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jbwarner86 — Summer In Bloom
Published: 2012-06-08 15:59:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 9100; Favourites: 127; Downloads: 166
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A couple of years ago, I mentioned in passing that I was working on a drawing featuring the oft-forgotten female characters of Berke Breathed's Bloom County. Well, after a good three or four years of being buried in one of my many boxes of unfinished drawings, it finally resurfaced, and I leapt at the opportunity to finish it up.Fans of the strip know that the cast was primarily made up of male characters, to the point where Berke even made fun of himself for it extensively ("What's 'feminine protection', anyway? A chartreuse flamethrower?"). But Bobbi Harlow, Lola Granola, Yaz Pistachio, and Quiche Lorraine were still there, almost lost amidst the insane screaming adventures of Opus and Bill and Steve Dallas and the rest, composing themselves with a quiet feminine dignity...with the possible exception of the vapid and shallow Quiche. ("Oh, a Playboy decal! Catch me!")
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Comments: 36
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Would I be wrong in thinking that there have got to be some 80s people out there for whom these women were some kind of sex symbols?
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Awesome work! I used to love this strip too and while BB didn't draw women as often as he should have, I'm glad to see you remembered his sexier ones. (I really need to draw Lola sometime. Any gal that would marry a penguin is a keeper in my book!)
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Great work! You captured Breathed's style perfectly!
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Breathed had an interesting way of drawing his female characters- nice mimic of his style here!
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"...So, she looks over to her husband, then sets it back down in her lap and says, 'Honey, this one's eating my popcorn.'"- Agent K ("Men in Black", 1997)
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The blonde one on the rock looks like she's looking up the skirt of the one lying on the ground.
Also overalls with no top on = HOT!
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YAY! Bloom County! My FAVORITE! I'm SO glad Alf Mushpie isn't included in this!
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Alf Mushpie is missing. She'd probably dig those ladies too.
Excellent!
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Nice!, Bloom County is one of my all-time favorite strips. Although some of the topical references makes it dated, I think the strip is a good way to learn what the entire 80s decade was like. Strangely enough, for a strip that became very centered on its male characters, the first few months or so of Bloom County were mostly centered on Bobbi Harlow and Cutter John.
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Berke admits in the first volume of the Complete Bloom County Library that he himself had no idea what he wanted the strip to be about for its first few years. It wasn't until 1982 when he brought Opus into the foreground that he felt the strip finally developed its core. Then he came up with Bill the Cat and things just took off like a rocket.
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That makes sense. I know Bloom County pretty much evolved from "Academia Waltz", the strip he drew for his college paper. Talking about early Bloom County, I read somewhere that due some kinds of archives disaster (fire? water damage?) many of the early Bloom County strips were lost. I wonder if any were found for the recent IDW complete collection series.
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All of them were found, and the collection truly is complete. Some of them had to be reconstructed from 30-year-old newspaper scans and microfiches, but they're all there.
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On the subject of Bloom County collections, did you every get a copy of "Billy and the Boingers: Bootleg" with the promotional Billy and the Boingers flexi-disc? All the secondhand copies I've come across (including mine) have it removed.
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My copy of "Billy and the Boingers Bootleg" is, alas, also missing its record. But my copy of "Tales Too Ticklish To Tell" still has its copy of the Bloom Picayune, and my copy of "Night of the Mary Kay Commandos" still has its perfume-scented insert, so I guess that's something.
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That "copy" of the Bloom Picayune was hilarious, including the Family Circus cartoon and the heavy metal music review by Mabel "Megadeth" Marple!
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Holy cow!Boy that takes me back!Home run,JB,for reminding us all that comic strips were good once!
Who were your favorite characters?
Mine were Opus,Oliver Wendell, Bill D. Cat, The man with h the plan,the greatest lawyer this side of Phoenix Wright, Steve Dallas! Oh,heck,I love 'em all.
God bless Breathed for creating Bloom County and Outland, and you, for again reminding me why I loved the 80's!
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I remember a few years back when I was at the Midland Antique festival, O bought five Bloom County comic books for five dollars a piece. I spend my whole summer reading them with my dad.
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My girlfriend bought me Volume 1 for my birthday. Bloom County seems to have been the "Boondocks" of the 80s.
As for the female cast, Berke even brought up in one of the later strips how they had disappeared up to that point.
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Great to see more Bloom County art, did you happen to ever get the other 4 books? I have all 5 myself.
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I attribute a lot of my character, gag and story development style to the years of fandom I invested into Breathed's Bloom County. You've done a wonderful and original tribute her, Jesse. You've dodged the obvious (Bill and Opus) and gone for the lesser used, while still managing to nail the Bloom County vibe to the fullest. Great job, man!
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Huh, I'm not really familiar with this one, what is it about?
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It's about the funniest damn comic strip ever drawn, that's what. 
1980-1982: [link]
1982-1984: [link]
1984-1986: [link]
1986-1987: [link]
1987-1989: [link]
In the meantime, check out this section of 's website for a primer: [link]
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Love it! Like many, Bloom County was the first comic strip I really loved.
As I recall, there were two other female characters. One woman with braids and glasses that Opus went on a few dates with who was sort of the distillation of everything in the feminist movement taken too far. (Can't recall her name.) And of course, Rosebud the Basselope.
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