Many comic strip aficionados were thrilled on July 20th, 2015, when Berkeley Breathed started to self-publish Bloom County 2015 on his Facebook account. It was an unexpected gift to be able to look through the windows again into these beloved characters’ lives a few panels at a time. Despite not being slaved to a newspaper’s daily publication, the strip appears often, and you can currently follow it on Facebook, or on Go Comics (where it is a little easier to read in sequence). And now, IDW announces that they will be publishing these comic strips in print starting in 2016. IDW, the publisher of The Library of American Comics, is no stranger to quality collections of newspaper comics, and will be a great home for Berkeley Breathed’s Facebook comics as well.
Official press release:
BERKELEY BREATHED’S BLOOM COUNTY IS BACK!IDW TO PUBLISH COLLECTION OF NEW COMIC STRIPS IN 2016San Diego, CA (October 8, 2015) – For the first time since 1989, Berkeley Breathed is producing new Bloom County comic strips. Featuring all of his beloved characters—Opus, Bill the Cat, Milo, Steve Dallas, and more—the world has never been more ready for Breathed’s biting satire and skewering humor to make a return—and, more importantly, on his own terms, free of the editorial constraints of corporately owned newspaper syndicates. In that spirit, IDW is very proud to announce the publication of the first in a new series of Bloom CountyCollections, debuting in the Summer of 2016.
“It’s hard to say why, but for me, doing Bloom County has suddenly become… what’s the word…fun,” said Berkeley Breathed, “I’d like to think readers can tell. When the strips are brought together in a book, I think you especially can.”
Breathed’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Bloom County ran from 1980 until 1989, when Breathed walked away from the strip at the peak of its popularity. Then, in the summer of 2015, and with no advance warning, he brought the cast of Bloom County back to an unsuspecting world—via social media—which caused a media frenzy as word of the strips unexpected return spread virally to multitudes of delighted fans.
“As a fan, I was ecstatic when new Bloom County strips began to appear,” said Editor, Scott Dunbier. “As an editor, I’m thrilled to work on this book—thank you, Berkeley!”
Follow Berkeley Breathed and IDW Publishing’s Facebook pages for more announcements in the coming months.
