Bloom County: Episode XI: A New Hope

Bloom County: Episode XI: A New Hope

Today’s leading exhibit of “You can’t go home again” is Bloom County: Episode XI: A New Hope. The most interesting part of the book, to me, was Berkeley Breathed’s introduction, explaining why he started the strip again, but everything went down from there.

I was excited when the comic returned two years ago, but reading them all together in this collection reveals too much reliance on nostalgia (a feeling of remember, you loved these characters) and redundancy (way too many Trump jokes, most with nothing new to say).

The characters still look right, and the cartooning is good, but I just couldn’t force myself through the book. It was like attending a 25th anniversary high school reunion and cringing at the drunken antics of the guys who wanted to remember when they were students and had much less to care about.

Bloom County: Episode XI: A New Hope

Unlike with the reprints of the classic strip, the side comments here are fan reactions, so there’s lots of “Bloom County is great!” without any useful information on specific strips. I found them redundant and ignorable.

The best thing I can say is that it’s great that this book exists, for those who don’t want to follow a comic on Facebook. The audience is most likely older, those who remember Bloom County‘s glory days and aren’t as disappointed as I was.



2 comments

  • Hate to admit it, but I agree. His online stuff is beautifully drawn, as always, but feels like Bobby just stepped out of the shower.

  • Talk about another old reference! That takes me back as well.

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