How To Draw Opus The Penguin

2003–2008 comic strip past Berkeley Breathed

Opus
Opus the Penguin
Author(s)	Berkeley Breathed
Current condition/schedule	Discontinued Lord's day strip
Launch appointment	November 23, 2003
Finish date	November two, 2008
Syndicate(due south)	Washington Post Writers Group
Genre(s)	Humor, Politics, Satire
Preceded past	Outland

Opus was a Sunday strip drawn past Berkeley Breathed from November 23, 2003, to November 2, 2008.^[ane] It was Breathed'southward fourth comic strip, post-obit The Academia Flit, Bloom Canton and Outland.

Set in Flower County, the satirical strip featured Breathed's character Opus the Penguin It was launched on Nov 23, 2003, and was syndicated past The Washington Mail service Writers Grouping. In early October 2008 the author alleged he was terminating the strip because of his expectation that the United States is going to face tough times and his desire to depart from his most famous character "on a lighter notation".^{[ commendation needed ]}

Characters [edit]

Opus [edit]

Opus is the championship character and protagonist of the strip. Though he returned to Antarctica at the end of Outland, Opus traveled dorsum home to Bloom County, only to find that time has inverse everything and everyone he once held dear. His employment usually depended on the calendar week's joke – since Opus began, he has so far been a political operative, a garbageman, and a newspaper ombudsman – simply he was almost frequently depicted equally a syndicated cartoonist.

While his female parent, maiden name Bougm,^[2] was no longer "long-lost," she was not all he had imagined her to exist after a decades-long search, and he was often seeking the comfort of an ideal female parent-figure.

In a 2003 interview with The A.V. Club, Breathed revealed that "Opus was named afterwards a Kansas vocal." (The band'due south 1976 album Leftoverture includes the song "Opus Insert" and a suite called "Magnum Opus".) He also added, "If y'all're too young to know who Kansas was, to hell with you."^[3]

Regular characters [edit]

• Beak the True cat – the first of Opus' old friends to re-emerge (just months into the strip), Beak seemed to be the but one completely unchanged by fourth dimension. Still in a state of catatonia, he was occasionally tapped to run for political role but nearly frequently seen relaxing by Opus' side. He did not appear in many strips through the summer and fall of 2008, though.
• Steve Dallas – Steve was reintroduced lilliputian more than than a yr in, making him the only grapheme to have appeared in a major role in all four of Breathed'southward comic strips. Steve, who had come up out as gay at the finish of Outland, was back to his onetime chauvinistic ways, apparently equally a result of so-called "reparative therapy" (i.e., conversion therapy). Steve'south lack of ability to charm women, however, remained. He had anile quite noticeably and appeared to be in his mid 50s, with graying temples and a receding hairline, simply nevertheless retained his trademark sunglasses.
• Pickles – A niggling girl with a little bit of "snarky free energy" (she first appeared every bit a cocky-proclaimed Viking princess), Pickles immediately began tagging along with Opus and Bill. She appeared much less often towards the end of the strip's run.
• Auggie Dallas – Steve's long lost son, reunited with his father after many years. He had nothing but adoration for Steve, fifty-fifty though Steve was sometimes reluctant to deed like a father figure. His proper name may exist a reference to Augie Doggie.
• Michael Binkley – A longtime friend of Opus who began appearing in the strip afterwards a somewhat unexplained twelve-yr absence (see below). He appeared as he did in Bloom Canton, inexplicably not aging equally Steve Dallas had.

Other characters [edit]

• Senator Frequenter – Though previously bedevilled on corruption charges, Bedfellow returned later on, notwithstanding usually drunkard and plagued by reporters.
• Editor of the Bloom Picayune – Unremarkably Opus' boss, the Picayune'southward editor was depicted as hyper-stressed and suicidal, though somewhat older than he was in Blossom County.
• Oliver Wendell Jones – For some reason, Oliver was shown, similar Binkley, to be the aforementioned age equally he had been in Bloom Canton and Outland. He reappeared on August 5, 2007.
• Lola Granola – Opus' 1-fourth dimension fiancée (back in the days of Blossom County), Lola reappeared on August 12, 2007 equally Steve's girlfriend.
• Berkeley Breathed – On Nov 25, 2007, the cartoonist appeared as himself (using a likeness of Sean Connery as James Bond instead of drawing his own face) and "appear" that Jim Davis'due south grapheme Garfield is gay in a parody of writer J. K. Rowling'due south ex mail service facto outing of the Harry Potter character Albus Dumbledore. The strip ended with Breathed calling Rowling a "lily-livered literary chicken".^[4]

