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30-659: The Academia Waltz was Berkeley Breathed 's first comic strip , published daily from 1978 to 1979 in The Daily Texan at The University of Texas at Austin , where he was a student. The strip focused primarily on college life, although it sometimes made references to big news stories of the time (such as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979). Two of the characters from The Academia Waltz would be resurrected for Breathed's next strip, Bloom County : Steve Dallas and Saigon John (renamed "Cutter John"). Rabies also became

60-409: A Bloom County storyline in which Steve Dallas breaks his back after being attacked by an angry Sean Penn . Breathed also nearly lost his right arm to a boating accident. Breathed has said that he is an atheist, yet he does not fear death more than "sharing a room in a detox center with a sobbing Rush Limbaugh ". On May 18, 2008, in his comic strip Opus , Breathed announced he was suffering from

90-447: A caricaturist style of drawing , to capture the likeness of a politician or subject. They may also employ humor or satire to ridicule an individual or group, emphasize their point of view or comment on a particular event. Because an editorial cartoonist expresses an idea visually, with little or no text or words, it can be understood across many languages and countries. A strong tradition of editorial cartooning can be found throughout

120-515: A busing order imposed on the local school system) caused outrage. His first comic strip published regularly was The Academia Waltz , which appeared in the Daily Texan , in 1978 while he was a student at the University of Texas . During his time at the University of Texas, Breathed self-published two collections of The Academia Waltz , using the profits to pay his tuition. The comic strip attracted

150-645: A character early on in the strip, but disappeared around the time that Opus the Penguin (who would later become Breathed's most popular character) appeared; Breathed cites one reason for Rabies being "retired" is that there was "no shortage of cartoon dogs". Kitzi later made a guest appearance in Bloom County in 1985, although the character had been altered to be Steve's younger sister rather than his girlfriend (jailed for protesting Apartheid , even though their sorority doesn't even admit blacks). Two collections featuring

180-416: A condition known as spasmodic torticollis . Editorial cartooning An editorial cartoonist , also known as a political cartoonist , is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or current affairs in a national or international context. Political cartoonists generally adopt

210-589: A greeting card and gift ensemble collection for American Greetings , featuring the "Bloom County" characters Opus , Bill the Cat , and Milquetoast the Cockroach . As of January 2018, Breathed has produced ten children's picture books. Two were made into the animated films: A Wish for Wings That Work ( Amblin Television / Universal Cartoon Studios , 1991) and Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big ( Nickelodeon Movies , 2000); one

240-516: A large growth in the popularity of online and alternative editorial cartoons. The rise of comics journalism online, which combines the longer comic strip format as a means to relay a story in more depth, is very effective in a vertical web format. As visual journalists , comics journalist can tell a story in a visual way, with words and images. In the United States, there are more than a hundred published editorial cartoonists, from both sides of

270-642: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Berkeley Breathed Born in Encino, California , but raised in Houston, Texas , Breathed attended Westchester High School in Houston. Breathed was first published when he was hired part-time by the Austin American-Statesman to draw editorial cartoons for the newspaper. This job was short-lived; he was dismissed shortly after one of his cartoons (about

300-493: Is often to encourage debate; they can also fuel controversy. Their work can expose corrupt or abusive regimes, governments or political groups, and therefore often put themselves and their publishers at risk. In 2005, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard , who participated in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy , received numerous death threats and was attacked in his home by a man with an axe. In 2015,

330-584: The Outland collection One Last Little Peek , Breathed even put an early Bloom County side by side with the Doonesbury comic strip from which it obviously took its idea. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning during 1987. The strip eventually appeared in over 1,200 newspapers around the world until Breathed retired the daily strip in 1989, stating that he wanted to terminate

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360-808: The Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists , the Thomas Nast Award from the Overseas Press Club , and the Herblock Prize. There are several North American books that have collected together the majority of cartoonists being published at the time. Attack of the Political Cartoonists , written by J. P. Trostle , was published in 2004 and includes profiles of 150 mainstream American and Canadian cartoonists. Attack

390-416: The conventional wisdom of the readers. Historically, the political cartoon has roots in ancient art forms such as prehistoric cave paintings or the hieroglyphs of Egypt, in terms of their role in informing society. Cartoonists in many ways take on the role of a court jester , who though employed by a king or other ruler, would often mimic and ridicule him and his regime in his performances, to entertain

420-498: The Animals!" , T-shirts, and other merchandise. Breathed cameos as himself in the 2004 short film Tim Warner: A Life in the Clouds , a fictional tale about an unhappy cartoonist and his unfunny strip, The Silver Lining . Breathed is a fan of outdoor activities such as powerboating and motorcycling . In 1986, he broke his back in an ultralight-plane crash, later incorporated into

450-595: The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ' s offices were attacked by two Islamist gunmen in reaction to publishing cartoons of Muhammad . Twelve employees were killed, including staff cartoonists Charb , Cabu , Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski. The Cartoonists Rights Network International awards the annual Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award to political cartoonists who show bravery and risk their own safety to publish their work. In 2015, this accolade

480-409: The United States was going to face "tough times", and that he wanted to end the saga of his most memorable character "on a lighter note". The last Opus comic strip appeared on schedule, but in what may be a comic first, the final panel required an online link. The final panel of the strip showed Opus sleeping peacefully in the bed depicted in the classic children's book, Goodnight Moon . This panel

