Editor and Publisher’s Dave Astor reports on a speech given by Bloom County cartoonist Berkeley Breathed at the recent Reuben Awards Weekend sponsored by the National Cartoonists Society, wherein Mr. Breathed voiced a desire to return to weekly strip-cartooning.
3 Comments
Comments are closed.
My wife and I had a chance to talk to Berke in the Palace Hotel’s hallway after his speech, and I (like the fanboy that I am when it comes to Bloom County) breathlessly told him how jazzed I was at the prospect of him returning to newspapers. He was in a bit of a rush, so we didn’t chat long, but he pretty much made it clear that if he were to come back, it would probably only be for Sundays. But still, hot damn, it’s an exciting prospect.
He’s pretty much the sole reason why I wanted to become a cartoonist, so I wish the guy well in whatever he decides.
That’s pretty cool Dave! I too loved Bloom County as a kid. I did think Outland was relying more heavily on dumbed down humor at the end (can’t remember specifics) but a recharged return of Berke and Opus would be great.
You have to wonder if he’s had any exposure to comics on the web. Scott Kurtz did do that phone call thing to him last year(?) in which he seemed a bit dismissive of webcomics smaller audiences but it wasn’t clear if he really knew what he was talking about…
ramble, ramble, ramble…
In his speech, he talked about how he really hadn’t been following strips over the last ten years. But then he added that one of the main reasons why he came to this year’s NCS convention was that he was kinda sorta interested to see what was going on in the industry (this was before he floated that he might want to get back into newspaper cartooning). After the speech, I remember him asking a few cartoonists about their copyright-ownership status, and how the industry has changed lately….who the new bright names were, etc. etc.