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Berke Breathed Interview in The Onion 188

Posted by Hemos from the talking-to-the-man dept.
Hobart writes "Berke Breathed, author of Bloom County has granted an interview to Tasha Robinson of the The Onion's AV Club. This is the second interview I've seen in six months (previous interview link) after the six years of silence since the end of Outland. He even calls for volunteers to help with his site! ;)"
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Berke Breathed Interview in The Onion More

Berke Breathed Interview in The Onion

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  • The good old days... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Silver222 ( 452093 )
    Bloom County was the reason I did so well in History class way back when. I remember reading strips about Ed Meese and Caspar Weinberger, and then having to go to the library and find a Time magazine or Newsweek to figure out who they were. I really miss those comic strips. I still pull out those books from time to time, have a couple of beers and stay up laughing until 4 in the morning. The closest thing I've found to replace it is The Boondocks

    However, YMMV

  • I don't really understand how he thinks Bloom County is stale now. Reagan and Jean Kirkpatrick may be long gone, but I still find Bloom County strips hilarious. Maybe it's some false modesty on Breathed's part.

  • Insight behind the dot-com bust... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @10:03PM (#2115055)
    O: At about this time last year, the Internet freelance marketplace ants.com announced that you'd won a bid to design a mascot for them. Whatever became of that?

    BB: I entered as a joke and a bet with my brother-in-law that I could name a price that a dot-com would refuse to pay. The bastards paid.

  • It seems many /.ers have failed to remember that the Onion is a satirical newspaper. This is, like all their other interviews, probably made-up.

    Seems they did a pretty good job.

    I do rememer reading a funny short on how MSFT plans to patent 1's and 0's, which all mathematics derive from, hence patenting all physical laws like Gravity, etc. Imagine paying MSFT to stay on the earth (sounds a lot like consumer PCs to me).

    • It seems many /.ers have failed to remember that the Onion is a satirical newspaper. This is, like all their other interviews, probably made-up.

      The front section, or comedy section, of The Onion is all fiction. The back section, the A.V. Club, consists of serious reviews of movies, videos, music, and books, and real interviews. And a few cartoons, and in some editions, the Savage Love sex column. None of our interviews are fabricated.

    • This is one of the regular features of The Onion that is not made up.

      Their interviews are (almost) always insightful (mod +1) and intelligent, and their subjects ecclectic.

      They also review actual albums by actual bands. AND they provide some of the best reviews anywhere -- of real live movies that you too can go and see.

      • Their interviews are (almost) always insightful (mod +1) and intelligent, and their subjects ecclectic.

        Hear hear. Check out the interview with Harlan Ellison if you haven't already... one of the best in the archives, in my humble opinion. Got me to drive across three states to hear him speak at a science fiction convention.

        --saint
    • Everyone knows that IBM has the patent on 1's and 0's...

  • Irony and humour abound (Score:2, Interesting)

    by TACD ( 514008 )
    The only Outland I ever read was in the very last book; I already loved it by the time I got to the end (which were also the last strips, of course). Sensational stuff, of which I shall dig up more one day.

    Also, as I have aged (but not by much ;)) it's been nice to notice how I can relate more and more to Calvin and Hobbes; it was funny when I was younger, and now it's funny on a whole new level. I tells ya, that boy's got it sussed.

    (And kudos to Bill anyway, for never succumbing to the demands of the the syndicate to license C&H.)

  • Tux is definitely the winner in the sheer cuteness department, but I bet Opus could take him in a deathmatch! ;-)

  • Berke in the Christian Science Monitor (Score:3, Informative)

    by nordicfrost ( 118437 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:41PM (#2121678)
    You can find an interview from last February here [csmonitor.com].
  • I have many, many of the bloom county collections (even the "Billy and the Boingers" official vinyl album.) I really enjoyed those books. However, the interview with Berke is nice...but I would really love to see some interviews of Bill Watterson....anyone know of any recent ones since his retirement?

    • We tried to get Bill Watterson for The Onion too, but he's basically a hermit. As near as I could tell, he's granted a total of two interviews in his career. One of those was for an obscure magazine, and has been reprinted all over the Web. [inet.tele.dk] For the other, he wouldn't actually let the interviewer record anything he said or take notes, he just talked to him for an article. [inet.tele.dk] These days, his syndicate just auto-rejects any requests; they've been asked to not pass them on at all.

