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46-672: Universal Press Syndicate (UPS) was founded in 1970 by Jim Andrews and John McMeel. The company began syndicating Garry Trudeau 's Doonesbury comic strip in October 1970 . Trudeau won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1975 for his work on Doonesbury . The strip as of 2009 was syndicated in more than 1,400 newspapers worldwide. Over decades, the syndicate added other well-known comic strips including Ziggy , Cathy , For Better or For Worse , Calvin and Hobbes , The Far Side , FoxTrot , Baldo , The Boondocks , In

92-571: A Pulitzer; the other was Garry Trudeau , whose work has influenced Breathed. Bloom County originated from a comic strip known as The Academia Waltz , which Breathed produced for The Daily Texan , the student newspaper of the University of Texas . The comic strip attracted the notice of the editors of The Washington Post , who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. On December 8, 1980, Bloom County , syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group , made its debut and featured some of

138-495: A Watchman as the factor that led him to resume Bloom County . At the very beginning of the strip (December 1980), the central setting was the Bloom boarding house run by the grandparents of Milo Bloom. As the strip continued, various boarders (and/or pets) moved into the boarding house. In the order the characters debuted: For detailed summaries of all storylines, see the entries for the individual books. Breathed decided to end

184-510: A few aspects of the strip bearing more than a passing resemblance to important Bloom County features (including at least a couple of artistic similarities), and an episode of the animated series wherein the character Uncle Ruckus calls Breathed "Master Penguin Draw'er". The series was adapted into the 1991 animated Christmas special entitled A Wish for Wings That Work , which is now available on DVD. The fictional setting of Bloom County served as

230-524: A high contrast photo within the strip, is modeled after the Linsay House located at 935 East College Street. Another Iowa City landmark, The Prairie Lights Bookstore, was referred to in the strip as the "Prairie Lights Newsstand"; original Bloom County artwork from Breathed now hangs in the bookstore. Another original Bloom County strip hangs in the Iowa City Public Library . Breathed used

276-474: A policy that says any cartoonist who has been with them for five years or more receives four weeks a year of vacation. In 1996, UPS established Universal New Media to sell digital entertainment content. In 1997, UPS acquired Chronicle Features , the syndication arm of the San Francisco Chronicle . (It had previously acquired notable Chronicle Features strips The Far Side , Bizarro , and

322-419: A recurring backdrop for the comic and its sequels, although the nature of the setting was frequently altered. In the comics, the county is presented as a stereotypical American midwestern small town. The small town setting was frequently contrasted with the increasing globalization taking place in the rest of the world; though Bloom County contained the likes of farmers and wilderness creatures by default, it

368-1172: A selection of syndicated comic strips from Creators Syndicate and Tribune Content Agency . In October 2008, Uclick launched a GoComics gadget for iGoogle which allows users to read comic strips on their iGoogle pages. As of 2016, the company syndicated more than 80 comic strips to over 2,000 newspapers worldwide. Andrews McMeel Syndication syndicates the editorial cartoonists Don Asmussen , Tony Auth , Stuart Carlson , Lalo Alcaraz , Glenn McCoy , Pat Oliphant , Ted Rall , Rob Rogers (cartoonist) , Ben Sargent , Tom Toles , Matt Davies , Matt Bors , Matt Wuerker , Ruben Bolling and Kerry Waghorn . Andrews McMeel Syndication distributes daily puzzles and games in newspapers and other print media. The company also distributes puzzles and casual games online through consumer and news web portals as well as through its own puzzle and game portals, PuzzleSociety.com and UclickGames.com. Andrews McMeel Syndication products include crossword puzzles and games edited by David Steinberg and Pat Sajak , number placement puzzles like Sudoku and Kakuro , jigsaw puzzles and other casual games. Andrews McMeel Syndication distributes

414-430: A sparkling symptom of a renewed national ridiculousness. We're back baby. Breathed originally had no plans of publishing the new strips outside of his Facebook page, commenting that “Newspapers need deadlines, alas. Like my departed friend Douglas Adams used to say, the only part of deadlines I enjoyed was the whooshing sound as they sped by.” An archive of the new strips has started at GoComics since then. A new book

460-553: A subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal , was an independent press syndicate . It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns , comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby , Ann Coulter , Roger Ebert and News of the Weird . Founded in 1970, it was merged in July 2009 with Uclick (which published its comics on GoComics ) to form Universal Uclick (now known as Andrews McMeel Syndication ). Universal Press Syndicate

