Loose Tails

Loose Tails
Author	Berkeley Breathed
Illustrator	Berkeley Breathed
Cover artist	Berkeley Breathed
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Comedy
Publisher	Little, Brown & Co.
Publication date	1983
Preceded by	none
Followed by	Toons For Our Times

Last updated April 20, 2019

Loose Tails is the first collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published by Little, Brown and Company in 1983.^[1] At least two different editions exist; the contents and front cover art are identical but later editions swapped out the serious author biography on the back cover for a parody one.

Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where animals can talk.

Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book creator, director and screenwriter, best known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.

Little, Brown and Company is an American publisher founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown, and for close to two centuries has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson's poetry, and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. As of 2016, Little, Brown & Company is a division of the Hachette Book Group.

It is followed by Toons For Our Times .

Synopses of major story lines

Senator Bedfellow faces some antagonism when visiting Bobbi Harlow's fourth-grade classroom. "How'd you launder the Libyan kickback money, Senator Bedfellow?" (p1, 4 strips)
Steve Dallas takes Bobbi Harlow on a date, in his gold Jeep with a license plate that spells out "HORNY". (p3, 3 strips)
Cutter John rolls into Bloom County, sweeping Bobbi Harlow off her feet both literally and figuratively. (p6, 6 strips)
Santa Claus visits Milo, and describes his recent labor trouble. After Santa's elves go on strike, the president fires them and replaces them with out-of-work air traffic controllers. (p10, 9 strips)
Otis Oracle is named Grand Wizard of the local Moral Majority chapter. (p16, 3 strips)
Milo works as waiter at the county New Year's Eve party. (p18, 6 strips)
Prince Charles and Princess Di discuss baby names. "Prince Butch." (p22, 3 strips)
Milo, in his capacity as Bloom Beacon reporter, harasses Senator Bedfellow. (p23, 5 strips)
Opus is introduced as Binkley's new pet. (p27, 3 strips)
Milo and Binkley organize a nuclear weapons protest demonstration, and visit a college campus to recruit. (p29, 5 strips)
Milo is arrested for giving a school report on penguin evolution. Penguin evolution versus "scientific penguinism" is debated in the subsequent Penguin Trial. (p34, 7 strips)
Major Bloom is harassed by the house cockroaches. (p39, 3 strips)
The Rolling Stones visit Bloom County to play the school dance, causing consternation among the Moral Majority. (p41, 8 strips)
Cutter John meets Bobbi Harlow's mother. (p46, 2 strips)
Binkley's father takes Binkley hunting. (p49, 4 strips)
Milo tries to dig dirt on Senator Bedfellow. "Will you confirm that you sunk Jimmy Hoffa in your backyard pond?" (p51, strips)
Everyone dons radiation masks following a leak at the Bloom County nuclear power plant. Milo sings the "Split-Atom Blues" with the critters, who have been advised to avoid breathing until Tuesday. (p57, 5 strips)
Opus is accidentally sent to the dog pound, where he shares a prison cell with a switchblade-wielding canine. (p59, 4 strips)
The Bloom County neighborhood baseball game shows Binkley to be an incompetent pitcher, and Cutter John an overconfident shortstop. (p70, 6 strips)
A town meeting is called to propose a nuclear arms freeze. (p74, 4 strips)
The revolting Bill the Cat is introduced as a marketing ploy. "Start looking for 'Bill the Cat' shirts, tote bags, mugs, toys, wallpaper, lunch pairs and toilet seat covers." (p79)
Quiche Lorraine, Bobbi Harlow's cousin, is introduced when Bobbi sets her up with Steve Dallas. (p82, 4 strips)
Opus and the critters take over a KFC, outraged that birds are being served as food. "Sir, some of my best friends are chickens." (p87, 3 strips)
Opus's relatives in the Falklands are caught in and confused by the war. (p89, 4 strips)
The gang goes to see "Space Raiders of the Lost Extraterrestrial Shark" at the local theater. "No flightless seabirds admitted under the age of two." (p93, 5 strips)
Prince Charles teaches his new son the ways of monarchy. (p96, 3 strips)
Steve Dallas substitute-teaches Bobbi Harlow's class, and takes them on a field trip to a bar to "observe the human condition". (p98, 6 strips)
Milo shoots his first low-budget film, "E.P. - The Extraterrestrial Penguin" starring Opus as E.P., Binkley as the Boy, and Quiche Lorraine as a giant alien cucumber. (p102, 4 strips)
Milo and Binkley form a band and rock out. Binkley gets carried away. (p104, 5 strips)
Milo's Meadow is leased for oil exploration. (p107, 3 strips)
Opus gets work as the Bloom Beacon's film critic, thanks to his extensive vocabulary: "Flop". "A disaster". "Terminally putrid". (p109, 3 strips)
Steve Dallas again attempts to win Bobbi Harlow's affections, even going so far as to compose a love sonnet: "In my dreams / you're all I sees / Boobs, butt, and knees / Be my main squeeze." (p121, 5 strips)
Blondie is introduced, and immediately captures Binkley's heart. He asks her out to see Pink Floyd The Wall , and the critters show up as chaperones. (p129, 9 strips)
Milo directs the school's Christmas pageant, with Opus starring as a cow. (p140, 5 strips)
Milo again works as waiter at the Bloom County New Year's party. Opus is a surprisingly effective bouncer. (p146, 6 strips)

