Berkely Breathed’s Outland: The Complete Collection by Berkeley Breathed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I miss Bloom County. I recently discovered a wonderful collection of books being published that give access to the complete collection of comic strips that I remember reading when newspapers were still relevant. (This is, for the record, something I wish someone would do with comic books that are worth giving a shit about.)
Outland was Berkely Breathed’s return to the characters he created in Bloom County (with some random additions) that allowed him to write the same stuff but only on Sundays.
Bill’s there. Opus is there. Even Steve Dallas eventually appears… and (in the end) [SPOILER ALERT] turns out to be gay.
I loved reading Outland and I look forward to the Opus collection that comes afterwards. If I had to give any sort of criticism, though, it would be this: consistency. The strip started trying NOT to be Bloom County 2.0 by throwing in characters like Ronald-Ann (who was introduced in Bloom County as a set up for Outland) and Mortimer Mouse. By halfway through the collection, though, they (and others) had all but disappeared and were replaced by Bloom County favorites that had resurfaced.
I didn’t mind the return of the B.C. characters, but the phasing out of the other characters just seemed unceremonious.
In the end, though, this book did not suck.
