 guy berkeley "berke" breathed ( ; born june 21, 1957) is an american cartoonist, children's book author/illustrator, director and screenwriter, best known for bloom county, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters (e.g., bill the cat and opus the penguin) and through humorous analogies. bloom county earned breathed the pulitzer prize for editorial cartooning in 1987. ==early life== born in encino, california,encyclopedia of world biography and raised in houston, texas, breathed attended westchester high school.berkowitz, lana, "his latest opus: bloom county creator finds a more constructive path writing children's books", houston chronicle, april 4, 2007 ==cartooning career== breathed became published first when he was hired part-time by the austin american-statesman to draw editorial cartoons for the newspaper. this job was short-lived; he was dismissed shortly after one of his cartoons caused outrage. his first comic strip published regularly was the academia waltz, which appeared in the daily texan, in 1978 while he was a student at the university of texas. while at the university of texas, breathed self-published two collections of the academia waltz, using the profits to pay his tuition. the comic strip attracted the notice of the editors of the washington post, who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. on december 8, 1980, bloom county made its debut and featured some of the characters from academia waltz, including former frat-boy [
1957_births American_comic_strip_cartoonists American_editorial_cartoonists Artists_from_Los_Angeles,_California Austin_American-Statesman_people Bloom_County Living_people Pulitzer_Prize_for_Editorial_Cartooning_winners University_of_Texas_at_Austin_alumni