Bobbi Harlow is a fictional character in Berke Breathed's comic strip Bloom County.

Steve Dallas is a fictional character in the American comic strips of Berke Breathed, most famously Bloom County in the 1980s.

Cutter John is a fictional character in the 1980s comic strip Bloom County by Berke Breathed.

Related Research Articles

Opus the Penguin is a fictional character created by artist Berkeley Breathed. Breathed has described him as an "existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters.

Milo Bloom is a fictional character in the American comic strip Bloom County. He was originally the main character, but was soon overshadowed by his best friend Michael Binkley and later on by Opus the penguin.

The Academia Waltz was Berkeley Breathed's first comic strip, published daily from 1978 to 1979 in The Daily Texan at The University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student. The strip focused primarily on college life, although it sometimes made references to big news stories of the time.

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.

<i>Outland</i> (comic strip) comic strip

Outland is a comic strip written and illustrated by Berkeley Breathed from 1989 until 1995. It was a Sunday-only spin-off of Breathed's strip Bloom County, featuring many of the same characters.

Michael Binkley is a fictional character in Berke Breathed's cartoon strip Bloom County.

Ronald-Ann Smith was a character in Berkeley Breathed's comic strips Bloom County and Outland.

Lola Granola, also known as Fatima Struggle, is a fictional character in the comic strips Bloom County and Opus by Berkeley Breathed.

The following are minor characters from Berkeley Breathed's comic strip Bloom County. Though significant enough to have appeared multiple times in the strip, they were not crucial to the strip's overall development, and disappeared without much explanation long before Breathed segued into his next comic, Outland.

<i>Toons for Our Times</i> book by Berkeley Breathed

Toons for Our Times is the second collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1984.

Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things is the third collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1985.

Billy and the Boingers Bootleg is the fifth collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1987.

<i>Bloom County Babylon</i> book by Berkeley Breathed

Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness is the fourth collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1986.

Tales Too Ticklish to Tell is the sixth collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1988. The cover image, of Opus sitting on the lap of George H. W. Bush, is a parody of the infamous photo of Donna Rice and Gary Hart from May 1987.

The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos is the seventh collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1989.

References

↑ Catalog record for Loose Tails at the United States Library of Congress

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[1] Catalog record for Loose Tails at the United States Library of Congress

v t e Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County series
Comic strips	The Academia Waltz Bloom County Outland Opus
Picture books	A Wish for Wings that Work The Last Basselope Goodnight Opus
Collections	Loose Tails Toons for Our Times Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things Bloom County Babylon Billy and the Boingers Bootleg Tales Too Ticklish to Tell The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos
Characters	Bill the Cat Michael Binkley Milo Bloom Cutter John Steve Dallas Lola Granola Bobbi Harlow Hodge-Podge Oliver Wendell Jones Opus the Penguin Portnoy Ronald-Ann Smith others