506-402: Is just 94 miles from Bloom County". Geographically, this would place Bloom County in either Iowa or the far north-central tier of counties of Missouri , but likely referring to the distance from Iowa City , where the strip was produced, to Des Moines (see § Real-world references below) . Also, in a Sunday strip with L.H. Puttgrass, he is holding a King Soopers bag, which would place

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552-618: Is seen with the distinct features of Family Circus characters. He informs Opus he is being " bussed in " to the strip as part of a court order. Once Bloom County characters are scattered, only Opus is left as part of a plot to transition to Breathed's next strip in Bloom County' s final week. Shortly after Bloom County ended, Breathed started a Sunday-only strip called Outland with original characters and situations introduced in Bloom County' s final days. However, Opus, Bill and other characters eventually reappeared and slowly took over

598-624: The Evening Post Publishing Company and renamed it Atlantic Syndication . In July 2009, UPS merged with Andrews McMeel's digital entertainment company Uclick to form Universal Uclick . UPS strips as of the July 2009 merger into Universal Uclick : Concluded UPS strips as of July 2009: UPS columns and columnists include: Bloom County 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

644-423: The call letters KRNA to refer to Bloom County' s rock radio station featuring "Rockin' Charmin' Harmin". The call letters belong to an actual Iowa City rock station which featured a disc jockey named "Charmin'" Jeff Harmon in the 1980s. Several Iowa City local news items also directly inspired Bloom County storylines. For example, a fictional Ronald Reagan sexist gaffe, referring to women as "little dumplin's",

690-587: The Bleachers , Non Sequitur , Stone Soup , Real Life Adventures , Cornered , Liō , Cul De Sac , Thatababy , Wumo , editorial cartoonists and columnists. Universal Uclick was formed in July 2009 following the merger of Universal Press Syndicate with Andrews McMeel's digital entertainment company Uclick . In late December 2010, it was announced that Dilbert would move from United Feature Syndicate to Universal Uclick beginning in June 2011. Dilbert

736-662: The Duck , Ink Pen , Liō , Cul de Sac , Ziggy , Tom the Dancing Bug , Ozy and Millie , The Far Side and Peanuts (since February 27, 2011) in newspapers, calendars and books. Andrews McMeel Syndication also owns and operates GoComics (launched in 2005), a comics aggregate website featuring comic strips syndicated in print, online and on mobile devices by Andrews McMeel Syndication, as well as discontinued titles such as Calvin and Hobbes , The Boondocks and Bloom County , webcomics such as Pibgorn and Kliban , plus

782-492: The United States, as United Media — along with King Features Syndicate and Creators Syndicate — was one of Andrews McMeel's main competitors in the industry. Existing and formerly syndicated comics by Andrews McMeel Syndication include Dilbert (until February 2023), For Better or For Worse , FoxTrot , Calvin and Hobbes , Garfield , The Boondocks , Doonesbury , Cathy , Pooch Cafe , Baldo , What

828-692: The advice columns Dear Abby and Miss Manners , conservative columnist Ann Coulter , film critic Roger Ebert , and News of the Weird. In 2006, Universal Uclick launched the United States' first comic book reader application for mobile phones. The introductory line of titles included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , The Five Fists of Science , Godland , PvP and Too Much Coffee Man . Andrews McMeel Syndication has also published mobile versions and iPhone applications featuring comic book titles from Devil's Due Publishing , Image Comics , IDW Publishing and Jeff Smith's Bone series. Universal Press Syndicate Universal Press Syndicate ( UPS ),

874-471: The cast of Cathy and attempts to pitch himself as a new superhero, but is quickly fired from both jobs; Michael Binkley becomes a wild boar skinner for Prince Valiant . Lola Granola says that she has been invited to pose for Playboy , which Opus dislikes. Milo Bloom is seen with a snake swallowing him head first and informing Opus he would be appearing Tuesdays in The Far Side . Oliver Wendell Jones

920-458: The characters from Academia Waltz, including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Cutter John . Breathed set Bloom County in a small town. Breathed said he made the choice because he had followed a girlfriend to Iowa City , Iowa ; Breathed commented, "You draw—literally—from your life if you’re going to write anything with some juice to it. I did just that." Breathed's hand-printed signature on his strips

966-573: The comic in Colorado. On January 29, 2016, Berkeley Breathed posted on Facebook that "The Bloom County boarding house still sits in beautiful hayseedless Iowa City, home for this cartoonist for four years." The county was home to the Bloom Boarding House, Steve Dallas' law offices, the Bloom Beacon and Bloom Picayune newspapers, at least one pond, and Milo's Meadow. In the comic's later years,