Absent characters [edit]

Early on in the strip, it was revealed that Michael Binkley had fled Bloom County to become a teenage Tibetan eunuch after a disastrous first kiss (this kiss was described to Binkley past his older cocky from his anxiety cupboard in Bloom Canton). He was non heard from again until June 3, 2007, when he appeared in his child form without caption.^[5]

At an autograph party for an Opus anthology book, Breathed revealed that the reason many of the original child characters had not returned is because in the years since the end of Outland, the kid characters would take anile into teenagers, and Breathed had no interest in reviving the characters in that form.^[6]

"Death" [edit]

On August 31, 2008, "the Creator" (Berkeley Breathed) spoke to Opus and hinted that the strip volition end soon. The next calendar week, Opus was visited past the ghost of Elvis who told Opus to find a place where he wants to be forever, because he will stay in that one spot after he "dies." east.g., Elvis is condemned to sit on the toilet forever because that's where he happened to exist when he died.

Opus tried to fly to a tropical island on September 14, but when he was asked for his passport, he told the ticket clerk that he smuggled himself into the U.South. 30 years ago. He was promptly arrested by airport security while screaming, "God Bless George Bush!" Opus was taken to the Department of Homeland Security and waterboarded. The guards told him to "start talking, Akbar!" Opus complained to "the Creator," saying he couldn't only permit the strip end like this. "The Creator" then placed Opus in an animal shelter, and mockingly said, "Happy?" to which Opus replied "NO!!"

The next calendar week, September 26, 2008, saw Opus bemoaning having to spend his eternity in a county animal shelter. At the behest of a swain inmate, a scruffy dog, Opus presently began sharing his memories of his by and recounts his life through the run of Breathed's strips. Many shots of him in well-known stories from Blossom County are then shown, including Opus saying "bozo" to a political leader on the Television set in 1981, misunderstanding a coin-grubbing cultist in 1982, sharing a mass dandelion interruption with other characters in 1983, his role in the stone band Deathtöngue in 1984, dreaming romantically of Diane Sawyer in 1985, and a current joke about Sarah Palin set in 1986. The strip included a tag at the bottom indicating it would exist continued the side by side week.

At this point, a trio of island-native girls arrive at the shelter; they only have room for one companion to live with them in their paradise.

On October 6, 2008, Breathed announced that the strip would end afterward November 2 that year,^[7] and fifty-fifty decided to practice a competition for people to guess what Opus'south fate is on BerkeleyBreathed.com. The winner will have $10,000 donated to the beast shelter of their choosing.^[8]

On October 19, 2008, Steve Dallas was shown barging into the Bloom Canton Animate being Shelter'south lobby enervating to see Opus, claiming Opus owed him $20. The clerk stationed there informed Steve that Opus had chosen his final eternity and that Steve should do and then likewise, and very quickly. The chat ended with Steve finally realizing he was in a cartoon strip past breaking the fourth wall and asking the clerk who "all those scruffy-looking people [are]" as he looked at the readers, to which the clerk replied, "Probably Democrats at this betoken," since he did this afterward dropping his towel, standing naked (merely with a censor bar over his groin).

