'Opus' creator to retire from drawing comic strips!

[Newsbot]

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 WASHINGTON - Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is retiring, leaving a hole in the Sunday funnies and the hearts of "Opus" fans.

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The last strip featuring the beloved, large-beaked penguin will run in about 200 newspapers nationwide Nov. 2. Breathed announced Monday he's calling it quits after a comics career that has spanned nearly 30 years.

Amy Lago, comics editor of The Washington Post Writers Group, said Breathed will pursue other interests, such as writing books and screenplays.

Starting and stopping popular strips is old hat for Breathed, who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., and has a children's book, "Pete & Pickles," due out next week.

The writers group unveiled his "Bloom County" strip in 1980; he went on to win the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning in 1987. He ended that strip in 1989 and the same year began the Sunday-only strip "Outland," which he quit in 1995. In 2003, he launched "Opus."

Breathed began his career as a college student with a strip in the University of Texas newspaper.

News of his retirement won't be too shocking for true fans — recent strips have alluded to "Opus" ending. Even so, Lago said, fans are disappointed.

This Sunday's strip will include a contest in which Breathed asks readers to guess the penguin's fate. Details on how to participate are not being released ahead of time. The answer will appear online after the last "Opus" runs next month, Lago said.

So this'll be the third time that Breathed is retiring from comics and ending a successful strip starring Opus? And we're supposed to believe it's permanent this time? Riiiiiight. I've got fifty bucks that says Opus will be back within a year. Hey, Seamus O'Doyle, can you spot me fifty bucks?.

[Double_G]

Which one's "Opus" again?

[anarky]

So, let me get this straight: you're a youngin, and you're gonna try to be ironically hip by bringing up 80s culture with a Ghostbusters avatar, but you don't even know the giant of 1980s comics?

There was GIJoe, Spider-Man, X-Men, The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doonesbury, Calvin & Hobbes... and there was Bloom County. Bloom County eventually ended, and was replaced by Outland. Opus and Bill the Cat weren't supposed to return, but were suddenly back within a year. Outland ended and was replaced by Opus, finally giving the little guy his due in the title (though Opus and Bill would've worked, too).

Here's a sampling:

outland_full[1].jpg (169.58 KiB) Viewed 1218 times

Fuck. I can't find Opus' interpretation of "Do" (supposedly by Emily Dickinson) that is possibly the funniest fucking comic strip ever made. This page has the text and some of the images (including the punchline) but isn't quite as funny.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

Yeah, Opus (the current one) has been around for like five years. I haven't read the comics since coming to college but I looked up the most recent Opus strips online and it's fucking depressing now. Oh well. It was pretty good but I wasn't a huge fan.

[Double_G]

So, let me get this straight: you're a youngin, and you're gonna try to be ironically hip by bringing up 80s culture with a Ghostbusters avatar, but you don't even know the giant of 1980s comics?

To be honest, I recognize the characters. I'm just not familiar with it because "Opus" was never published in my local paper's comics section.

[anarky]

Ah, okay, I'll forgive you. If you buy this. And this wouldn't hurt, either.

A Wish For Wings That Work should be a family tradition for everyone at Christmas. It's a shame it only ran on TV a couple of years. It really is a classic.

Fuck it, just watch it here:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5QI4ESioUM (warning--the dude who posted it leaves the FBI warning for like 20-30 seconds)
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7T70O7G ... re=related
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3emUZ64 ... re=related

[Ran]

I read the comics and have a few Bloom County compilations and an Outlands book. I haven't seen very many strips from the Opus run. That is the first time I've ever seen that video.