Berkley Breathed

When I was little I picked up a large collection of comics featuring the now iconic cartoon penguin, Opus. I never got too many of the jokes, but still I read page after page of Bloom County Babylon until I had the large book virtually memorized.

So imagine my surprise and delight when he made his triumphant return into the funnies pages. I was a little skeptical at first, because it appeared as though Breathed had become a little full of himself. Initially he required a half page of space in the comics, and refused to have his comic shown online. I overlooked this issue, and got my Sunday subscription of The Seattle Times primarily for Opus. I'll admit it, I got my news online primarily, and I had a steady income at the time, so I really have no excuse.

The reason I subscribed was in part inspired by Breathed's clear and present love of print media. I found it a little snobby, but I felt in a way his reasoning to make his demands were okay. He wanted to see larger comics, and to be reading the actual newspaper more often than the online news portals. He also added in interviews that he'd been spending his near ten years off of the page studying art, and he didn't want to see his hard work shrunk down in size.

But as time has passed I've become increasingly disappointed in Breathed's work. I would not be so critical, if it weren't for the fact that he came roaring back into the scene guns a-blazing ready to make some changes in print media. Over the span of his new comic's life, the vast artwork that he claimed deserved a half page of layout became, well, not so vast, and more than a little bit lazy. I'll admit that the first months of the series we had seen a definite improvement. The page space did allow him to draw some epic pictures. But as time has gone on he has slouched into a steady routine of printing standard boxed in comics.

What's worse... he's not funny anymore. I've been coming to this realization over time, but the cartoon he printed for last Sunday was evidence that he was not funny, and worse, he was a little dated.

Watching the older generation chuckle over the ways of the younger, to me, is obnoxious, and one comic page habit I had hoped Breathed would avoid. But instead, like every other cartoon on the funny pages, Breathed takes immature jabs at younger audiences, overlooking a few facts.

Firstly, could it be, perhaps, that the younger audience isn't interested in a medium that doesn't speak to them? Could it be that comics that poke fun at younger consumers only exacerbates the reasons that people younger than 30 don't read the newspaper? Now when I look at Breathed's work, it feels like the Zits cartoons my mother sticks up on her fridge. Content sells, and frankly if Breathed was still funny, entertaining and astute, he might find a still-interested younger audience.

The second is, as Breathed mocks the iPod toting, laptop using youth, he fails to recognize that even he caved on his own standards. The comic, once forbidden for online reproduction, is now posted weekly on Comics.com. Watching Breathed here, I feel like he's being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the present. He can day dream over the yesteryear of newspapers, but I find that ignoring the fact that paper newspapers aren't selling to the next generation isn't the fault of the iPod plugged youth, but the newspapers.

So maybe I'm just a petulant youth that likes clinging to my white plexiglassed Apple products, or maybe my white plexiglassed Apple products have offered a better way to get the news than gray paper that leaves black ink on my hand. I'd love to see a newspaper under the arm of every person, young and old. Knowing that we're all part of the conversation would give me more hope for the world than I currently have, but in the meantime I'm more interested in people getting the news, in whatever medium they prefer, than clinging to the older methods of distribution.

So to Mr. Breathed: It's not the iPod generation's fault your newspapers aren't selling. If younger audiences aren't interested in your product, it's not because they need convincing that it's important, it's because you lacked the creativity to create a product they want.