FOUND IT: Bloom County 1981

#1 08-15-2006, 11:17 AM

I found "Bloom County" strips from 1981.

Just start from here

http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/bl.../blm810101.gif

and change the dates. It goes like this

blm81mmdd.gif

To change the month, change mm (ie: 04 for April, 11 for November, etc.). And to change the day, change dd (ie: 01 for the first day of the month, 22, etc.)

You can change the years, too. Just change blm/1981/81 to whatever year you desire.

Oh, and THE FIRST "BLOOM COUNTY" STRIP!

This was released on December 8, 1980.

If you want to start from the first strip, go to blm801208.gif and go from there.

You owe me, man.

**Martianinvader** · #2 08-15-2006, 06:08 PM

I already knew that, and there was a 1981 article waiting in the future. Way to spoil it for everyone, nimrod.

**Martianinvader** · #3 08-15-2006, 06:08 PM

I already knew that, and there was a 1981 article waiting in the future. Way to spoil it for everyone, nimrod.

wiLbur · #4 08-31-2006, 11:07 AM

first of all -- a big thankyou to the big man for the lost bloom county parts of this site -- i'm still getting through it all -- but what a pleasure! bloom co is my favourite strip of all time too -- i reread the books all the time -- so to discover lost strips is awesome!
thanks for sharing your notebooks with us -- and really well-put together site. i'm going to go through some more pages of strips tonight and i can hardly wait..

to cbrubaker -- i would LOVE to read bloom co from the start -- wow that'd be great! -- i love the early strips and they seem to have cut LOADS from the books -- but i can't get your thing to work...
it works for the first strip, but then i try changing the date to 13 and ...nope
same with 14, 15, 16...
shame...but maybe he hasn't spoilt it for everyone...

ps i'm sure he redrew that first strip later with opus or someone didn't he?

wiLbur · #5 09-01-2006, 05:14 AM

big man (in anticpation of your return) -- i just read through most of the 'half of 1982' section last night.

first thing that strikes me is just how many strips got cut out of the book!
i had 'loose tails' to hand as i went through the strips, (i can't believe you haven't got 'loose tails' dude!) and i reckon it's something like a third of the strips you posted in this section that aren't in the book.

that's a LOT of strips! if they cut that many out each time they published a book that's at least 2 or 3 more books' worth of strips out there by my reckoning...
of course they may not have done -- loose tails is smaller in format than all the other books and probably has fewer strips. but even so...

another thing -- if loose tails covers 1982 -- and is the first book -- does that mean almost the whole of 1981 is unpublished in book form?
(there are a few early ones in the front of 'babylon' and a few in 'loose tails' but that's the best part of a year's worth lost out there -- i'm almost trembling in anticipation of finding those strips

one more point for now -- you mentioned about your british friend saying 'bloom co' never made it to the uk. not true. i'm also british, and i can tell you that it ran in 'the guardian' (a national paper) for probably about the last year of the strip. also all the books (i'm pretty sure all, except possibly loose tails) were published in a british edition (with 'as seen in the guardian' across one corner)

wiLbur · #6 09-01-2006, 06:50 AM

oh, i've got one more question for you (for now....)

how come i can't save the daily episodes from the 1982 section?
i only seem to be able to save the sundays.

i really should save any further dialogue until ...well, it's an actual dialogue, shouldn't i?

wiLbur · #7 09-05-2006, 09:21 AM

btw -- i DID get that business to of cbrubaker's to work -- maybe he has spoilt it for ya -- but not for me ! oh happy days! bloom county from the very beginning! i am in comics heaven i tell ya!

only problem is, i've got work to do too...

wiLbur · #8 09-26-2006, 04:04 AM

peter -- are you there??

i've been looking forward to a good chat with a fellow breathed fan...

these early strips are great --
i'm still only about halfway through 1981 and i'm loving it -- but i've got so much to talk about with someone who understands this stuff -- i love that polish guy right at the start!
and what's this about limekiller being american (on his trip to england) -- i always thought he was english...
these issues and many more!

so...i say again...where are you peter??

**Martianinvader** · #9 09-26-2006, 03:03 PM

Yeah, I'm here. (It's me, honest.)

I think Limekiller was a malfunctioning T-1000 Terminator sent back in time to 1981 to assassinate Milo's grandpa. Sometimes he's American, sometimes he's British, and in January 1984 he was an old lady. There's no other explanation.

Just about everything from the strip's Opusless first year is unpublished, except for the snippets that appeared in "Babylon." Did you notice the first strip in "Babylon" is actually the one from the second week, yet it reads like it was an introductory strip? I have a theory on that....when "Pearls Before Swine" launched, one paper wanted it a week earlier, so an extra week of strips was created for that paper only. The same thing may have happened with Bloom County (and if that gag only appeared in one paper, then naturally Berke would recycle it in '84).

**Chris Wood** · #10 09-26-2006, 09:25 PM

I'm going to have to check this out. Good to see Bloom County still has some fans.

I read an Opus strip in the paper the other day, and was disappointed to see it shamelessly recycle an old gag from BC.

wiLbur · #11 09-27-2006, 04:15 AM

ha -- you are out there -- excellent!

to be honest to me it seemed to me like there were no introductory strips much -- he just dived right in there.
actually in going through the 1981 stuff with 'babylon' at my side i'm finding they did run quite a few of them in there -- but there's still loads of 'new' stuff -- it's fantastic to find all this, i'm indebted to ya.

i like your theory on limekiller -- it makes a lot of sense. i'll have to look out for the jan 84 episode -- is that in a book?
just read your 'evening with berkeley' report -- i love the detail you bestow on us, i felt almost like i was there. most interesting.

chris -- sadly i've noticed since opus has been online he's been recycling quite a few old bloom county gags too. not a new twist on an old theme -- pretty much straight re-draws.
he's just doing his bit for the environment i guess.

J. B. Warner · #12 10-12-2006, 12:58 PM

Been rooting through the "Bloom County" archives all week, and I've discovered that Berke truly wasn't above ripping himself off at all. Check out the April 21, 1985 installment...

So, was he just pressed for ideas, or did he just assume that nobody would know? My guess is the latter, since all his recycled gags come from 1980/1981, almost all of which remains unreprinted.

(And the funny thing is, now you actually can get a Whopper without the bun - it's served in a salad dish and it's called a Low Carb Whopper. Shameless, really.)

**Martianinvader** · #13 10-12-2006, 02:29 PM

That's actually from '84, not '85. It was the first Bloom County strip I collected in its original newspaper form.

J. B. Warner · #14 10-12-2006, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martianinvader

That's actually from '84, not '85. It was the first Bloom County strip I collected in its original newspaper form.

That's odd...the archive put it in 1985. The date even says 4-21, and I'm pretty sure that April 21, 1985 fell on a Sunday.

Dynamite XI · #15 10-13-2006, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J. B. Warner

I'm pretty sure that April 21, 1985 fell on a Sunday.

It did.

**Martianinvader** · #16 10-13-2006, 04:45 PM

Ah, well, I guess I was wrong. The rest in that gathering are from '85; I was thrown off by the use of the 1984 logo box instead of the one where Milo tangoes with Opus.

Mr. Manager · #17 10-14-2006, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbrubaker1

What's funny is that now Burger King has a low-carb Whopper (sans buns of course).