Toons for Our Times

Toons for Our Times
Author	Berkeley Breathed
Illustrator	Berkeley Breathed
Cover artist	Berkeley Breathed
Series	Bloom County
Genre	Comedy
Publisher	Little Brown & Co
Publication date	April 1984
ISBN	0-316-10709-3
OCLC	10673053
Dewey Decimal	741.5/973 19
LC Class	PN6728.B57 B74 1984
Preceded by	Loose Tails
Followed by	Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things

Last updated March 15, 2019

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

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.

It is preceded by Loose Tails and followed by Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things .

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. 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.

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

Synopses of major storylines

Senator Bedfellow is arrested for dealing in black-market "Bill the Cat" tote bags. Despite Steve Dallas's legal defense, he is found guilty and sent to prison. (p5, 5 strips)
Binkley's closet of anxieties and the Giant Purple Snorklewacker are introduced. (p6, 4 strips)
Opus works the Bloom Beacon's "Personals" desk. (p11, 5 strips)
"The Making of an American Stinker." Steve Dallas's alter ego gives him a tour of his life. (p16, 6 strips)
The Meadow Party caucus nominates John Glenn for president and Opus for vice president. When the Democrats take John Glenn, Limekiller is nominated instead. (p18, 3 strips)
The Binkley basement is flooded with toxic waste. The EPA dispatches a "crisis cleanup team" of Laurel and Hardy lookalikes, who timidly approach the "Sow" chemical company about paying a modest fine for their "lost" waste. (p28, 7 strips)
Milo dreams that he, Steve Dallas, and Opus are astronauts. (p40, 4 strips)
Milo has Opus forge the "secret diaries of Elvis Presley", and anonymously sells them to Newsweek. (p41, 6 strips)
Steve Dallas's takes Bobbi Harlow's niece, Yaz Pistachio, to her junior prom. (p43, 6 strips)
Binkley dreams he is "Luke Binkleywalker", with "Darth Dallas", "Artoo-Opustoo", Yaz Pistachio as Leia, Milo as Chewbacca, and Cutter John as Han Solo. The dream concludes with Binkley slaying George Lucas for making him wait fifteen years for a sequel. (p50, 6 strips)
As vice presidential candidate for the Meadow Party, Opus campaigns to special-interest groups such as "The Society of Blind Left-Handed Dentists Without Tonsils", "Society of Pro-Acrylic Knitters", and "Americans for Wayne Newton". (p54, 4 strips)
"The Great Bloom County Snake Massacre." When a snake is spotted in the swimming hole, a brave group of snake slaughterers successfully hunts down and beats senseless a battery cable from a '73 Pinto. (p56, 6 strips)
Milo dreams he is a nationally syndicated cartoonist, chained in a dungeon and whipped by a hairy, hooded torturer. (p58, 4 strips)
Limekiller moves into Opus's room, where they share a bed. (p60, 5 strips)
Oliver Wendell Jones is introduced. He hacks into the New York Times computer system, and Milo changes the next day's headline from "Reagan Calls Women 'America's Most Valuable Resource'" to "Reagan Calls Women 'America's Little Dumplin's'", resulting in a mass dumpling-pelting attack on the White House by radical feminists but earning Reagan praise from Phyllis Schlafly. (p62, 5 strips)
Steve Dallas attends his ten-year high school reunion, his face frozen with Novocaine. (p75, 6 strips)
Portnoy (not yet named) turns six years old, and experiences a mid-life crisis when he learns that a woodchuck's lifespan is eight. (p79, 5 strips)
The Meadow Party hosts a fundraising music festival. Boy George, Van Halen, and Tess Turbo make appearances. (p82, 11 strips)
Oliver Wendell Jones is caught breaking into the IRS computer system, but identifies himself as Steve Dallas. Steve, thinking that the FBI agents at his door are old frat buddies, blasts them with a fire extinguisher and is sent to prison, where he shares a cell with a group of computer hackers such as "Big Dave Diode". (p87, 10 strips)
While campaigning for president, Limekiller emphasizes his campaign committee's diversity by referring to them as "a black, a woman, two dips, and a cripple." To everyone's dismay, the "radical right" calls to offer their moral support. (p94, 5 strips)

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

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

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.

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Related Research Articles

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.

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.

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

<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.

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

Oliver Wendell Jones is a fictional character in Bloom County, Outland and Opus, three comic strips by American cartoonist Berkeley Breathed.

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.

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.

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