Poll
Question:
Which was the superior political satire comic series of the 1980's?
Option 1: Bloom County
votes: 19
Option 2: Doonesbury
votes: 6
The mention of both these classic comic series's in recent days has inspired me to create this poll.
As Bloom County ended at the end of the 80's, and Doonesbury seems immortal, this comparison should probably be isolated to that one decade.
And though Doonesbury seems to be regarded as the "classic", I never really cared for it but had always like Bloom County. Though I also thought Trudeau and Breathed's drawing/art style were almost identical.
Doonesbury runs laps around Bloom County. The much better showdown IMO is Doonesbury vs. Calvin & Hobbes.
Never really cared for either of those, or the conservative counterpart(Prickly City is it?). The kind of lame jokes that are barely tolerable in a strip about family life are made even worse when there's some partisan political point trying to be made.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 24, 2011, 02:32:35 AM
Doonesbury runs laps around Bloom County. The much better showdown IMO is Doonesbury vs. Calvin & Hobbes.
C&H is the best, but the focus here is political satire, not overall comic greatness.
Bloom County by a country mile. Doonesbury is great and all, but Bloom County is genius beyond measure. I'd actually put Breathed over Watterson.
It's like the argument between Hitler and Stalin. OBP versus hitting for average.
Doonesbury's had it moments over the years, but Bloom County made me laugh so hard sometimes I teared up.
I love Bloom County.
It had some fantastic moments.
Outland less so, but still quite good. I've never gotten Doonesbury.
Bloom Country.
Doonesbury was never that funny.
Quote from: Norgy on July 24, 2011, 07:26:00 AM
I love Bloom County.
It had some fantastic moments.
Outland less so, but still quite good. I've never gotten Doonesbury.
Bloom county was great. Outland is like looking at 2 week old dog turd in the grass. Or the puddle in the bed after sex. Or that brown ring in the can after a monster shit.
Bloom County, no contest. My favorite comic strip of all time.
Outland was crap. Opus was better, but it was too little, too late.
I did like Doonesbury, but I liked the '80s strips much better than the current ones. Something about the Reagan and Mk I Bush administrations just made for funnier political satire. Maybe it's the way they still pretended to function on statesmanship- the last couple of administrations have already been caricatures so extreme that political jokes just feel like a ripoff.
Quote from: Norgy on July 24, 2011, 07:26:00 AM
I've never gotten Doonesbury.
Doonesbury has a lot of inside jokes and character storylines that someone who hasn't followed it since the McGovern campaign won't always get or appreciate.
Have I inadvertantly stumbled through a portal into a parallel dimension? :hmm:
None of these names means anything to me. :scots:
Bloom County always went for the most obvious possible joke. I don't think I found a single strip of Bloom County actually funny. Doonesbury could surprise me on occasion (though it certainly didn't most of the time, but that's the nature of humor). Doonesbury by a mile.
I wouldn't take the collected Bloom County if you offered it to me for free.
Quote from: Tyr on July 24, 2011, 09:22:04 AM
Have I inadvertantly stumbled through a portal into a parallel dimension? :hmm:
None of these names means anything to me. :scots:
They are US cartoon strips. No reason why you should know anything about them. It would be like an American who knew about
Coronation Street.
apples & orange in my mind. the best thing about Bloom County (like Calvin & Hobbes) is that Breathed knew when to quit. Doonesbury I haven't kept up with since the 90's though. I read both voraciously back in the day. I was the only 8 year old in my town who told/got Nixon/HST jokes iirc.
Bloom County was the height of newspaper comics. And now that they're releasing the complete collections, I'm as happy as can be.
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:34:10 AM
Bloom County always went for the most obvious possible joke. I don't think I found a single strip of Bloom County actually funny. Doonesbury could surprise me on occasion (though it certainly didn't most of the time, but that's the nature of humor). Doonesbury by a mile.
I wouldn't take the collected Bloom County if you offered it to me for free.
You couldn't just voted for Doonesbury, and left it at that?
loom County for sure
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:35:51 AM
Quote from: Tyr on July 24, 2011, 09:22:04 AM
Have I inadvertantly stumbled through a portal into a parallel dimension? :hmm:
None of these names means anything to me. :scots:
They are US cartoon strips. No reason why you should know anything about them. It would be like an American who knew about Coronation Street.
Nah, he's just young; both Bloom County and Doonesbury were run in the Guardian.
Hmmm......wait a minute, I think Doonesbury still runs in the Guardian to this day (guy must be 80 or a zombie), what kind of commie ex-coal miner are you Tyr? .................doesn't even read the Guardian tsk tsk
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on July 24, 2011, 03:22:03 PM
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:35:51 AM
Quote from: Tyr on July 24, 2011, 09:22:04 AM
Have I inadvertantly stumbled through a portal into a parallel dimension? :hmm:
None of these names means anything to me. :scots:
They are US cartoon strips. No reason why you should know anything about them. It would be like an American who knew about Coronation Street.
Nah, he's just young; both Bloom County and Doonesbury were run in the Guardian.
Hmmm......wait a minute, I think Doonesbury still runs in the Guardian to this day (guy must be 80 or a zombie), what kind of commie ex-coal miner are you Tyr? .................doesn't even read the Guardian tsk tsk
It is hard to read a newspaper when he is passed out drunk in the street.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 24, 2011, 02:32:25 PM
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:34:10 AM
Bloom County always went for the most obvious possible joke. I don't think I found a single strip of Bloom County actually funny. Doonesbury could surprise me on occasion (though it certainly didn't most of the time, but that's the nature of humor). Doonesbury by a mile.