      I'm still hoping to get to Gary Larson one of these days, though. We asked and he was friendly about it, but ultimately turned us down because he's working on something, and asked us to get back to him in about six months. That was about six months ago, so maybe someday soon.

    • IIRC, Watterson doesn't do interviews. Period.
  • I notice one peculiar thing that perhaps is a slip up on breathds part. He still refers to himself a couple of times in the article as a cartoonist. Or includes himself within the group or cartoonists. It is interesting to note that he is retired yet still includes himself as one of "them" :). I suppose once a cartoonist always a cartoonist.

    He totally underrates himself, he got a pulitzer for his cartoon work, which as he pokes fun at was probably not an easy feat by any means.

    Jeremy
  • From the interview:

    O: Have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?


    BB: Dad. The rest is frosting.


    More important than your career or your pet peeve -- your family.
  • I was in UT Austin in the early 80s. You've heard of Berke (the magazine he talks about was called UTmost, get it?), and the two other things was this crazy kid making PCs in his dorm room named Dell, and Sam Hurt's Eyebeam. Actually I would say Eyebeam was more popular at UT then Berke- Hank the Hallucination won Student Body President. Check it out- http://www.samhurt.com/index.html
  • Damn lot of good .siglines in that interview:
    If there's a female character in a big furry suit on Barney or Sesame Street, she has long eyelashes and flits and flutters about like some nightmarish caricature from Jerry Falwell's wet dream.
    heh

  • well, dayummm (Score:3, Informative)

    by zineboy ( 307132 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:13PM (#2131743)
    Opus was named after a Kansas song. If you're too young to know who Kansas was, to hell with you.

    "Magnum Opus", live version on _Two For the Show_ amazes.

    Anyone else ever have the hots for Quiche Lorraine?

    • You're forgetting the lovely Yaz Pistachio... she was more my type. ;)

      Seriously though, I still have my old BC books. Most are in rough shape due to many moves, but my Billy and the Boingers is still intact with the vinyl still attached and untouched.

      My favorite stuff still comes from the really early strips. Who remembers Senator Befellow? Milo and the Bloom Picayune would call up his wife for comments. Those were great.

      My favorite line ever though:

      "McNope, but McMaybe McLater!"

    • she still tip-toes through my dreams..

  • Very cool! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by YIAAL ( 129110 )
    My fantasy is to have Dilbert, Calvin & Hobbes, & Bloom County all running at once.
    • I would go with Bloom County, Dilbert, and Fox Trot, in that order.

      Even though he says he cringes at his old strips, I tend to re-read all my Bloom County collections every other year, and they still make me laugh just as hard as the first time.

      I just hope he starts 'tooning again.
    • Don't forget Far Side!

    • Re:Very cool! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by egomaniac ( 105476 )
      Those are my three favorite comics, too! Pretty freaky. I never really liked Outland, but Bloom County was an unbelievable strip, IMHO unmatched by anything currently published.

      I wonder how many other hackers are into these three? A cultural phenomenon, perhaps?
      • It's safe to assume that those three comic strips had universal appeal across industries because they all relied on topics that were relevant and interesting to all people.

        What I'm saying is that it isn't a geek-only cultural phenomenon.

        Dancin Santa
      • Those are my three favorite comics, too! Pretty freaky. ... I wonder how many other hackers are into these three? A cultural phenomenon, perhaps?

        Errr, it might be a cultural phenomenon, except for the small fact that "Dilbert, Calvin & Hobbes, & Bloom County" are/were three of THE most popular comic strips in the United States.

        It's like saying, "Oh, you like Coca-Cola, Star Wars, and having sex, too?! So do I! Hack3rs ru13!"
        • I'd be more inclined to agree with you if a single one of my non-hacker friends liked either Dilbert or Bloom County. Most of my non-work friends haven't even heard of Bloom County.
    • What about the Far Side?
  • Talk about opening old wounds. I'd been able to forget the hole in my morning humor 'til this reminded me of all that great stuff that isn't there anymore.

    Now I'm not going to get any sleep as I stay up all night reading the collection of strips.

    Thanks, I think...