510-550: The closing credits of the Texas-based 2003 film Secondhand Lions , which featured a strip called Walter and Jasmine . The panels that Breathed drew for Secondhand Lions appear in his cartoon anthology book Opus: 25 Years of His Sunday Best , in which Breathed terms them "the comic strip that never was". Breathed has been a supporter of the animal rights group PETA and illustrated the cover of earlier printings of PETA's cookbook The Compassionate Cook, or, "Please Don't Eat

540-523: The comic strip Opus , a Sunday-only strip featuring Opus the Penguin, who was one of the main characters of Bloom County . Several newspapers chose not to run the August 26, 2007, Opus cartoon because it might offend Muslims. On October 6, 2008, Breathed announced plans to discontinue all work on comic strips with the final Opus strip to run on November 2, 2008. Breathed planned to focus on writing children's books . Breathed explained that he felt that

570-909: The comic were published. They are currently out of print and extremely rare, or as Breathed's website claims, " eBay is your only hope." A few Academia Waltz comics were also reprinted in the Bloom County collection Classics of Western Literature (1990), as well as in Bloom County: The Complete Library: Volume One: 1980–1982 (2009). In August 2015, IDW Publishing released an anthology titled "Berkeley Breathed’s Academia Waltz & Other Profound Transgressions." The anthology collects work from Breathed's college days, publishing his strips from The Daily Texan , his college newspaper from 1978 to 1979, along with scanned original art from his personal archives featuring Academia Waltz strips (with author's margin notes) and political cartoons. This comic strip –related article

600-560: The court or the common man. Historically, political cartoons were quick, hand-drawn ink drawings, scanned and reproduced in black and white, and published in print newspapers. The introduction of color came later, and more recently the use of digital drawing tools are a popular and efficient way to produce work quickly for newspaper deadlines. In recent years, the Internet has become a popular means for distributing this kind of short format media, humor, and minority political opinions, leading to

630-466: The most common and popular form of political commentary is the pocket cartoon. R. K. Laxman , Sudhir Dar , Mario Miranda , E. P. Unny , Shekhar Gurera , Ajit Ninan are some of the popular editorial cartoonists, through their daily pocket cartoons. Editorial cartoonists may reflect the political opinion expressed on the editorial page, or a newspaper in general, but they can also express opposing views, or opt for more populist humor that often reflects

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660-622: The notice of the editors of The Washington Post , who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. On December 8, 1980, Bloom County made its debut. It featured some of the characters from Academia Waltz, including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Cutter John . At its start, the strip's style was so similar to that of another popular strip, Doonesbury , that Doonesbury's creator Garry Trudeau wrote to Breathed several times to indicate their similarities. Breathed has acknowledged that he borrowed liberally from Doonesbury during his early career. In

690-466: The political divide. Whereas in the past American newspapers generally used to employ staff political cartoonists, nowadays the work of many political cartoonists are distributed via syndication services (such as Andrews McMeel Syndication , Cagle Cartoons , the Tribune Content Agency , King Features Syndicate , Creators Syndicate , and Counterpoint Media ). A political cartoonist's aim

720-449: The strip while it was still popular. At that time, he said, "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators". Breathed replaced the strip with the surreal Sunday-only cartoon Outland in 1989, which reused some of the Bloom County characters, including Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat . He ended Outland in 1995. In 2003, Breathed began

750-515: The world, in all political environments, including Cuba, Australia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Iran, France, Denmark, Canada and the United States. The traditional and most common outlet for political cartoonists is the pocket cartoon , which usually appears on the editorial page or the front news page of a newspaper. Editorial cartoons are not usually found in the dedicated comics section, although certain cartoons or comic strips (such as Doonesbury ) have achieved crossover status. In India ,

780-463: Was an effort to update the 1962 tome Today's Cartoon , by New Orleans States-Item cartoonist John Chase, which included most of the editorial cartoonists working in the U.S. at the height of the Cold War. The 3-volume Attitude series includes some of the political cartoonists who have appeared in alternative newspapers and online — see Attitude: The New Subversive Cartoonists . There are also

810-562: Was available only online, and the Humane Society of the United States page that displayed it was later removed. Breathed said that he had no regrets in leaving political cartooning, as he believed the atmosphere became too bitter for him to make quality cartoons. In July 2015 Breathed hinted at a return to the strip when he posted a photo to Facebook of him at his computer, starting a cartoon entitled "Bloom County 2015". He added: "A return after 25 years. Feels like going home." The strip

840-468: Was awarded to Atena Farghadani of Iran, who was jailed for more than 12 years for publishing a cartoon of Iran's parliament with heads of various animals. There is a Pulitzer Prize awarded every year for America's top editorial cartoonist — as decided by a panel of senior media industry professionals and media academics (see Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary ). Other major awards given each year to editorial cartoonists include

870-603: Was later posted to Facebook. He has subsequently been posting new Bloom County strips via Facebook on an almost-daily basis, as of January 2018. (In 2016, " 2015 " was dropped from the new strip's name.) In 2021, Breathed penned a series of strips featuring characters from Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes . Panels featured Watterson's Calvin as Spaceman Spiff and Hobbes the Tiger. Breathed's syndicated and Facebook cartoon work has produced at least thirteen cartoon anthology books, as of January 2018. Starting in 1992, he designed

900-409: Was made into the motion-capture film Mars Needs Moms ( Disney , 2011). Another animated film; Hitpig! , which Breathed himself loosely adapted from his book Pete and Pickles , was produced by Aniventure , and is set for a 2024 release. Breathed's writing has also been featured in numerous publications, including Life , Boating , and Travel and Leisure . He produced the cartoon art for

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