Roger Ash

by Roger Ash

Berkeley Breathed’s Opus: The Complete Library

In my column on the “Best of 2012,” I commented that I had yet to read IDW/The Library of American Comics’ Berkeley Breathed’s Opus: The Complete Library. I have now corrected that oversight and I’m glad I did because it’s an excellent book.

If you’re not familiar with Opus, it was a Sunday-only strip by Breathed featuring the popular penguin from Bloom County and Outland that ran from 2003-2008 and was Breathed’s farewell to comic strips. The strip also featured other Bloom County alumni including Steve Dallas, Binkley, and Bill the Cat and we also get glimpses of the Bloom Picayune offices as well as the political career of Senator Bedfellow. Oddly, while Steve has aged and Binkley is mentioned in early strip as being a teen, when he finally appears, Binkley looks the same as he did in Bloom County. New characters in the strip include a spunky little girl named Pickles and Augie Dallas, Steve’s long-lost son. I’ve only seen a few Opus strips in the past, so it was a real treat to be able to read most of these strips for the first time.

When Outland ended in 1995, Opus had found his way to his mother in Antarctica and presumably lived happily ever after. When Opus began in 2003, Opus was still living with his mom, but things were less than peachy as Opus desired to return to Bloom County and his previous life. The first three to four months of the strip read almost like a storybook as we see Opus’ life in Antarctica and his travels back home. But it’s now eight years later and home has changed. A lot.

This is what really makes Opus work for me; the fact that he is a fish out of water as the modern world has passed him by. Breathed uses Opus for some scathing commentary on the modern world including America’s cultural obsessions from electronic gadgets to religion to politics to body piercing to prescription drugs to comic strips themselves. Opus often faces modern life with a sense of bewilderment mixed with amusement and a certain amount of naiveté, though automatic toilets do freak him out. There’s also a feeling of “how exactly did we end up here?” to some of the strips. I’ve always liked the character of Opus but I’ve never felt as in tune with him as I do in this book as many of the thoughts Breathed expresses through him mirror many of my own (but not the part about automatic toilets).

The art in Opus is gorgeous as Breathed takes full advantage of modern printing techniques. His writing is also sharp and some of the strips would never make it into newspapers today as they would probably cause too much of a ruckus. Heck, some strips didn’t even make it into most papers back when the strip was published. Former Bloom County character Lola Granola joins the cast and eventually becomes a radical Islamist named Fatima Struggle in two consecutive strips. Earlier strips in the series were provided to papers to use those two weeks in case they thought the intended strips were too controversial. And keep an eye on the copyright line on the strips. After the first few months, it begins to subtly change.

The final three months (roughly) of the strip wrap things up and the book goes back into a story mode when Opus is informed that the end is near. Opus is told by the ghost of Elvis that “Where you are at the end… is where you’ll always be.” So Opus sets about finding a fitting ending place, but as expected, things don’t go smoothly. The final few strips look back at Opus’ life in comics and for someone who has followed Opus for 30 some years, it brought back waves of nostalgia and put a lump in my throat. I won’t spoil it and tell you how the story ends, but I will say it brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye.

All in all, this is an excellent collection that any fan of Breathed’s work should have on their shelf.

Purchase

Berkeley Breathed’s Opus: The Complete Library HC