  • Outland Strips Online (yes, I'm a whore) (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ezubaric ( 464724 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:12PM (#2132836) Homepage
    Bloom County Zone [cpoon.com]
  • A great read for people interested in newspaper comics is the tenth anniversery collection of Calvin And Hobbes, which is notable for Bill Watterson's informative essays on how the comics work. To sum up:syndicates only accept things geared towards mass consumption because newspaper comics are by and large regarded as an annoyance by the people creating newspapers, which results in reduced sizes, restrictive sunday formats, and other aggravating issues. Watterson practically had newspaper editors at his throat when he and his syndicate asked about being able to actually design his own sunday comic format. When they were finally convinced into doing this, Calvan and Hobbes created some amazing work.

    Since then, Breathed, Watterson, and Larson have all retired and the newspaper comics aren't very enjoyable for me today. Occasionally Fox Trot will still be amusing, and of course Dilbert is very witty, but you never get a chance to see anything impressive visually. Maybe the internet will pick up the slack? Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com] (to pick a random example) has had amazing storylines spanning months, and the artist is free to create whatever kind of strip he wants, without censorship, ridiculous format demands, or any other unnecessary crap. Now, if only being profitable was easier...

    • Newspaper comics aren't very enjoyable?

      The boondocks by Aaron McGruder is some of the funniest stuff i've read in a long time.

      http://www.boondocks.net/

      • The boondocks by Aaron McGruder is some of the funniest stuff i've read in a long time.

        And guess what? That's about it. Beyond Dilbert, which in a good number of the papers I run across is shoved into a completely different section, there are no funny, inspired, socially relevant comics out there. Even Fox Trot can't get me to open the so-called funny pages anymore.

        The comic pages have become rather like sitcoms; rare, spectacular brilliance surrounded by the same mass-market, regurgitated crap served five hundred ways.
    • other great visually stunning web comics...

      ---
    • Newspapers? Do they still make those?
    • Although yes, the comic may cater to mass consumption as Frank Cho likes drawing women... and he draws them very, very well. [He draws everything well, but his human figures could walk right off the page... probably has something to do with going to college to be a nurse].

      His illustrations are amazing, and from the archive of censored strips [and his earlier work during college, 'University **2' [that's 'squared' for you non-fortran programmers]], he does try to push the limit of what's allowed in comics. Mostly through his frat-boy like characters.

      The main thing that stands out is his drawing, as it's simply breathtaking. I don't know how well it stands up to standard newsprint, but they also release a comic book sized issue every few weeks with about 6 weeks of collected work.

      The story lines, although sometimes go off on a complete tangent [There's a definate influence of British Comedy in there...I think there may have even been a few direct references], but I've yet to see one that wasn't funny.

      For samples, check out their web page:
      And don't forget to check out the Uncensored [libertymeadows.com] section.
    • I suppose I'm going against the tide of public opinion here, but I'm not that fond of Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes). I can't say that I'm terribly impressed with Berke Breathed, either.

      You guys should read some of the stuff that Watterson has written. IMHO, he's a hyprocrite, egomaniac, and blowhard. I used to like Calvin & Hobbes, but after finding out what a dork the artist is, it's become very difficult for me to like the art.

      Berke Breathed isn't very highly regarded among his peers. I suggest doing a search for Gary Trudeau interviews and trying to find out why he dislikes Berke Breathed so much. According to Trudeau and some other artists, much of Bloom County was outright ripped off from their strips. I'm not sure how true that is, since I never really paid that much attention to the comics, but it did color my opinion of Berthed somewhat.

      Peanuts, unfortunately, is perpetually misunderstood and misinterpreted. Much of Peanuts is actually textbook existentialism worked into the format of a comic strip.

      Next time you read Peanuts, keep a philosophy textbook nearby. You'll be amazed at how deep it is, once you get past the "little red-headed girl" red herrings.
      • Much of
        Peanuts is actually textbook existentialism...

        Much of Peanuts is Christian. It was rarely preachy in the way B.C. became, but Schulz was Christian and deliberately drew on his beliefs. I suppose it could be argued that Christianity and existentialism aren't entirely at odds, but think Ecclesiastes, not Sartre.

    • Re:Ah yes, the fading days of newspaper comics. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by srvivn21 ( 410280 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:54PM (#2157494)
      Sluggy has had amazing story lines, and amazing use of space. Start here [sluggy.com] (sorry Pete) and check out the next two days. There is no way this would work in a syndicated format.

      Personally, I don't read the comics section of the newspaper any more. Tools like comics.pl [cornell.edu] just make it unnecessary.

