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IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

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IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Old 02-05-09, 11:39 AM
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IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

I'm pretty excited to see this. Hopefully it's affordable.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/0209...om-County.html
IDW Publishing is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of The Bloom County Library. Beginning in October 2009, each of the five volumes will collect nearly two years worth of daily and Sunday strips, in chronological order. This will be the very first time that many of these comic strips have been collected, and the first time in a beautifully designed, hardcover format. The books will be part of IDW’s Library of American Comics imprint, and designed by Eisner Award-winner Dean Mullaney.

"Fans have pestered me for years,” said Berkeley Breathed, “for this ultimate Bloom County collection in that polite, respectful badgering way that only fans can manage. Thank God I can now tell them something better than just 'please remove your tent from my lawn.' I can say, 'It's coming!"

Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed newspaper strips of modern times. Premiering on December 8th, 1980 — a month after the election of Ronald Reagan as President — the strip brought to the comics pages a unique amalgam of contemporary politics and fantasy, all told with hilarious humor and wit.

The beloved and quirky denizens of Bloom County include Opus, Steve Dallas, Bill the Cat, Milo Bloom, Michael Binkley, and Cutter John. Breathed was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987 for his work on Bloom County. The strip was published in an astounding 1200 newspapers.

The phenomenon that was Bloom County spawned a merchandizing bonanza, as well as two spin-off strips, Outland and Opus. The first paperback collection of the strip, Loose Tails, sold over one million copies. Bloom County paperbacks cumulatively sold over six million copies. At the height of the strip’s popularity, Breathed walked away on August 6th, 1989.

IDW Publishing Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier conceived the series. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be editing the Bloom County Library,” said Dunbier. “This is a series that I can’t wait to hold in my hands.”

The Bloom County Library will also contain a series of “Context Pages” sprinkled throughout the volumes. These pages will provide perspective for the reader, presenting a variety of real-life events and personalities that were contemporary at the time of original publication.
Old 02-05-09, 11:51 AM
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Ack!
Old 02-05-09, 12:08 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Oh I hope I can afford this. Hopefully it will be offered from DCBS
Old 02-06-09, 09:46 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Another article with more Breathed. Someone on a forum floated an interesting idea about having a code for a Billy And The Boingers download rather than the record. How cool with that be?

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=19872

This October, IDW is publishing the first of five volumes collecting the entire run of Berkeley Breathed’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip “Bloom County.” Edited by Scott Dunbier and designed by Eisner Award-winner Dean Mullaney, these five hardcover collections will be part of IDW’s Library of American Comics Imprint. The daily “Bloom County” strip started up in December of 1980, not long after Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States, and Breathed developed a loyal following using the quirky denizens of the fictional Bloom County to comment on the politics of the time. CBR News caught up with Breathed to get the details on this definitive collection of “Bloom County.”

Despite the success of earlier collected editions of “Bloom County,” Breathed had resisted the idea of printing new editions for years. “The fact that so much of the content is so badly dated just kept me from getting excited about it,” Breathed explained. “I knew there was no mass market remaining to make a normal collection at this point.” But IDW managed to convince the writer that the strip’s legion of fans deserved to have a complete and definitive collection of the work as a whole. Breathed’s fans had been encouraging him to release just such a collection for years, but it was IDW that finally wore Breathed's resistance down. “IDW will do it right, which is what it will need.” In part to combat Breathed’s fears that the strip’s topicality has dated its content, “context pages” will be interspersed throughout the collection to bring new readers up to speed on the political humor that may not have withstood the test of time.

Fans can also most likely expect to see a new forward by the strip’s creator. “I'm sure I'll have something to say,” Breathed said. “I always seem to, alas. I don't think the collection will come with a flexible record of an obscene rock song, like one of the Bloom County collections came with. Scratch n' Smell-O-Tunes may be tried again. Really, why not.”

Breathed told CBR News that he appreciates “Bloom County” more now than he ever did when he was in the thick of creating it. “Age is a factor, I suppose,” Breathed said. “I should have gone to college at my present age to really appreciate what stuffing your head is all about. And I should have done ‘Bloom County’ with the sense of the world that I have now, to better appreciate both the art, the politics and the fun of having a successful enterprise against all odds.”




Back when he was writing “Bloom County,” Breathed asserted that the comics page was perhaps the single best venue in a newspaper to put forth political commentary, because most readers avoid opinion columns like the plague. Today, Breathed fears that the medium itself may be obsolete. “Nobody under the age of 60 reads any part of the newspaper anymore,” Breathed said. “Editorial pages are rather musty, empty crypts now. The New York Times op ed page is still fun. And they never had comics. I sense a connection.”


