Bloom County was one of the most popular comic strips of all time. From December 1980 until August 1989 it ran in 1200 newspapers. Then Berkeley Breathed, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Bloom County, did something nearly unprecedented—he walked away.
Over the next 20-odd years Breathed would produce two Sunday-only comic strips, as well as a number of well-remembered children’s books. But then, quite unexpectedly, something changed. In the summer of 2015, with no advance warning—for the first time in 25 years—Berkeley Breathed began producing new Bloom County strips.
But this time it was decidedly different. There would be no editors and advertisers to answer to, no endless deadlines to meet. Berkeley Breathed’s return to Bloom County was launched and made available exclusively on-line. One year later it is still going strong—to the delight of more than 640,000 Facebook fans.
In September IDW Publishing will release BLOOM COUNTY EPISODE XI: A NEW HOPE, a 144-page volume featuring Breathed’s all-new strips, available for the very first time in print. In celebration of this momentous occasion, IDW Publishing is pleased to present an astounding exhibit of rare and historic Bloom County original art, all from the personal archives of Berkeley Breathed.
Included in the exhibit is the first appearance of Opus the penguin, a week of Star Wars-related strips from 1983, the prophetic episode when Donald Trump bought Bloom County and fired the cast, and the very final Sunday page. Additionally, many strips featuring Bill the Cat, the Anxiety Closet, Cutter John, Steve Dallas are presented.
A once-in-a-lifetime exhibition curated by Kevin B. Eastman, creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A gallery of Bloom County original art from Berkeley’s vault is now on display at San Diego Comic Art Gallery
fonte: San Diego Comic Art Gallery