  • Such wit (Score:2, Funny)

    by gorgon ( 12965 )
    O: Is the liberal stance of the early strips indicative of your own personal politics?

    BB: Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he's a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.

    I love this guy - I hope he makes a comeback.

    And thanks for the new sig, Berke.

    • Hi, Berke (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by Zico ( 14255 )

      While you're at it, Berke, how 'bout inventing a word for dyed-in-the-wool liberals who sound ready to join a holy crusade to convince people that they aren't so liberal after all, they're really just libertarians at heart. You know, like you and Bill Maher.

      And just between the two of us, would you mind giving the Elvis references a hiatus until you figure out a way to remove from humanity's memory banks that completely unfunny and untouching dreck you called "The Outlands?" Thanks.

      • And just between the two of us, would you mind giving the Elvis references a hiatus

        Perhaps you are unaware that Elvis is considered by many people Berke's age, entirely without irony, the King of Rock and Roll, having invented and defined the entire genre.

        As for the image of the fat Elvis in Las Vegas... he had his prime, certainly, but since he references in the interview how good Schultz was at the end, I don't think the Elvis comment was supposed to be a perfect analogy, just a comment that Schultz was the King of the genre.

        And yes, Peanuts in the 80s sucked. But so did almost all drawn art in America, animated, comic book and cartoon. Part of the reason the likes of Opus, Calvin and cows with granny glasses stand out is because they were greats among the really really lousy.

        --
        Evan

  • Untimely Insight (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ezubaric ( 464724 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:07PM (#2133461) Homepage
    Berke's belief that he is less relevant today could possibly be justified, but I think that comes from his being so ahead of the times. Outland expressed the kind of self-referential humor that we take for granted after shows about nothing and the Simpsons. The denizens of Bloom County were far ahead of their time, and reading the strips today isn't the same as during the supply-side days of Regan. He helped create the ironic, self-immolating humor that we have today.
    • With the revival of missle defense and renewed interested in destroying the environment I think that many of my favorite strips from Bloom County are as relevant now as in the 1980s.

      GW thinks he is Ronald Reagan.

  • The responses of a talented writer make for a very entertaining interview, whether I agree with the man or not. I thought of one exception to his rule that
    Throughout cartoon history, there aren't any--repeat, ANY--primary animal cartoon characters that are females
    Namely, Betty Boop, who started out as a dog. But perhaps this example turns back in his favor, as she didn't stay canine for long.
  • From the interview:

    Throughout cartoon history, there aren't any--repeat, ANY--primary animal cartoon characters that are females. If one was female, she was primarily a girlfriend to the main character. Minnie Mouse. Look at kids' TV. If there's a female character in a big furry suit on Barney or Sesame Street, she has long eyelashes and flits and flutters about like some nightmarish caricature from Jerry Falwell's wet dream.

    Two words: Dot Warner.

  • No one is serious? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sheldon_Brown ( 514313 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:18PM (#2139843)
    ... If nothing is serious anymore, then there's nothing to satirize." - Berke Breathed.

    Well, Berke, I must say, I know of someone who still takes himself seriously. His name is Jack Valenti, and he says things like this:

    "If we have to file a thousand lawsuits a day, we'll do it." -JV.

    There you go, if you start cartooning again, you can pick on him. Personally, I need to go pick dinner out of my beard, and build me a wheelchair to go dandeylion stomping in. It's probably just like building a bicycle, you never forget. By the way, Opus is an idiot, right?

    Good luck with everything.

    Sincerely,
    Sheldon.

    • There you go, if you start cartooning again, you can pick on him.

      It's not about whether people take themselves seriously, it's about whether or not Berke feels that the farcical nature of the person or event goes beyond his ability to satirize it.
  • For a while back in the mid-90's I was at Amaze!nc, which produced the Bloom County screensaver. We would occasionally have Mr. Breathed come by the offices to work on the project. Not only were the screensavers hilarious (we even got sued for the one where Opus shoots down the flying toasters =), but Berke himself was a very nice guy, perfectly willing to take suggestions and laugh out loud with animation interns, just out of college with no corporate power of their own.

    -Dug
  • I miss reading, at various times, Zippy, Bloom County, Doonesbury, the Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. What the heck happened to Bill Watterson?!

    I think I have a new .sig from this one: And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.

    • Zippy is still around. Everyone at work thinks I am strange for laughing at it until I explain what is funny about it. (Then they still don't usally get it.)
    • What the heck happened to Bill Watterson?!

