After the terrible experience of reading A Gate at the Stairs,
what I needed was a palate cleanser. Something light, something fun,
probably something I'd read before. Luckily for me, my husband and I had
spotted this volume on sale for a mere $15, instead of the $40 or so it
usually goes for, and snapped it up.
And I'd read most of the
comics in this, but I am astonished at how many aren't in any of the
Bloom County collections we already own.
So, after a terrible,
badly-researched, melodramatic mess, it was lovely to sink back into a
Bloom County election campaign, the death of Bill the Cat, and Opus'
trip to Antarctica to find his mother.
I love Bloom County.
As
Berke Breathed points out in many of the sidebars, this is mired in
what is now fairly obscure 80s references, but I'm not sure I ever got
those, and it never detracted from my enjoyment. (I would have been 5-7
when these were originally published, and we didn't have a television.)
Wind whistling through the toes of Casper Weinberger is funny even if
you don't know who Casper Weinberger is.
Politically, they're
still very astute. And the characters are still as wonderful and varied
and funny as ever. This volume sees the introduction of Oliver, the
death of Bill, and the nomination of Opus as vice-president - not to
mention frequent visits to Binkley's anxiety closet, the Bloom County
newspaper desk Milo works at, Bobbie and Cutter John's romance, and
Steve Dallas being Steve Dallas.
And reading their exploits was just what I needed.
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