The next week, Steve found the tropical isle girls and told them to give back Opus. Information technology was and so revealed that Opus had let his doggy companion in the shelter go with the girls, said "goodnight", and returned to the kennel. Later seeing a vision of old Bloom County residents (Milo, Binkley, Oliver, Cutter John, Portnoy, and Bill the Cat) waving goodbye as they rode off into the distance atop Cutter John'south wheelchair, Steve walked back to the creature shelter to discover nothing simply Opus' bow tie and an empty kennel. The last strip showed a glowing light coming from a box within the kennel. Steve reaches into the box, and smiles at what he sees. The console showed the accost of a link to the Humane Gild, which displayed the last panel as part of the $ten,000 contest (it would later be printed in Berkeley Breathed'south Opus: The Complete Library). The final strip showed Steve opening a copy of Goodnight Moon and seeing Opus tucked in bed, sleeping peacefully with a female parent rabbit watching over him.^[nine]

The 2022 revival of the Bloom County comic strip reveals that Opus is however alive, only that he has been unconscious the past 25 years and that the events of Opus and Outland were all an elaborate dream sequence.^[ten]

Production history [edit]

In numerous interviews before launching Opus, Berke Breathed stated his hopes that the strip would assistance reinvigorate the medium of newspaper comics. He criticized many modern strips, especially Garfield, for lacking expressive artwork or original humor.^{[3] [11]}

In an interview appearing in the April 2007 upshot of Texas Monthly, Breathed appear that he planned to cease the strip past killing off the chief character.^[12] On April ii, 2007 the journal Editor & Publisher reported on this interview in a story titled "Will Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed Kill Off Opus the Penguin?"^[13] However, Breathed's editor has reportedly quoted him every bit stating, "I mentioned Opus' literal decease just for talking points on my [book] tour coming upwards. Not gonna kill him, but information technology's adept for copy."^{[14] [ unreliable source? ]} Breathed confirmed that he was joking in an interview with Salon: "I was kidding virtually killing Opus, by the manner. I'd similar to walk the streets free from fears of spontaneous garroting."^[xv]

In August 2008, the strip began a sequence playing off the 2007 interview, as "the Creator" of the strip informed Opus that "the cease is almost." The strip ended on Sunday, Nov two, 2008, with Opus snugly in bed at the conclusion of Goodnight Moon.

Artwork and availability [edit]

The original syndication contract for Opus stipulated that the strip occupy an unabridged one-half of a newspaper folio. According to The Washington Post Writers Group, this was to provide "space for Breathed to offer richness and depth, like to the breathtaking imagery in his pop children's books." ^[sixteen] While this manner tin can announced hand-painted or airbrushed, it is actually rendered by Breathed on a calculator using Adobe Photoshop. The half-page requirement was subsequently lifted, and the strip scaled downwards by about newspapers. Its original illustration style has likewise been largely abandoned in favor of a more paw-drawn look, much like that of Breathed'due south previous strip, Outland.

Initially, in an effort to aid boost physical newspaper sales, the strip was barred from appearing online; however, in 2005, that too inverse and Opus became officially available on the web.^[17]

On August 26, 2007, the strip featured Lola Granola wearing a headscarf, explaining that she was now a "radical Islamist." The cartoon was not printed by the Washington Post and many other papers.^[18] The post-obit week'due south strip was too censored.^[19] Both strips were replaced by more innocuous strips in the printed versions, but the 'objectionable' strips relating to Lola's religious behavior were offered in a variety of Internet comics sites, including Breathed's homepage and the "My Comics Page" site. This site now requires a paid "pro" registration for access to the censored strips, but costless access to the censored strips is still available online.^{[xx] [21]}

Unreleased film [edit]

In August 2006 The Weinstein Company revealed in a printing release for an blithe version of The Nutty Professor that it had a "CG-blithe projection" chosen "Opus" "in the works".^[22] Numerous online movie databases, including The New York Times, accept entries for the flick, titled Opus: The Terminal Christmas, and requite a release date of December 19, 2008.^{[23] [24]} Some of these sites name Berkeley Breathed as the director,^[25] while others list Tim Bjorklund and Paul Taylor.^[24] Initially, Miramax Films was reported to accept obtained the movie rights to the series,^[26] but the project migrated to The Weinstein Visitor with the departure of the Weinstein brothers from Disney and Miramax.^[27]

Still, on May 8, 2007, during an interview^[28] past NPR radio host Diane Rehm, Mr. Breathed responded to an eastward-mail service question regarding the existence of Opus: The Concluding Christmas past saying,

Uh, the better question is, 'Is there an Opus picture show going to come out?' and the respond is 'no.' And, now I can say it's all for the better. Uh, the Weinstein brothers at Miramax tried for 5 years to develop an Opus picture show, their showtime animated motion picture, and it was, let me simply say, it probably wasn't destined to be, as ... as information technology probably shouldn't. And the problem with developing these kinds of movies and films is that inevitably they discover that a property as idiosyncratic as a comic strip doesn't interpret well unless you lot accept the confidence of bringing the creator in and factoring him into the creation of the pic. They never, never do that. Yeah, um, they just don't trust us. And so without that command there probably shouldn't be an Opus film.