I wouldn't take the collected Bloom County if you offered it to me for free.
You couldn't just voted for Doonesbury, and left it at that?
Because he's a jerk.
Grumbler liked the cartoon Tribe hunts Mammoth by Throg on the cave walls when he was young.
Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2011, 04:17:28 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 24, 2011, 02:32:25 PM
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:34:10 AM
Bloom County always went for the most obvious possible joke. I don't think I found a single strip of Bloom County actually funny. Doonesbury could surprise me on occasion (though it certainly didn't most of the time, but that's the nature of humor). Doonesbury by a mile.
I wouldn't take the collected Bloom County if you offered it to me for free.
You couldn't just voted for Doonesbury, and left it at that?
Because he's a jerk.
True. I am as much a jerk as anyone who posted rather than just voting, but no more a one.
Quote from: Ed Anger on July 24, 2011, 04:21:10 PM
Grumbler liked the cartoon Tribe hunts Mammoth by Throg on the cave walls when he was young.
The one where the sabre-tooth runs Fat One up into the bee-infested tree was a howler, I'll admit.
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 06:22:12 PM
Quote from: Neil on July 24, 2011, 04:17:28 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on July 24, 2011, 02:32:25 PM
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:34:10 AM
Bloom County always went for the most obvious possible joke. I don't think I found a single strip of Bloom County actually funny. Doonesbury could surprise me on occasion (though it certainly didn't most of the time, but that's the nature of humor). Doonesbury by a mile.
I wouldn't take the collected Bloom County if you offered it to me for free.
You couldn't just voted for Doonesbury, and left it at that?
Because he's a jerk.
True. I am as much a jerk as anyone who posted rather than just voting, but no more a one.
No, you're just as much a jerk as anyone who turns their nose up at Bloom County.
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 06:24:30 PM
Quote from: Ed Anger on July 24, 2011, 04:21:10 PM
Grumbler liked the cartoon Tribe hunts Mammoth by Throg on the cave walls when he was young.
The one where the sabre-tooth runs Fat One up into the bee-infested tree was a howler, I'll admit.
:)
I think I've read more Doonesbury than Bloom County, but both were good.
I gotta say that the Danish translations of Doonesbury (usually a few weeks late) were nowhere near as good as the original American.
Voted Doonesbury, but just by a hair.
I never read Bloom County, largely because it ended publication before I was 10. I'll be 30 in a few days. You people are old.
Quote from: Razgovory on July 25, 2011, 02:31:10 AM
I never read Bloom County, largely because it ended publication before I was 10. I'll be 30 in a few days. You people are old.
I'm younger than you and I read it when I was a kid. Maybe it was only in collected editions. :hmm:
Bloom County, I read a bunch of the books when I was a little kid. I re-read some them again recently, and they're funnier now.
Manga. :yuk:
Bloom County.
I went to University and I had a Bloom County T-Shirt, some girl thought it was cute at orientation and I got laid.
I had to end it when she wanted me to dress like Opus.
Quote from: PDH on July 25, 2011, 10:27:09 AM
Bloom County.
I went to University and I had a Bloom County T-Shirt, some girl thought it was cute at orientation and I got laid.
I had to end it when she wanted me to dress like Opus.
Dress like Opus = Bowtie and nothing else?
or
Dress like Opus = Tux and a bowtie?
or
Dress like Opus = bowtie and a huge prosthetic nose? :hmm:
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on July 24, 2011, 03:22:03 PM
Quote from: grumbler on July 24, 2011, 10:35:51 AM
Quote from: Tyr on July 24, 2011, 09:22:04 AM
Have I inadvertantly stumbled through a portal into a parallel dimension? :hmm:
None of these names means anything to me. :scots:
They are US cartoon strips. No reason why you should know anything about them. It would be like an American who knew about Coronation Street.
Nah, he's just young; both Bloom County and Doonesbury were run in the Guardian.
Hmmm......wait a minute, I think Doonesbury still runs in the Guardian to this day (guy must be 80 or a zombie), what kind of commie ex-coal miner are you Tyr? .................doesn't even read the Guardian tsk tsk
Yep, they tried to drop it a few years ago and backed down after a storm of protests.
Don't remember Bloom County though.
I leave it to the imagination. Still, she was hot.
Quote from: PDH on July 25, 2011, 11:40:45 AM
I leave it to the imagination. Still, she was hot.
Ah, gotcha. It was the anchovies fetish. ;)
:P
Quote from: Tonitrus on July 24, 2011, 02:48:32 AM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 24, 2011, 02:32:35 AM
Doonesbury runs laps around Bloom County. The much better showdown IMO is Doonesbury vs. Calvin & Hobbes.
C&H is the best, but the focus here is political satire, not overall comic greatness.
I'm not sure that makes for a fair comparison. Doonesbury has alway been primarily political satire; while Bloom County, to me, was as much about character humor and wacky hijinks as satire, and a lot of the satire it did include was as likely to be social/cultural satire as political satire. Not that Doonesbury didn't have character humor, wacky hijinks, and social/cultural satire, and that Bloom County didn't have political satire, just that the focus seemed different.