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1012-444: The comments on the picture if this was in response to Donald Trump 's presidential campaign; Breathed responded, "This creator can't precisely deny that the chap you mention had nothing to do with it." The next day, July 13, 2015, the first comic of the revived strip was officially posted online, also to Breathed's Facebook page. The strip was relaunched under the Bloom County 2015 title, only to be renamed simply as Bloom County at

1058-401: The content in each book. Breathed also said that he believes that, "I just closed my eyes and dropped a dart on the ones to be included." He felt relieved the publishers did not "have to ask ... to do this again." On October 25, 2017, IDW published Bloom County: Real, Classy, & Compleat: 1980-1989 , collecting the complete run of Bloom County in two volumes. An "Ultimate Collectors Set"

1104-613: The county by way of a magical doorway. By Outland 's end, the Outland appeared to be a part of Bloom County itself. The final Outland strip listed the characters as living at "555 Hairybutt St., Bloom County, Outland". Opus also takes place in Bloom County. Breathed lived in Iowa City, Iowa during the early years of the strip, and the setting of Bloom County resembles Iowa City in several ways. The Bloom Boarding House, which appeared as

1150-427: The county contained what appeared to be a big-city ghetto ("the wrong side of the tracks", as it was known). The geographical profile of the county was fluid as the artistic style of the strip evolved. During most of Bloom County' s run, the rural meadow setting was presented realistically, while in its later years it became increasingly more abstract. The Outland setting of the strip was originally set apart from

1196-529: The daily Jumble online (but not in print, where Tribune Media Services distributes the puzzles). Andrews McMeel Syndication syndicated columns and text features are distributed in newspapers and other print media worldwide and online through consumer and news web portals, as well as through the Andrews McMeel Syndication syndicated column and text feature consumer site, uExpress.com. Popular Andrews McMeel Syndication columns and text features include

1242-455: The editorial cartoons of Ted Rall ). Universal New Media was renamed Uclick in 1997. Also in 1997, Jim Andrews and John McMeel formed Andrews McMeel Universal (AMU) to reflect the diversification that had taken place since its founding. Universal Press Syndicate became one of AMU's subdivisions (along with Uclick and Andrews McMeel Publishing). In 2004, UPS acquired the international syndicate Editors Press Service (founded in 1933) from

1288-477: The latter company's 150 comic strip and news features (under the banners United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association ) beginning on June 1 of that year. The United Media deal brought over such long-running comic strips as Alley Oop , Marmaduke , Nancy , and Tarzan . As a result of this acquisition, Universal Uclick became one of the largest print syndicators in

1334-641: The spring of 1979, Universal Press acquired the existing columns and strips of the Washington Star Syndicate from Time Inc. , which had acquired the Star Syndicate in early 1978. As part of the deal, Time Inc. took on a 20% ownership of Universal Press Syndicate; that was later bought back. At first, ownership of the comic strips was in the hands of both the artist and the syndicate, but beginning in 1990, UPS gave comic strip creators full rights to their respective works. The company also instituted

1380-405: The start of 2016. On the return of the strips Breathed stated: Deadlines and dead-tree media took the fun out of a daily craft that was only meant to be fun. I had planned to return to Bloom County in 2001, but the sullied air sucked the oxygen from my kind of whimsy. Bush and Cheney's fake war dropped it for a decade like a bullet to the head. But silliness suddenly seems safe now. Trump's merely

1426-536: The strip have been released far more sporadically in recent years. In 2023, Breathed only created seven daily strips released between July 23rd and August 13th and has yet to release any at all for 2024. Starting from 2016, Breathed took on, with permission, the characters from Calvin and Hobbes in an occasional series of strips. Bloom County has had an influence on other cartoonists, particularly cartoonists who have an irreverent bent or tackle political topics in their work. For example, Scott Kurtz , creator of

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1472-543: The strip in 1989. In keeping with the continuity of the Bill the Cat/Donald Trump storyline, Trump "buys out" the comic strip and fires all of the cast. In the strip's final weeks the cast found new "jobs" with other comic strips. A "goodbye party" was held over the course of the week where characters talked about joining new strips. Portnoy and Hodge Podge get jobs as janitors behind the scenes at Marmaduke ; Steve Dallas joins

1518-503: The strip, "Headlines" breaks to identify the top stories of the day, and commentary from Breathed. Each volume has three separate releases: a standard edition, a signed edition, and a signed, remarked edition. Breathed said that the reason why the strips printed in The Bloom County Library were not published in previous collections was that the publisher would not let Breathed publish 400 pages each year, so Breathed had to reduce

