the shrewdness of apes

with the blog down for a while there, i had a bunch of ideas for entries that are no longer timely or that have now been covered to death.   but one thing that seems to have not garnered as much coverage as i might have thought is the return of berkeley breathed to the comics page with the "Opus" strip.   perhaps this is because the only paper worth paying attention to in new york city doesn't have a comics section (just one more reason why the washington post is better).

"bloom county/outland" is in the pantheon of the best comic strips of the past 30 years along with "calvin & hobbes", "the far side", and "doonesbury".   and "cathy".   you can try to make a case for a few others - t.s.o.a. is a big fan of mutts for instance - but between bill watterson's salinger impression and garry trudeau's increasing ineffectuality, there exists a need for more strips that aren't simply excuses to merchandise plush toys and horrible movies starring jennifer love hewitt.   "opus" is only produced for sundays and is only available in print, so we can't yet comment on the content of the strip though you have to figure it will take a couple months for breathed to hit his stride.   here's hoping he can.

here's a live chat he conducted concerning the strip and the state of the comics page.

in other news, the official brother of t.s.o.a. made me a t-shirt for christmas that features the head of dolly from "the family circus," which is simply one of the funniest things ever.

happy new year.