Bloom County Babylon (1986)

An awesome collection of Bloom County strips! I had great fun reading it - I hadn't seem some of these strips since the first time I read them, lo these many years ago.

It was especially comforting to read it, because my boyfriend brought it over for me to read while I was sick :) ( )

How to describe Bloom County? Imagine if Doonesbury were written by the people who created Family Guy and you're getting close... it's frequently irreverent, sometimes silly, often political and occasionally downright profound!

This collection includes many of the earliest Bloom County comic strips as well as a generous selection from the first 5-years (unfortunately it's not a complete collection).

It has the very first appearance of future Bloom County star Opus the Penguin "A penguin and his boy." Also Bill the Cat "Pffft! Ackkk!" the anti-Garfield, introduced as being created purely for merchandising purposes.

Some of the jokes are dated, some of the humor a bit of an acquired taste but as Opus might say, "You know, it's still pretty darn good!"

Recommended for anyone with a sense of humor. ( )

This is a fantastic collection of Bloom County's finest citizens. Detailing the hacking of the earliest personal computers, a fruitless political campaign by Bill and Opus, and Bill the Cat's rise to stardom and abrupt fall into rehab, this is a compilation sure to be laughs with every strip.

Berkeley Breathed is pure evil genius. Thanks to him, my sister and I spent our childhoods shouting "Banana! Banana!" and "Devil I snort thee!" Oh, and of course, "Ack!" Don't ask. These cartoons are heavily rooted in the Reagan years, so be willing to be transported back in time quite a ways, but it's like if Doonesbury were populated by drooling alley cats and neurotic penguins, 6-year-old computer hacker geniuses, and drunk men in their underpants. And it's way funnier than Doonesbury ever was. ( )

Babble on and on and on: Bloom County is on my short list of all-time favorite comics. The original form, before short-lived "Outland" or the current "Opus", is long gone, though. Picking up this book was a wonderful piece of nostlagia.

The series peaked some time in the early 80s, and "Babylon" offers a sample of that time. I had forgotten how topical it was, full of references to then-current supermodels, presidents, movies, and sitcoms. Despite that, much of the humor has aged well. Milo's anxiety closet, for example, never needs to end. Various bogey-men (and -women) will reside there for their times, and move on. The anxiety will always be there, however, no matter how silly it looks to everyone else.

Even a book this size can't capture every strip in the five years (82-6) that it covers. That means that some of my favorite characters, like winsome Pistachio, barely even had cameo appearances. I'll take what I can get, though, and this is a pleasant sample.

If you ever liked any strip comic, you liked Bloom County or will like it. Maybe the 80s were before your time, but the characters will still look right up to date. Enjoy!

//wiredweird