The Universe Exists for My Amusement

My all-time favorite comic strip, Opus, is going to that “great comic strip in the sky”. NPR talks with Berkley Breathed on the impending doom of Opus in Farewell Opus; Hello Pete, The Perfectly Practical Pig.

This just in: The bowtie-wearing, tuba-playing, onetime vice presidential candidate on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket is headed for that great comic strip in the sky; cartoonist Berkeley Breathed announced today that he is giving up his Sunday comic strip Opus to focus on children’s books instead.

That announcement signals the end of Opus, the charming penguin who has entertained comics readers for nearly 30 years, starting with Bloom County. Though Breathed has retired the character before, this time, he says, he means it.

“I’ll be leaving Opus in a way that it should be very clear that this time there’s no going back home,” says Breathed.

I have long and fond memories of Opus’ predecessor, Bloom County, which I discovered in the college newspaper when I was a student back in the Neanderthal Age of the late ’70s. Opus will be missed.