“Just fly the damn plane.”
After 25 years, mail drop at Calvin’s hideout. End of our story… but beginning another, I want to think. The Days, as they say, Will Be Packed. —bb pic.twitter.com/xlaCDM1rjB
— Bloom County (@bloomcounty) July 31, 2021
Tweet of the Day, “Don’t Say Anything. Your Words Would Be Useless, Maybe Even Insulting” edition.
“Just fly the damn plane.”
That’s one hell of a teaser.
Alas, it likely is not.
Especially as Berk Breathed is not Bill Watterson.
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Mew
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p.s. I don’t know where Berk went after “Bloom County” .. the follow-on “Outland” was.. disappointing.
He went on to “Opus”, and then back to “Bloom County”, I think. He kept dropping and then reincarnating the same stuff… never quite climbing all the way out of the rut.
Humor is hard. Pumping out consistently funny stuff year after year after year is even harder. Bloom County had its ups and downs (I never did like the “Trump’s brain transplanted into Bill” stuff, for example), but I expect at a certain point Berkle Breathed just wanted a change. From what I understand, Outland was supposed to represent a clean break and a (mostly) new start. Except that the change didn’t quite work out the way that he’d thought. And then the old stuff starting creeping back in.
At this point, it seems pretty clear that he’s just having fun. New Bloom County comics are released at his own pace. If he wants to take a month off, then that’s his business. If he decides to take a year off, then – again – it’s his business. If he decides to do a new strip every day for a month, then that too is his business. He can snark about the current state of affairs as he chooses, and people will read what he’s written. In short, he’s got a guaranteed platform whenever he feels like it.
And the fans are generally appreciative.
Not a teaser. A finale.
I’m curious whether Bill Waterson knew what was coming beforehand. And whether or not he agreed to it, I’m also curious what his take on the series has been.