Breathed visits, Opus returns

In one of my favorite scenes from Berkeley Breathed's Outland, a Sunday-only comic strip that ran from 1989 to 1995, Disney's well-known characters appeared as slave laborers under the management of Michael Eisner. That Sunday's strip caused a stir, just as other episodes from Outland and Bloom County, Breathed's daily strip that ran from 1980 to 1987.

One controversial gag, for example, involved three male characters sitting on a couch as a woman approached. "How can you tell if a woman's been working at a computer?" Opus, the penguin, joked, "There's White Out on the screen!"

"You dumb hypocrites," the woman replied. "You mock the half of humanity that makes your graceless existence bearable. Men should pause for one moment and take another long hard look at the very thing that brings meaning to their meaningless lives."

The characters stand up and peer deep into their underwear.

Fearing the strip would offend its readers, the Houston Post printed an old one instead; papers around the country did the same. One might wonder, however, who the papers were afraid of disturbing. Opus' joke is obviously stupid, and the strip ends with a jab at male priorities.

Breathed's work is like that. Although Outland has been honored for its editorial content, winning a Pulitizer Prize in 1987, it fights serious political issues through whimsy and the absurd, not shouting. You will laugh, but realize the strip offers more than simple spoofs.

Since retiring from comics (like Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, Breathed took his series with him when he left; he didn't want it to continue under another artist), Breathed has written a handful of children's books, but those projects were different. They had his recognizable artwork, but the content was for kids, rather than infusing adult situations with what Breathed termed "juvenile humor" in an August 2001 interview with The Onion.

But, as thankful fans know, on Nov. 23 Breathed will return to Sunday papers with a new series, Opus. He is also working on a film about his characters. In support of these new ventures, he will appear at the University Book Store this afternoon at 3:30. I am hoping to be offended.