05 November 2008

Goodnight Opus


November 2, 2008 marked the last day of my 2nd all-time favorite comic character (Milo is the best) and pop culture icon. Berkeley Breathed published his final Opus cartoon and everybody's favourite penguin went out in a very "children's" literary tradition.

In cooperation with the Humane Society, Breathed published a final Sunday strip in newspapers with a link to see the last panel online at the Humane Society of the United States. Check the published strip via the link above, and then read the final panels.

Opus, the little penguin with the big beak and even bigger heart who sold more than 6 million books and had 70 million readers in the phenomenally popular comic strips, Bloom County (1980-1989) and Outland (1989-1995), graced the Sunday comics sections of nearly 200 newspapers. Opus got his break in cartooning when he popped up in Bloom County some 20 years ago and became an instant American icon.

Rest in peace, our small flightless waterfowl friend.

2 comments:

bsherm said...

Thanks for the link. I have already bought some of the Berkley Breathed kids books for my son. Need to start him off right, eh? Highly recommended: http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/

Dan said...

I still have my stuffed Opus somewhere . . .