Stocking Stuffer: The Complete Bloom County Library Vol. 1 (1980-1982)
I shudder to think how many people reading this weren't yet born in 1980, but maybe you/they can view that as a sign of retro street cred. Looking for something for the highly literate, pop-culture-obsessed, sarcastic, politically-minded certain someone on your list this year? You can do no wrong with volume 1 of The Complete Bloom County Library. It's a bit pricier than the average trade paperback but this is a well-crafted hardcover edition of one of the best daily comic strips in history so it's well worth the extra few bucks.
Bloom County is hands down Berkeley Breathed's masterwork. It is - by the creator's own admission in some of his writings about the growing timidity of newspaper editors - significantly more edgy than the sequel comics he's produced and is, by virtue of that, much more in line with my personal tastes in humor. Even in this first volume, rough edges and all, Breathed is simply funnier than he's been allowed to be in his later career. The pop culture references might zing right over one's head if they don't remember the 1980's and the political climate of the Reagan administration but then, you remember the Bush administration, right? Sadly, there's not that much difference. Bloom County tackled the whole spectrum of topics, from the foibles of daily life in a small town to popular obsession with the rise-fall-rise-again cycle of stardom and on up to the weightiest of the eighties' political issues, all with a light-hearted silliness and a love of adventure one might find in a Warner Bros. cartoon written by Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau. It's a work that undoubtedly influenced the popular dramedic masters like Whedon and Straczynski.
On top of all that, it stars a penguin who is just a little bit of a transvestite. Sort of.
Each volume contains a couple of years of the strip in their entirety, some strips being collected for the first time. Only the first volume, 1980-1982, is out at this time, so now is a great opportunity to gift the random, rabid Bloom County fan on your list or to create one by introducing someone to Bloom County for the first time.
Klarion
Posted to Comics on 18 December 2009
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: Berkeley Breathed, Bloom County, Opus the Penguin, Stocking Stuffer
I wasn't born until 1985, but thanks to my Bloom County-obsessed aunt, I grew up with the collections of this series. This is a must buy for me.
My sister would buy them for me as they came out when I was growing up and reading them together created some of my favorite memories. I definitely feel you on the must-buy.
Loved it then...buying it now...
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it