'Bloom County'.
Berke Breathed is the creator of the immensely popular comic strips 'Bloom County' and 'Outland', which appeared in thousands of newspapers around the globe between 1980 and 1995. Breathed was born as Guy Berkeley Breathed in Encino, California, and raised in Houston, Texas. One of his main influences was Pat Oliphant, while later in life he also expressed admiration for John Callahan. Breathed published his first comic strip, 'The Academia Waltz', in the Daily Texan while still a student at the University of Texas.
He debuted his famous 'Bloom County' strip in The Washington Post in December 1980, shortly after his graduation. In 1987, this daily strip, that dealt with sociopolitical issues, earned him a Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning. Breathed retired from 'Bloom County' in 1989, and subsequently launched the Sunday comic 'Outland' until 1995. Both strips feature some of the same characters, such as 'Bill the Cat' and 'Opus the Penguin', as well as the frat boy Steve Dallas, who had also starred in 'The Academia Waltz'.
'Bloom County'.
After a period of working on numerous children's books and animated film projects, Breathed returned to the comic pages in 2003 with 'Opus', a Sunday-only strip starring one of his most beloved characters from 'Bloom County'. Breathed retired from cartooning in November 2008.
Berkeley Breathed has published several children's books since 1991. He has also written for magazines like Life, Boating and Travel and Leasure, and he has designed sets of greeting cards featuring his well-known characters.
Berkeley Breathed was an influence on Frank Cho, Stefano Frassetto, Brett Merhar, Bob Scott and Dana Simpson. John Kricfalusi and Gary Larson expressed admiration for his work too.
'Opus'.