BerkeleyWorks Cover FIX_Layout 1 7/1/13 10:23 AM Page 1 Berkeleyworks, the Art of Berkeley Breathed provides a striking and o!en unseen glimpse at the long and varied career of an artistic enigma. Breathed is a top-selling comic-strip auteur who professes both ambivalence and of Berkeley Breathed The Art embarrassed discomfort with the form. A lifelong creative contradiction, he is a sentimental children’s-book author with a jaundiced and suspicious view of the world. Bridging the two extremes and keeping them from flying apart is an ebullient sense of humor that permeates it all. He is, at once, a guerrilla-prankster and a romantic storyteller, a scribbler and a painter, a erkeley Breathed is the Pulitzer B Prize-winning creator of the beloved newspaper thinker and a stinker. strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. He was born in Southern California and raised in Texas where, as a You are about to embark on a guided tour of the Berkeley-verse, University of Texas student, he created the newspaper • strip The Academia Waltz, a precursor to Bloom a magical place full of rants and raves, angst and innuendo, County and Beyond from Bloom County. The Academia Waltz soon became a local sensation and brought Breathed to the attention and—almost unexpectedly—beautiful art. of The Washington Post, who would launch Bloom County on December 8, 1980. Loose Tails, the strip’s first collection, would go on to sell over one million copies, and Bloom County would eventually appear in 1200 newspapers with an estimated readership of 75 million. At the peak of its popularity, Breathed walked away from Bloom County in 1989, but would later revisit his creations with the Sunday-only strips Outland and Opus. In addition to his cartooning, Breathed still works in California as a children’s author, novelist, screenwriter, and film producer. US $59.99 TheThe Art Art of of Berkeley Berkeley Breathed Breathed • •from from Bloom Bloom County County and and Beyond Beyond BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 1 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 2 IDW PUBLISHING Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher Greg Goldstein, President & COO Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer & Editor-in-Chief Matthew Ruzicka, CPA & Chief Financial Officer Alan Payne, VP of Sales Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services www.idwpublishing.com ISBN: 978-161377-651-3 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 Printed in Korea Art and annotations by Berkeley Breathed Design by Serban Cristescu Edited by Scott Dunbier BERKELEYWORKS: THE ART OF BERKELEY BREATHED, FROM BLOOM COUNTY AND BEYOND. FIRST PRINTING. JULY 2013. Entire contents © 2013 Berkeley Breathed. Published by IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial Offices: 5080 Santa Fe Street, San Diego, CA 92109. All names, characters, and locales are entirely fictional: Any similarities to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Cover illustration: With apologies to Norman Rockwell and his famous self-portrait of 1960 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 3 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 4 Memo to: Scott Dunbier, Senior Editor for Special Projects, IDW Publishing From: BB Subject: FINAL NOTES ON BOOK 1. Files are all in. You put it all together. I’m off the grid in Indonesia at the moment. Some last-minute directives: 2. The title: I hate BERKELEYWORKS. Sounds like -- BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 5 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 6 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 7 7 The Arrival Mars Needs Moms, 2007 Milo never heard the rocket engines in the night sky . BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 8 8 Mom Succumbs Mars Needs Moms, 2007 Then she breathed in the terrible air, closed her eyes and became still. BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 9 Aweless at the Movies: CG efx Overload Los Angeles Times essay, 2008 9 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 10 10 The Terrible Truth of the Milky Way Goodnight Opus, 1993 There, all above us, six billion udders. No cow dads around, just milky cow mudders. BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 11 11 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 12 “My Baby Grew Up in Hollywood” “When Worlds Collide” Los Angeles Times essay, 2011 Hollywood Reporter essay Can’t imagine what My Boys are My illustration of what happens to an author’s work when thinking. —bb it’s sent off to Madam Hollywood’s Fabulous Finishing School. In my case, the toddler was Mars Needs Moms. This was the most benign spin I could take regarding my personal thoughts on the matter. Or mess. —bb BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 13 13 BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 14 C-Mo Awakens “Something About C-Mo” book project, 2012 14 The blue-nosed stray panicked, went for higher ground and covered his privates with a Christmas angel. BerkleyWorks Text_Layout 1 6/18/13 10:52 AM Page 15 15 Wee Willy Yodels Into the Great Unknown Flawed Dogs movie concept art, 2010 Willy thought he heard an echo..