In a June 2007 interview with Salon.com,^[15] Breathed confirmed that the Miramax feature was "expressionless", just left the door open up for an independently produced Opus film:

There'll only be a movie if I'chiliad writing it, which will probably keep him off the big expensive screen ... probably just equally well.

Reprints [edit]

In 2022, The Library of American Comics published the consummate Opus strip in their reprint series, Bloom Canton: The Consummate Library.

References [edit]

1. ^ Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 298. ISBN9780472117567.
2. ^ Breathed, Berkeley. "Blossom County by Berkeley Breathed, March 12, 1989 Via @GoComics". GoComics . Retrieved December 27, 2022.
3. ^ ^{a b} [i] Archived October 8, 2007, at the Wayback Automobile
4. ^ "Opus". Salon.com. November 25, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
5. ^ "Opus". Salon.com. June iii, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
6. ^ "My Dark With Berkeley Breathed". Platypuscomix.net. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
7. ^ "Berkeley Breathed says good day to Opus: 'I'g destroying the village to salvage information technology' | Hero Circuitous – movies, comics, pop civilisation – Los Angeles Times". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. October 6, 2008. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
8. ^ "Opus Contest". Berkeleybreathed.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2022. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
9. ^ "The Opus $10,000 Paradise Contest". Humane Guild of the United States. Nov six, 2008. Archived from the original on November 10, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
10. ^ "'Bloom County 2022': Berkeley Breathed Revives Comic Strip". NPR. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
11. ^ Jarnow, Jesse. "The penguin is mightier than the sword". Salon.com. Archived from the original on April two, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
12. ^ [2] Archived Feb 5, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ "Editor & Publisher". Editorandpublisher.com. June 17, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
14. ^ Gardner, Alan (April two, 2007). "Berkeley Breathed planning to finish Opus? (UPDATED) » The Daily Cartoonist". The Daily Cartoonist<!. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
15. ^ ^{a b} "Opus mean solar day!". Salon.com. June 3, 2007. Retrieved September xvi, 2009.
16. ^ "Washington Post | News Service & Syndicate". Postwritersgroup.com. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
17. ^ [3] Archived May seven, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
18. ^ Joan Walsh (August 26, 2007). "Joan Walsh – Political Commentary and News". Salon . Retrieved September xvi, 2009.
19. ^ Joan Walsh (September 2, 2007). "Joan Walsh – Political Commentary and News". Salon . Retrieved September sixteen, 2009.
20. ^ "Opus". Salon.com. August 26, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
21. ^ "Opus". Salon.com. September 2, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
22. ^ "Mainframe Amusement and The Weinstein Company Team Upward for CG Animated "The Nutty Professor"". Marketplace Wire. 2006.
23. ^ Cieply, Michael (April 12, 2007). "Opus: The Final Christmas – Trailer – Bandage – Showtimes – New York Times". Movies2.nytimes.com. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
24. ^ ^{a b} "Opus: The Last Christmas – ComingSoon.net Film Database". Comingsoon.net. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
25. ^ "Opus: The Last Christmas | Preview | Reviews | Trailers | Moviecentre.net". Moviecentre.cyberspace<!. Archived from the original on February 11, 2008. Retrieved September xvi, 2009.
26. ^ [four] Archived November ten, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
27. ^ "Weinsteins step downwards from Miramax". BBC News. March 31, 2005. Retrieved September xvi, 2009.
28. ^ "WAMU 88.five FM American University Radio – The Diane Rehm Show for Tuesday May 8, 2007". Wamu.org. May viii, 2007. Archived from the original on September 24, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.

External links [edit]

• Berkeley Breathed official site
• Opus archive at washingtonpost.com
• Eric: Ack-phhlpt. – Websnark

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_(comic_strip)

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