December 8, 1980

[RayThom]

[MajGenl.Meade]

This is how I learned that news:

[oldr_n_wsr]

My gf and I were having a "good time" when we heard the news on the radio.

[Joe Guy]

I remember that day very well. My phone rang right after I heard Howard Cosell announce the news. It was my brother. We talked about how unreal it seemed that someone who was such a big influence on our lives could suddenly disappear and leave such a void.

My brother died 12/8/2009.

[Guinevere]

I recall discussing it at lunch the next day, in the junior high cafeteria...

On a happier note, Bloom County began on that same day (which is somehow comforting). From Berkeley Breathed today on his Facebook page (where he posts his daily work, which has been OUTstanding lately)

Bloomers: I had two editors call with congratulations today: my first, Al Leeds, formerly from the Washington Post. He was the chap who found me working at a college bookstore in Austin, Texas in 1980. The other, Scott Dunbier of IDW, who stubbornly refused my rude resistance a few years ago to collecting all of my life's artistic output --all of it-- and putting them into books for dubious posterity. It had escaped me that, 35 years ago today, the first Bloom County appeared in a dozen newspapers. At the time, the strip's creator insisted he would be going back to work at the bookstore by the end of 1981. He did not. He went on to learn to print neatly, among other things. Enjoy, like me, with a wistful sigh. --bb

So glad I saw this post. I was the editor of the Washington Post's employee publication who interviewed you for two hours on the phone,(while one of my roommates whined that she was expecting a call from her boyfriend). Strip #1 made its debut in The Post two days later (and, as I recall, put the Washington Post syndication group on the map).

The story of how this strip was originally conceived is probably worth sharing with the Bloomers who weren't around at the onset--but it's a story better told by you than me.

If you don't follow him on Facebook, you can also catch the strips (with about a two week delay) on http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh M G Guin is really Berkeley Breathed?

[RayThom]

I recall discussing it at lunch the next day, in the junior high cafeteria...
On a happier note, Bloom County began on that same day...

I remember the Bloom County's launch quite well, especially with the death of John Lennon on that same day. "BC" and its sequel "Outland" were/are two of my all time favorite comic strips, along with "Doonesbury," and lately, "Pearls Before Swine." Bill the Cat is my favorite Breathed character. Bill reminds me of me during my wild and crazy booze and drug years.

Nonetheless, when it comes to global impact, it was John Lennon's life, and death, that dwarfs any artistic influence put forth on that day or any day since.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

A philosophical construct that holds true more now than ever.


JWL... RIP.

[BoSoxGal]

eta: War is over, if you want it.

[oldr_n_wsr]

"BC" and its sequel "Outland" were/are two of my all time favorite comic strips, along with "Doonesbury," and lately, "Pearls Before Swine."

Some of my favorites too. And don't forget Calvin and Hobbes.