      Most pundits describe Bill Watterson as "reclusive" when they have occasion to mention him at all. What they really mean is that he values his privacy in much the same way as any other person in the world who just wants to do his job and go home to his quiet life at the end of the day. As a corollary, he has absolutely no use for the sort of pundit who would describe him as "reclusive".

      He's still alive, still healthy, and looks a lot like Calvin's dad.

      ----

  • The Onion (Score:3, Funny)

    by ConsumedByTV ( 243497 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:05PM (#2142714) Homepage
    Nothing beats The Onion when it comes to horoscopes, Heres Berkeley's:

    Virgo: (Aug. 23--Sept. 22)
    It will occur to you that no one in the phone book has a realistic-sounding name. Change them all, if possible.


    However mine is better :)
    Aries: (March 21--April 19)
    If you put too much gasoline on the bandanna over your face, you'll get sick. Not enough and you'll be able to smell the corpses. Strike a balance.

  • Oliver's "Star Wars" missile defense (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 16, 2001 @12:28AM (#2142862)
    Just like Doonesbury. They've been running old Doonesbury cartoons about Reagan and Star Wars. It's hard to tell that they are from 1985.

    I remember when Oliver Wendell Jones received a huge grant to develop a space based missile defense system.

    His plan was brilliant. Cover the earth with a net made out of dollar bills.

    Completely relevant for today. I can't believe Berke thinks his stuff has lost it's meaning.

    I also can't believe the American public still puts up with all the money we're wasting on Star Wars.

    No man is an island, but some men are peninsulas

  • Bill Watterson (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jezmund ( 102188 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @10:41PM (#2143053) Homepage
    This got me thinking about my other favorite reclusive former comic strip writer. I looked around and found an interview [reemst.com] (allegedly the only one he ever gave); and a shorter, more recent article [reemst.com]. The second one is kind of sad . . . it's too bad that the fame of the strip brought him so much unhappiness.
  • We should have rallied around Opus. Marketing AND a penguin, rolled into one.
    Hell, the strip even has a real hacker/scientist in it. Tell me that you haven't be thinking this.

  • Race in Bloom County (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Brethed says he avoids race but I remember 3 strips that dealt with it directly. One involving a flesh-coloured band-aid, one involving 'flesh' crayons, and a third where the young black kid buys a copy of 'ebony', and the little white kid tries to buy a copy of the ficticious 'ivory' to which the proprieter says something like 'shoo! i run a progressive newstand here!'. Maybe not dealing with it so serious, but to a 12-year-old it seemed like advanced socialogical debate ;)
    • Brethed says he avoids race but I remember 3 strips that dealt with it directly. One involving a flesh-coloured band-aid, one involving 'flesh' crayons, and a third where the young black kid buys a copy of 'ebony', and the little white kid tries to buy a copy of the ficticious 'ivory' to which the proprieter says something like 'shoo! i run a progressive newstand here!'. Maybe not dealing with it so serious, but to a 12-year-old it seemed like advanced socialogical debate ;)
      Actually, your comment jogged another memory. I specifically remember a series of strips where Binkley is in school and develops his first crush and the girl was black. He comes home and he's telling his father about it and as he's going on and on his father is thinking to himself with fatherly pride "My son is in love!" About that time he finishes his description of his schoolyard sweetheart "skin of chocolate..." and his father thinks "chocolate?!"

      I don't recall the outcome. I'm pretty sure it can be found in Berke's first book though.

  • The one machine i wished someone would make...

  • Website. (Score:3, Informative)

    by smack_attack ( 171144 ) on Wednesday August 15, 2001 @08:53PM (#2157522) Homepage
    He even calls for volunteers to help with his site!

    Too late [berkebreathed.com], looks like someone already helped him. His site looks terrific IMO.
  • When a favorite author or artist decides they've had enough and the fan has to find something new to fill the gap. "That's life, deal", doesn't come close to getting a fan past that wall. Larson, DNA, Breathed, Watterson, and many others drop out when they have their fans peak interest and call it "leaving while it's still fresh" or some crap like that. As tough as these people have been on themselves, they are and have been their own worst critics. I don't think I've ever seen a Bloom County strip I didn't like. At least I have the books and can fish them out once every couple years, to read and reminice. It was a great time to be a kid.

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