Breathed went on to write two “Bloom County” spinoff strips, “Outland” and “Opus.” The latter, Breathed’s latest, and perhaps final, foray into comic strips wrapped up last year. “Opus” lasted a full five years longer than Breathed had originally planned, due in large part to the political landscape during George W. Bush’s presidency. “I would have deeply missed Mon Amour Bush, it'd be like missing the World Series and you've got box seats,” Breathed said. “Politics is entering a very, very boring stage right now for satirists, I think. On the other hand, the world will soon become quite nuts. A deeply mixed blessing, these times.”


In recent years, Breathed has shifted his focus to writing screenplays and children’s books, because to his mind, the comic strip audience has all but dried up. “[Comics] were the canary in the newspaper coal mine,” the writer lamented. “When young eyeballs left the daily comic page, it was doom.” As far as Breathed is concerned, the last comic strip to become a household name in America was Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes,” and he firmly believes that the form’s dwindling audience means that the days of a weekly strip as a cultural zeitgeist have come and gone.

Breathed may have hung up his comics spurs, but the writer is just as prolific as ever. “I’m finishing my first chapter book for young readers, due out next Fall, ‘Flawed Dogs: The Shocking Raid on Westminster,’” Breathed said. “We're setting up several film projects on past and future books, and in a couple of months, Bob Zemeckis is scheduled to begin production on the film based on my recent ‘Mars Needs Moms.’ Retired, I am not, dammit.”
Old 02-06-09, 11:53 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Awesome news!

Including the "context pages" is a neat idea. I was just a kid when I devoured the books; I'm sure a fair chunk of the riffing on current events went over my head then, but it did introduce me to a lot of the news of the day. I was probably one of the few 10 year olds who knew who Jeanne Kirkpatrick was.
Old 02-06-09, 12:31 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

I started reading it the day it began, I was probably 9 and was already a news junkie. Before Bloom County, my comic strips of choice were Dennis the Menace and Peanuts. I remember the day Calvin and Hobbes started too. Unfortunately, in 1986 we moved from Dallas to a small town in Georgia with a small newspaper and few strips. I just got out of the habit of reading them. I bought most of the collections though at some point but don't have them now. Hope I can score these.
Old 02-06-09, 01:44 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Sweet. Hopefully it will include Outland and Opus. I was hoping for a Complete book like Calvin and Hobbes or Far Side received, but this will work.
Old 02-07-09, 07:03 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

This is great news.

Not a fan of the oversized collections like Farside and C&H; they're very cumbersome and I have concerns about the bindings holding up.
Old 02-07-09, 11:23 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

I agree. While I own both the Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes, I find the Peanuts volumes much more readable.
Old 02-09-09, 08:52 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
This is great news.

Not a fan of the oversized collections like Farside and C&H; they're very cumbersome and I have concerns about the bindings holding up.
Same here. I own both of those sets, but am worried that too much handling of the sets will cause binding issues.

Really good news about Bloom County. Probably one of just a few strips I want to see a full collection of.
Old 02-14-09, 08:14 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

so does this mean all of the strips have been found.
a few years ago when these started to appear online as a subscription there was and still
is a note on an ocassional sunday strip saying all of the sundays are coming, we are stiill searching for the missing strips.
Old 02-14-09, 08:25 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!


that is still up for many sundays.
Old 02-18-09, 10:24 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

I'm all over this... price be damned.
Old 02-24-09, 01:50 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Does that mean that these are going to be same size and weight as the Calvin and Hobbes collection books? The omnibus books are such a pain in the ass to read - especially on the toilet!
Old 02-28-09, 08:34 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Wow, I've got to get into this section more often. Hope these aren't too pricey.
Old 03-01-09, 11:08 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Originally Posted by toddly6666
Does that mean that these are going to be same size and weight as the Calvin and Hobbes collection books? The omnibus books are such a pain in the ass to read - especially on the toilet!
I think the consensus feeling is more along the lines of the Peanuts collections (IDW also does the Dick Tracy collections, I think).
Old 03-06-09, 10:08 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

i will be all over this the second it is released - price and binding be damned!
Old 04-29-09, 01:11 PM
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The first volume is available for pre-order
http://www.amazon.com/Bloom-County-C...1028527&sr=1-2

6 months until release.
Old 04-29-09, 01:24 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

5 x $33 . . . that can be done.
Old 05-06-09, 01:42 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Originally Posted by Chew
The first volume is available for pre-order
http://www.amazon.com/Bloom-County-C...1028527&sr=1-2

6 months until release.
Hmm... through the "related items" section, I had no idea that "A Wish for Wings that Worked" was out on DVD...
Old 05-10-09, 09:26 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Only $26 on amazon right now.
Old 05-10-09, 11:53 AM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Ordered! Thanks whotony!
Old 05-10-09, 12:29 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Also ordered. Thanks for posting the lower price.
Old 05-10-09, 02:54 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

Is this Volume 1 going to weigh a ton?
And
How many Volumes are there going to be?
Old 05-10-09, 03:02 PM
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Re: IDW will publish the complete Bloom County!

I think its 5 volumes with around 2 years of strips each.

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