Bloom County Digital Library, Volume 1

March 15, 2010
"Bloom County", that satirical and widely loved fixture of 1980s newspapers (and winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning), has receded from public notice of late. Luckily, we have this welcome reminder of its greatness, the first of five planned volumes reprinting the strip's complete run (with Sunday installments in color), including many strips never before reprinted. At first, Breathed cycles through a temporary cast of small-town Midwestern oddballs while contrasting precocious liberal schoolboy Milo Bloom with his militarist grandfather and pitting liberated schoolteacher Bobbi Harlow against obnoxious would-be suitor Steve Dallas. Then political jokes become more common, with a "Doonesbury" influence (noted by Breathed in revealing annotations) evident. Finally, after a brief early cameo, the naive but lovable Opus the penguin joins the cast in January 1982, and the strip begins to hit its hilarious stride. VERDICT Print quality is variable; some strips here are actually better reproduced in "Loose Tails" (1983), the very first "Bloom County" collection. But the gags are funny from day one and only improve from there. Few strips deserve the "complete collection" treatment more; highly recommended.S.R.

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