Opus (comic strip)
| Opus | |
|---|---|
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| Author(s) | Berkeley Breathed |
| Current status / schedule | Discontinued |
| Launch date | November 23, 2003 |
| End date | November 2, 2008 |
| Syndicate(s) | Washington Post Writers Group |
| Genre(s) | Humor, Politics, Satire |
| Preceded by | Outland |
Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland.
Set in Bloom County, the strip documented the adventures of Breathed's popular character Opus the Penguin, parodying both pop culture and politics along the way. It was launched with much fanfare on November 23, 2003, and was syndicated by Washington Post Writers Group. In early October 2008 the author declared he was terminating the strip because of his expectation that the United States is going to face tough times and his desire to depart from his most famous character "on a lighter note".
Opus is the title character and protagonist of the strip. Though he returned to Antarctica at the end of Outland, Opus traveled back home to Bloom County, only to find that time has changed everything and everyone he once held dear. His employment usually depended on the week's joke – since Opus began, he has so far been a political operative, a garbageman, and a newspaper ombudsman – but he was most often depicted as a syndicated cartoonist.
While his mother, maiden name Bougm, was no longer "long-lost," she was not all he had imagined her to be after a decades-long search, and he was frequently seeking the comfort of an ideal mother-figure.
In a 2003 interview with The A.V. Club, Breathed revealed that "Opus was named after a Kansas song." (The band's 1976 album Leftoverture includes the song "Opus Insert" and a suite called "Magnum Opus".) He also added, "If you're too young to know who Kansas was, to hell with you."
Early on in the strip, it was revealed that Michael Binkley had fled Bloom County to become a teenage Tibetan eunuch after a disastrous first kiss (this kiss was described to Binkley by his older self from his anxiety closet in Bloom County). He was not heard from again until June 3, 2007, when he appeared in his child form without explanation.
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