One Last Little Peek, 1980-1995: The Final Strips, the Special Hits, the Inside Tips

by Berkeley Breathed

Berekeley Breathed's favorite Outland strips from 1980 to 1995. As he himself says about his often bizarre sense of humor, "what seems funny to a sleep-deprived brain at 4:00 A.M. often reads as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316106909
• ISBN13: 9780316106900
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 22 Pages
• Weight: 7.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 10.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

One last peek, indeed!

I love the characters of Berkely Breathed! There is so much subtle hummor that sometimes I do miss it at first. Most of the comics are from the Outland strips which I never saw in any of the newspapers in my area. My favorite character is Opus followed by Bill the Cat. I won't spoil it for anyone that's considering buying this book by telling about any of the strips in detail but I think that if you are a Bloom County fan or an Opus fan(a Sunday strip that I had in one of the papers in my area) then I think that you'll love this book of comics. "Try it, you'll like it!"

The End of Bloom County and Outland

At the time of this writing Berke Breathed's Opus 'toons hadn't made it to my local paper, so this collection represents "the end" of sorts for a strip that burned as brightly as a supernova from 1980 to 1995.The first part of this collection contains the final - more or less - Outland strips. These strips were written back when fat and cholesterol were the bad foods instead of carbs. Various plotlines include jabs at Hollywood with a sequel to the classic "To Kill a Mockingbird": "Kill Mo' Mockingbird". Steve Dallas defends Bill the Cat of his murderous fake chainsaw rampage a'la the OJ trial, then Steve hi-jacks Oliver Wendell Jones' time machine to go chase ambulances through history, running into Calamity Janes, Lady Godiva, Adolf Hitler and a caveman, circa 10,000 B.C. Opus winds his way through the final Outland strips much as he did at the end of Bloom County, ending with a poignant reunion with a loved family member thought long gone.In the final part of the book Mr. Breathed lets us in on some of his favorite strips and private thoughts in a way I haven't seen in other places. He tells us the anecdotes of communications he has received from Leonard Nimoy, Caspar Weinburger, President Reagan, "Mockingbird" Author Harper Lee, and he describes the evolution of characters originally intended to appear for only a moment who then became cornerstones of the Breathed 'toon empire: Opus and Bill the Cat. Good stuff for the Breathed collector.

If you only read one book in your lifetime...

Reading past Bloom County and Outland strips is like taking a stroll through the political and pop culture landscape of the eighties and early nineties with non-stop laughs and fond memories of the times and of the what is quite possibly the funniest comic strip series ever.

Why did he do it?

Why do all the great ones do it? Berke Breathed, Bill watterson, Gary Larson. Al the great cartoonists quit when there's lots of stuff left to cover! All the boring strips (Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Family Circus) must remain. Dilbert is Pretty good, but Scott Adams can never live up to the artistic and comedic talent of Berke Breathed. I wish Mr. Breathed would AT LEAST do another collection full of fresh stuff...

What a wonderful book!

It was a sad day when Bloom County and then Outland ended. These are perhaps the best view of the Eighties and early Ninties that can be done with humor. I really enjoyed the last part of the book in which Breathed tells a short story about cartoons that recived special responces from diferant public figures (i.e. President Reagan, Casper Weinburger, Gregory Peck and Spock, yes, as in Mr. Spock!!). I will miss Bill and Opus.