Opus, not good news.

Opus has come to an end.



start reading in April up to the last page.---> Opus free online library at comics.com. - Comics.com




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I was going to post that in this topic but the title frankly, was just awful.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...ou-people.html

Re: Opus, not good news.

Having not read really read Opus's exploits since the grand days of Bloom County, I have no idea what those two final comics are about.

Isn't this the third "final" chapter for Opus? There was Bloom County finale, then Outland finale, then this finale? We might see a fourth "Opus has come to an end" in a few years

Re: Opus, not good news.

thats why the link to the Opus strip is there too, so people can catch up.

Opus was trapped in an animal shelter and it appears he was given a chance by "his creator"
to choose his final destination.

Re: Opus, not good news.

Thanks for posting that, TonyD. I always loved Bloom County, Outland and Opus, but drifted away recently since I've become a busy father, and I don't always buy a Sunday paper. Surprisingly touching ending for a comic, I am glad he went that way.

Re: Opus, not good news.

I loved Bloom County, never read the others. These days, when i buy a Sunday paper, i dont even give the comics a look.

Re: Opus, not good news.

Actually, maybe it is good news, after all, based on this posting by a L.A. Times staff writer:




Berkeley Breathed has a message for those “Opus” fans who were worried that the penguin was deep-sixed Sunday when his five-year-old comic strip shut down. “Jumpin’ Jehosphat,” Breathed told The Times via e-mail, “Tony Soprano sleeps with the fishes, which is to say, dead. Opus sleeps with a bunny in a feather bed, dreaming of a more hopeful tomorrow morning.”

Most fans got that sweet image when they saw the final “Opus” online at the Humane Society. But others were worried when the penultimate strip in print took place in an animal shelter setting and that in the finale Opus was being put to sleep (so to speak) in the pages of “Goodnight Moon,” the gentle nursery classic. Those fans can rest easy now that Breathed has clarified that Opus is, well, resting easy.

The 51-year-old Breathed’s “Opus” ended its run Sunday with one foot in children’s literature and another in the unpredictable world of technology. The final comic showed Breathed’s pudgy penguin peacefully napping, while Breathed’s farewell note to his readers crashed the comic strip artist’s website.

Some who just saw the image fretted about the flightless bird’s final fate, so Breathed wanted to be especially clear in his e-mail to The Times.

“I assure people in my web note that Opus is in the comforting place that would make me smile when I think of him in the years to come. I can only hope that his fans will smile too. If Opus was cuddling with tropical girls wearing coconuts, I suppose I’d smile too, but tinged with regret that those things just never last after that early giddy stage.”


Sunday’s comic ran in newspapers and showed Steve Dallas smiling wistfully as he looked down into the pages of a book that couldn’t be seen by the readers. Online, the last strip revealed it to be “Goodnight Moon,” the beloved bedtime story written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd; in Breathed’s panel the book’s nurturing rabbit sits in her rocker with Opus curled asleep in the baby bunny’s bed. The final words are “Goodnight Opus / And goodnight air / Goodnight noises everywhere.”

Breathed had pulled the plug on Opus because of his frustration with current events and to write books for children.

A contest for readers to predict the ending gave $10,000 to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. The winner was Stephen Allen, one of 55 of some 6,000 entries to guess correctly.

“I thought it was a fitting ending for a character that everyone liked,” Allen said.

On Sunday, an estimated 10 to 15 million people tried to access Breathed’s website, which normally gets 1,500 to 3,000 hits a day. In fact, when Allen got his paper he went right to his computer to see if he had won. But the page took hours to load — Allen found out he won, he said, “at midnight or 1 a.m.”

-- Sherry Stern

Re: Opus, not good news.

All the best comic strips are retired: Calvin and Hobbes, Farside, and now Bloom County/Outland/Opus.

Breathed had pulled the plug on Opus because of his frustration with current events and to write books for children.

That is a cop out reason to end a comic because there is always fresh material to mine from but if I had his money I would consider retirement too.

Ah well, at least there is "Pearls Before Swine".

Re: Opus, not good news.

I don't take anything that i see BB say with complete seriousness.
A year or so ago he mentioned the end of the Opus strip and something about killing him off, then he took it back said he was just kidding.

I suppose the last 2 strips can be left to open interpretation.

For me it's clear what happened.

In the weeks leading up to this, Opus ended up in a animal shelter with a dog.

Starting with the Aug 31st strip were BB essentially tells Opus his fate.
In that strip BB discusses the circle of life and Opus notices that comic
strips went away due to the creaters croaking, BB... "we'll be trying a different circle."


Next he meets Elvis who appears because, "I hear you'll soon be checking out for good, hound dog" and advises him on choosing his final place wisely

Through the 3-4 strips after that, Opus is trying to understand
what he was put on earth to do.


Here realizes his destiny is to take the place of the dog in the shelter so dog can go free.

Taking Elvis' advice about chooosing one's final resting place wisely, Opus imagines that after he "goes" he would like to be in a
happy place,
a warm place, a friendly place.
A beloved children's book.

As Steve Dallas is looking down at the book, we see a reflection in Steve's glasses coming from above.

Opus smiling.

So my interpretation is that Opus' life was ended on the physical sense.
His spiritual being was caste into BB's children's books to be seen there and remembered by children for all time.

So don't mourn Opus because he is in his happiest of all places

A place of his own choosing.

Re: Opus, not good news.

I don't think it's fair to say it's a cop out reason. Many authors have tired of characters and actually killed them off. Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot come to mind.

BB didn't say there wasn't enough material, but that it was frustrating him the way things were going in the world and Opus and its ancestors were certainly topical and political. He may have felt like he was banging his head against a brick wall. We all know how good it feels when you stop doing that.

Pearls before Swine is a very funny strip, a favorite of mine. Unless I'm not looking deep enough, I don't think of it as political. You may not have been suggesting that anyway. Come to think of it, of all the strips you mentioned, none was political but Opus.

My interpretation of the end is that Opus was still an innocent cartoon child (despite all that's he's seen) and what better place for him to live than in a children's book? I don't think he died. He existed as a cartoon character and is still a cartoon character living in a different location.

Re: Opus, not good news.

I think you're misinterpreting Breathed here; I read that not as there not being fresh material for satire, but that he was finding no joy in doing a satirical strip. He's had enough of railing against the stupidity in the world, and wants to spend his time entertaining kids. It's not the first time that's happened with him, though he seems a little more determined this time around.

Re: Opus, not good news.

I wasn't thinking of any of my picks as political, although Opus did reflect on today's issues. Politics has a way of ruining many comic strips I.M.O.

Yes, maybe I did mis-read BB's intents, I guess I would get tired of the stupidity after awhile. To me being a cartoonist would be among my top ten dream jobs but I can see the validity of his reasons.

Re: Opus, not good news.

I got to thinking BB also might be getting concerned about his legacy. The various strips that feature Opus are all quite topical. 50 years from now, how much relevance will his comments on current public figures have? If he writes a classic children's book, well that has legs.

Calvin & Hobbs and Peanuts were not topical or political, I think they'll be relevant for many more years. Much of Opus...I'm not so sure...but I will miss him.