From: jseaver@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Jason John Seaver)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.strips
Subject: Re: Breathed = Idiot (was Re: Bloom County vs. Outland)
Date: 19 Nov 1992 23:05:16 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <98426@netnews.upenn.edu> kupiec@hp800.lasalle.edu (Bob Kupiec) writes:
>In <1ear5nINNgjo@bigboote.WPI.EDU>, jseaver@bigwpi.WPI.EDU writes:
>>
>>	Ronald-Ann and Bill are there on a regular basis; Steve Dallas and
>>Oliver occasionally drop by, and Binkley's been there once (but he'd changed)
>
>Can anyone give me the date of Oliver's "hacking" incidents in Outland.  I
>missed it. <sniff>

	There was one sometime in August or September of this year; Opus made
some comment and OWJ walked in, dissected it, and got an ice-cream cone in the
nose.  I've heard that he's been there more, but haven't been able to see any 
(I just started reading it when I got to school and buying the Boston Globe on
Sundays; the Portland yes-we-own-every-paper-in-the-region-so-we-can-screw-you-
over Newspapers sunday paper wouldn't run it, didn't run the Sunday Bloom 
County while the strip was alive, and has done a lot of other stupid comics
things).

>>	While I've mentioned that, does anyone know if there's going to be a
>>Last Basselope TV special, like there was for AWfWTW?  Amblin' did such a
>>good job on the first that I really want to see a second.
>
>I hope that AWfWTW will be rebroadcast again this year, because I happened to
>want to record it but couldn't for some forgotten reason.  (Story of my life. ;-)
>Does anyone know?  It's a X-mas type show, so maybe...

	I'd assume it will be; CBS kills its entire lineup every December to
broadcast Christmas specials, and I would have to think that AWfWTW was one of
the highest-rated ones they had last year, proving that you CAN do something
that both kids and adults will like in a holiday special.  If it's not, CBS is
going to be in MAJOR trouble from us (I want it on tape too).

>>In the introduction to PFAI, Breathed mentions that one of the amusing things
>>he saw in Outland was how quickly (and inevitably) it became like Bloom
>>County.
>
>Breathed is such an IDIOT!  Why didn't he just stick with Bloom County and
>just do Sunday strips?  At the time of transition, I remember him saying that
>these jokes get old and I need a change.  Well folks, you just heard it from
>Jay and myself, Outland is just like Bloom County!  Is that a change?  I think
>he heard too much of an outcry from fans and brought back the characters.  I
>think he wanted a quick out, but he took the wrong way, to Outland.

	I wouldn't say Outland is just like Bloom County; it's not as good.  I
miss the month-long storylines, the characters' awareness that it was just a
comic strip, and the combination of razor-sharp satire and cartoon silliness.
Outland really doesn't have any of those, and sometimes has a tendency to get
far too arty for its own good.

>Bloom County is dead.  I really miss it.

	I hope it's only sleeping.  I mean, he obviously likes the characters;
can't he find SOME way to revive the strip?  One of the reasons he said he quit
it was that he was tired of cramming his characters into the confines of a
daily strip.  Well, geez, isn't there SOME other way?  Have Bloom replace
Outland on the Sundays?  Comic books?  Occasional Bloom County cartoon specials
(not Bill & Opus / Outland ones like AWfWTW, but BLOOM COUNTY!)?  ANYTHING?