Letters to the Editor
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PERFECT!
For those of us who were there during the Reagan era, this cartoon was **PERFECT**.
It's nice to laugh like that again.
Thanks Salon and BB!!
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Breathed has farts that are funnier and smarter than 99% of America
I cannot believe how much he gets trashed here. I can only conclude that a lot of humorless prigs like to comment on Salon.
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the last time Breathed used this gag
The Republican won. Not an auspicious sign.
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Opus - died years ago and Mallard Fillmore is impersonating him
There was a time when Opus represented the best in satire. Berkeley Breathed's view on the world as expressed through Opus was always refreshing, entertaining, and often plain hilarious.
What was especially nice was BB's wonderful artwork. It was the absolute best example of comic art in terms of complimenting the dialog.
Who can forget the Mary Kay Commandos. I still laugh out loud at it, not just for the things the characters say, but his drawings as well. The absurdly hilarious "Mary Kay" with huge glasses n a machine gun aiming to shoot to kill any lab animals who resisted being returned to their cages.
I don't know of any other cartoonist so able to mix truly dark subjects with humor so successfully and leave all sides on an issue smiling.
As a cartoonist he had an uncanny ability to reach out and find the part in all of us that we laugh at, and he was able to bring it out in a way that didn't make anyone feel foolish.
Today's Berkeley Breathed clearly has lost that talent.
In place of funny we get trite.
In place of clever we get his own originals re-used in an attempt to make tired material look good.
He blatently patronizes former fans by giving them what he clearly thinks is nothing special in a context devoid of any reason to be.
The only thing that remains as it was is his art, and usually I'd be thankful for a little something, but not in this case.
His use of his one remaining talent is insulting more than anything else.
Now I read his old stuff, and I don't laugh quite as much or even at all. I'm reminded of the clear contempt he holds people in general, society Etc.
And that feeling led me to another conclusion which I'm sure the hardcore fans of his will decry as blasphemy - in this tired, cynical strip devoid of any "creative" reason to be, his political stripes show -
While most assume thanks to his early days he is probably some sort of liberal - for the people type, I see clearly the hard-ass liberatarian who can barely hide his contempt for other people.
Knowing that, I have no reason to read any more strips.
It just sucks, bottom line. It doesn't deserve me reading any more strips than the ones I read.
It shares more in temperament and timing with "Mallard Fillmore" than it does Bloom County the original.
I hope the next time I run across any info on BBreathed, it's about his intention to retire this time for good, and never draw a strip again.
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Aaaargh!
I don't know why I waste time reading the insufferable comments on a comic strip but these are ridiculous. Breathed creates the most visually stimulating comic strip around and it has more content then 99% of the comic strips out there and yet this comments page is dizzying in its ineptly hyperbolic critiques, as if Breathed signified the end of western civilization.
Here's a trick. If you find something disagreeable bring up a couple of relatable examples that you find better. I'm willing to bet you won't find many strips more entertaining. You might find that you've soured on the comic strip medium altogether.
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Right on target
The media is already pulling for the new Republican "hero". BB's cartoon was right on the mark...he ain't no Ronny.
Great work BB! You hit it, right on target.
(Perhaps if BB sees some of the comments here, it might inspire some material on the malaise of modern day America...)
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Ironic Entertainment or Deceptive Propaganda?
Hear! Hear! jonahanmorrell!
Entertaining does not mean appropriate, gsmoove.
He's close enough to Ronnie, JClarkd, and that's too close for comfort.
And last but not least, kkirsten, irony would be if RR were the dream candidate that FT so obviously is not. RR wasn't; FT isn't.