1564-431: The strip. Outland ran from September 3, 1989, to March 26, 1995. Another Sunday-only spinoff strip called Opus ran from November 23, 2003, to November 2, 2008. On July 12, 2015, Breathed posted to his Facebook page a photo with the caption "A return after 25 years. Feels like going home." The photo showed him drawing a comic strip with the title Bloom County 2015 with Opus pictured in the first frame. A fan asked in

1610-546: The strips that preceded Loose Tails . All of the daily strips have been reprinted in Comics Revue magazine. IDW Publishing published The Bloom County Library , a five volume hardback collection of all Bloom County strips, beginning in October 2009. This series is part of their Library of American Comics series. It is a complete reprint of the strip, including side notes about cultural and political references made in

1656-486: The viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America , where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where animals can talk. On July 12, 2015, Breathed started drawing Bloom County again. The first revived strip was published via Facebook on July 13, 2015. Breathed won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987, making him only the second (and so far last) comic strip artist to win

1702-405: The webcomic PvP , acknowledged Breathed's contributions at one point with a strip expressing the opinion that "so many webcomics. ..are nothing but Bloom County ripoffs", then lampooning itself by mimicking Breathed's art and dialogue style in the final panel. Aaron McGruder , creator of the comic and later animated series The Boondocks , has paid tribute to Breathed's work as well, with

1748-414: Was 39.43 N 105.01 W, which would place it just south of Denver, Colorado . In an early strip, Milo gives his address as "Box 163, Bloom County, N.I., 12460", the zip code for which would place it about 30 miles southwest of Albany, New York . Another strip has Opus trying to make airline reservations to Des Moines, Iowa . He balks at the outrageously high quoted price for a ticket stating that "Des Moines

1794-412: Was announced The Simpsons writer Tim Long joined the series as showrunner. Like many other popular comic strips, Bloom County has been republished in various collections . By 2004, the comic strip was reprinted in 11 books, the first having been published in 1983 and the last in that year. None of the reprints contained complete runs of the strip, although Bloom County Babylon contained many of

1840-475: Was announced in June 2016; Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope was a compilation of strips from 2015 and 2016. Two more books followed in 2017 and 2018, respectively. No more books have been published since. On April 11, 2022, Breathed posted a new strip on Facebook labeled "Season 33, Episode 3" in the title panel. It featured Steve Dallas and Opus in a satire of the MeToo Movement. New installments of

1886-475: Was founded by John McMeel and Jim Andrews in 1970, two graduates of the University of Notre Dame . Their early syndication success came as a result of Andrews reading the Yale Daily News . While clipping a column by a priest, he was distracted by Garry Trudeau 's Bull Tales comic strip on the facing page. When Trudeau's Doonesbury debuted as a daily strip in two dozen newspapers on October 26, 1970, it

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1932-499: Was frequented by Hare Krishnas , feminists, and rock stars. While the location of Bloom County is never explicitly mentioned, there have been some clues in the strip. When Oliver Jones identified Bloom County as the place where Halley's Comet would crash into Earth, a sign was seen saying that it was at 35.05 N 146.55 E. This would place it in the Pacific Ocean, about 300 miles off the coast of Japan. Oliver's previous calculation

1978-496: Was lifted from University of Iowa football coach Hayden Fry 's comment, infuriating feminists at the university. On February 15, 2022, Fox announced a Bloom County television series, with Berkeley Breathed as executive producer and co-writer. Bento Box will serve as the animation studio on the project. Fox's animation company, Bento Box Entertainment , Miramax , Spyglass Media Group and Project X Entertainment are all working on it as an animated series. In September 2022, it

2024-481: Was the first strip from Universal Press Syndicate, and a Sunday strip was launched March 21, 1971. Circulation of Doonesbury eventually expanded to more than 1,400 newspapers internationally. Strips like Ziggy (launched 1971), Kelly & Duke , (launched 1972), Tank McNamara (launched 1974), Cathy (launched 1976), and For Better or For Worse (launched 1979) soon followed, and UPS took off. UPS established Andrews McMeel Publishing in 1973. In

2070-415: Was usually presented in mirror image, i.e. right to left. Breathed's award of the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in 1987 for Bloom County was controversial. Because the cartoon appeared on the comics page, and not on the editorial page, the win was disapproved of by many members of Association of American Editorial Cartoonists . Breathed cited the controversy over the release of Go Set

2116-457: Was with Universal Uclick/Andrews McMeel Syndication until they severed their relationship with Adams in February 2023. Several newspapers have chosen to replace Dilbert with a new comic strip Andrews McMeel syndicates, Crabgrass by Tauhid Bondia which was introduced in 2022. On February 24, 2011, Universal Uclick signed a deal with E. W. Scripps Company 's United Media to handle syndication of

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