Tales Too Ticklish To Tell, by Berkeley Breathed

When it comes to 1980s comics, Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County was the odd one out. Doonesbury was political, The Far Side surreal, and Calvin and Hobbes genuinely moving—Bloom County veered wildly between all three, and the end result was 70% amazing, 25% mediocre, and (it must be said) 5% terrible.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Tales Too Ticklish to Tell is the only one of my Bloom County collections that is still physically intact... because, well, it's my least favorite. It opens in the middle of a storyline and ends in the middle of another, several of the jokes are super dated (oh, the hilarity of the idea of a heterosexual AIDS epidemic!), and there are hardly any girl characters in it. (This is an ongoing problem with Breathed's work, but it's particularly obvious in this collection.) On the up side, it's a great introduction to Breathed's style of political humor, there are several very funny one-off strips, and, as always, it is infused with his unique blend of goofiness, spite, self-pity, and offbeat sweetness.

I had no idea Breathed was considering reviving Bloom County, but his timing is perfect. Jon Stewart is about to go off the air, Donald Trump is “running for office”, and the world is more in need of a mass dandelion break than ever. I am ridiculously excited about the return of this strip, and truly grateful to Breathed for stepping once more unto the breach.