Berekley Breathed, the gifted artist of Bloom County, Outland, and Opus, had a rare gift of combining timely topics along with humor and beautiful imagery. While there are certainly lots of topical comic strip artists (Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury), humorous ones (Gary Larson of Far Side), and masterfully drawn ones (Hal Foster of Prince Valiant), very rarely do you see anyone with all three talents. Berkeley Breathed, in the eyes of this author, seemed to have all three.

But in November 2008, Berkeley Breathed retired Opus leaving, for the third time in his career, a huge void in the comic strip world.

A question you might ask, Where is the next Berkeley Breathed? It’s probably impossible to compare one artist to another. Still, here are a few that artist mentioned are probably worth a look:

• Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) – Pearls Before Swine is the comic strip tale of two friends: a megalomaniacal Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn’t know any better. This strip has a great chemistry quirkiness to it that is reminiscent of Berkeley Breethed’s Bloom County Opus and Bill the Cat. It also can be extremely timely/political as is the case of a recent comic discussing our national debt.
• Jerry Holkins (writer) Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade) – Penny Arcade is a webcomic that (primarily) topical video gaming news comic, there is little plot or general continuity. While video game culture wasn’t covered by Berkeley Breathed, Penny Arcade’s appeal to geek culture aligns closely with Bloom County. For example, a famous Bloom County featured the gang running away from the AT&T globe logo of the 1980s, calling it “the Death Star!” noting its resemblance to the iconic Star Wars space station. If that isn’t geekdom, I don’t know what is!
• Aaron McGruder (Boondocks) – Boondocks is an episodic series about inner-city African-American kids who move the suburbs. Inspired by Bloom County, Aaron McGruder captures the language and the culture that usually not represeted in comic strips. McGruder has acknowledged with a few aspects of the strip bearing more than a passing resemblance to important Bloom County features. Additionally, episode of the animated series where Uncle Ruckus calls Breathed “Master Penguin Draw’er”.

While it is probably foolish to ask “Where is the next Berkeley Breathed,” a little digging into the modern comic strips reveal some gems. In many ways, modern comic strip artists somewhat owe their careers to Berkeley Breathed.  He has shown how you can create a long (and prosperous) career out of being a comic strip artist.  He was a model of his craft in his day like the folks mentioned here are trying to be ours.