"),
perennial presidential candidate for the Meadow
Party, had his brain replaced with Donald
Trump's, has died (and was cloned from his own
tongue), been a Russian defector, heavy-metal rock
star ("Wild Bill Catt" of Deathtöngue), drug
addict, cat-sweat donor, and a woman named Frieda.

Michael Binkley originally owned Opus ("A boy and
his penguin!") and is wishy-washy and overly
reflective, when not contemplating the lives of
pop-culture icons. His "anxiety closet" has been
a staple of many storylines. 
Oliver Wendell Jones is a young African-American
and a gifted scientist, having invented a miracle
hair-growth formula and hacked Pravda with the
headline "Gorbachev sings tractors! Turnips!
Buttocks!" among various other technical
achievements. 
Cutter John, a wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran
often in Star Trek fantasies and anti-war
protests. 
Bobbi Harlow is the feminist schoolteacher of Milo
and Binkley, as well as the love interest of Steve
and Cutter. She was a major character until 1983,
when she faded away completely. 

Other characters
Hodge-Podge 
Portnoy 
Tom Binkley (Michael's father) 
Lola Granola 
Steve's mother 
Milquetoast the Cockroach 
Rosebud the Basselope 
Ronald-Ann Smith 
See also Minor characters in Bloom County


Notes
For reasons best known to himself, Breathed's
hand-printed signature on his strips is usually
presented in mirror image, i.e. right to left.

Among the topical issues discussed at length in
Bloom County are US anti-drug policy (Dr.
Oliver's Scalp Tonic), Christian televangelist
scandals (Fundamentally Oral Bill), animal testing
(Attack of the Mary Kay Commandos), hard rock and
censorship (Deathtöngue and Billy and the
Boingers), and mass-media advertising (Opus and
his weakness for infomercials).

Berke Breathed was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in
editorial cartooning in 1987 for Bloom County.

Breathed decided to end the strip in 1989. In the
continuity of the strip, a series of events led to
the dismissal of the original characters and a
plot transition to Breathed's next strip.

Shortly after Bloom County ended, Breathed started
a Sunday-only strip called Outland with original
characters and situations introduced in Bloom
County's final days. However, Opus, Bill and
other characters eventually reappeared and slowly
took over the strip. Outland ran from September 3,
1989 to March 26, 1995.

Another Sunday-only spinoff strip called Opus
started on November 23, 2003.


Bloom County itself
The fictional setting of Bloom County served as a
recurring backdrop for the comic and its sequels,
although the nature of the setting was frequently
altered.

In the comics, the county is presented as a
stereotypical American midwestern small town
(although the state in which the county exists is
never explicitly mentioned). The small town
setting was frequently contrasted with the
increasing globalization taking place in the rest
of the world; though Bloom County contained the
likes of farmers and wilderness creatures by
default, it was frequented by Hare Krishnas,
feminists, and rock stars.

The county was home to the Bloom Boarding House,
Steve Dallas' law offices, the Bloom Beacon and
Bloom Picayune newspapers, at least one pond, and
Milo's Meadow. In the comic's later years, the
county contained what appeared to be a big-city
ghetto ("across the tracks", as it was known).

The geographical profile of the county was fluid
as the artistic style of the strip evolved. During
most of Bloom County's run, the rural meadow
setting was presented realistically, while in its
later years it became increasingly more abstract.

Bloom County's role in Outland was a bit
questionable, as the Outland setting of the strip
was originally set apart from the county by way of
a magical doorway. By Outland's end, however, the
Outland appeared to be a part of Bloom County
itself.

Opus currently takes place in Bloom County.


Bloom County books

Collections
Loose Tails (1983) 
Toons For Our Times (1984) 
Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things (1985) 
Billy and the Boingers Bootleg (1987) 
Tales Too Ticklish to Tell (1988) 
Night of the Mary Kay Commandos (1989) 
Happy Trails! (1990) 

Anthologies
Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic
Naughtiness (1986) 
Classics of Western Literature (1990) 
None of these reprints contain complete runs of
the strip. Many Sunday strips have never been
reprinted. All of the daily strips were reprinted
in Comics Revue magazine.