Tales Too Ticklish to Tell: Bloom County

by Berkeley Breathed

Three hundred black-and-white and forty-four color strips bring fans up to date on current affairs in Bloom County: Opus dances in an all-female nightclub and discovers the social penalties for penguin lust and more.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comic Strips, Fiction, Cartoon, Graphic Novels, Comedy

121 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author/illustrator, director, and screenwriter, best known for Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip which dealt with socio-political issues as seen through the eyes of highly exaggerated characters (e.g. Bill the Cat and Opus the Penguin) and humorous analogies.

Reviews

[Love of Hopeless Causes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking back on Bloom Caucus 88, anything one says about those ticklish days will reflect more of the viewer than the times themselves. It seems I possessed a better sense of humor and had less of the burdens of the past stuffing up my anxiety closet.

Opus was concerned that spy satellites would catch him scratching his arm pits, while today we can thank the internet for making everyone seem like scumbags. If Berke started today, would his cartoon angst be wasted on Twitter sandbox fights? Or did he manage to buy AT&T at 34, prior to exposing Gary Coleman as the Antichrist?

How quaint to recall a time when bassalopes took flight and human extinction wasn't so close on the horizon--or was it? The concerns of yesterday were much the same as today, the great zit of human society just hadn't formed a head yet. Where once I feared the Zort invasion, is now the acceptance that it wouldn't amount to much, in the cosmic sense, if the whole thing went splortles.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite comic strip of all time. Love Bloom County

[Little Timmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opus is the man, well a man in penguin form. Excellent comics to cheer you up on a down day. I read a few every morning to start my day off right. Very recommended

[Jeremy Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 reread. The collection covers the daily strips from 1987 and 1988. This collection holds a special place for me because I started reading Bloom County in the daily paper around early 1988. Highlighted story arcs in this collection include Bill The Cat becoming a Born Again Christian after his Boinger days, Bill becoming a televangelist who runs Opus out of town over the dangers of Penguin Lust, and Steve Dallas being kidnapped by aliens. Breathed was at the top of his satire game during this period.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago I was much enamored of the Bloom County cartoons. I read most all of the collections then and remember them very fondly. I guess time has passed though and I didn't get nearly the kick out of this one as I did the earlier ones I read. Politics has moved on and some of the cultural things have changed. I still enjoy the characters, particularly Opus, but I didn't get that many laughs out of this collection.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

1988 trade paperback, reprinting 1987 strips. The continuing saga of Opus and Bill, not to mention Steve, Milo, Portnoy, Binkley, Hodge-Podge and all the gang. Opus almost marries Lola Granola. Scandal besets the Boingers. Fundamentally Oral Bill. Aliens invade. Opus strips. Topical hilarity. Strip on strike. Steve gets his brain scrambled. Anxieties abound. Politics percolate. Don't blame me, I voted for Bill 'n' Opus.

[Dylan Zucati · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one just didn't hit for me. I think there's too much going on that in the subtext that I was too much not-alive to understand.

I like the earlier and later collections, something about this one just ain't it.

[Kevin Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Bloom County

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of my favorite comics from the 80's. Funny & enjoyable to read.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not live up to the fond memories I had of reading the daily newspaper strip as a kid. Re-reading as as an adult, I didn't laugh once. Very dated, reads like a poor Doonsbury knockoff, which indeed it was.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several months ago, I found a pile of Bloom County books at a library sale. Of course I snatched them up. I have fond memories of reading these when they were new, though I didn't understand a lot of the punchlines at the time.

In Tales Too Ticklish to Tell, Breathed's style was pretty well cemented. When you think of Bloom County, you think of these character designs, and this type of humor. It's bitingly sarcastic, a little absurd, and allows for no sacred beliefs to go untouched. Media scandals, TV evangelists, scapegoating, gun control, short attention spans, and objectification are all examined and skewered in turn.

As with Loose Tails , what surprised me was not how dated the jokes are (and some of them really are), but by how well some of them hold up. If you ever need a reminder that the media has always been lazy and sensationalist, look no further than its depiction in Bloom County. The characters regularly comment as they watch the news or read the paper, and we see how their local paper distorts what it hears to make an attention-grabbing headline. Above-the-fold scandals were the clickbait of their day.

There are places where the author lets his unconscious biases show, but, for the most part, the satire is evenly doled out. Some of the characters lean liberal or conservative, but they're all poked at in equal amounts. And, when the ultimate man's man, Steve Dallas, is taken and turned liberal, he's an object of ridicule, and his old friends are horrified. If one considers Opus the author's mouthpiece, then it's clear which way the author leans, but an argument could easily be made he's not.

I don't know how much entertainment value these comic strips have for generations who didn't live through what they parody, but, for someone who can remember most of what they discuss, it's fun to revisit them. They hold up surprisingly well, and finally understanding jokes that flew right over my head when I first read them is gratifying.

[Spudsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incompatible noses (aka the departure of Lola Granola....Opus is a free man....er, penguin again!)

Basselopes!

Bill the Cat turned tele-evangelist

The outlawing of penguin lust. "...Oral Bill said that if God had meant for there to be penguin lust, he wouldn't have made Adam and Eve, but rather, Penny and Poppy the Penguin."

Ronald Ann

The strike

More electin year fun

Steve Dallas with a perm!

[Duane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Berkeley Breathed is a great comic artist and this book is no exception. Having said that, his work is very time related and I feel that to really enjoy this book, you need to be from that exact time. A great book for those who knew the times in which it was written. If you know of the political climate back then, then you'll enjoy this book.

[Steven Belanger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laugh-out-loud funny--and smart. Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes and Doonesbury are among the few I'd put in that group. Some are smart (Non-Sequiter) and some are funny, but rarely are they both. "Bloom County" and "Opus" did that for me, and I was really, really sorry to see them go. And I still am...

[Bill Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tales Too Ticklish to Tell is a perfect collection of Bloom County comics. This was published right when I graduated High School and when I go back and read it, it makes me relive all the stupid politics and events of the day. I also liked the computer references. Berkeley Breathed is a great writer and he still cracks me up.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another in the awesome comic series that was Bloom County. You do have to be up on 1980s politics and pop culture in order to get the jokes. Contemporary history teachers should use Bloom County in their curriculum.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

How incredible that mere hours after I finish this latest collection than the news goes out that after a 25 year absence from the funny pages, that Breathed is bringing back Bloom County! Holy shit! Screw a review, this is all we need to know about this.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

An awesome book. Hillarious!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snarky and wonderful...explains the character of the staples twins oh so well (sam recommended it to me)

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Lachlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pants-wettingly funny. Having the Bloom Picayune thrown in is a bonus. I think this book, Billy and the Boingers, and Night of the Mary Kay Commandos is Breathed pinnacle.

[Curtiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

More manic antics among the characters of Bloom County.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

More back-of-the-john reading. Don't let anyone tell you comics aren't real reading!

[SmarterLilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I seem to recall this is not as funny as the others, but still super cute.

[Melissa Lee-Tammeus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Political satire at its best

[Nancy Laney]

Bloom County Book 6

[James Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still waiting for the movie.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

One can never really get enough of Opus! This collection talks about Bush, Sr and his screwed up administration but using the amazing - ACK! - characters of the Bloom County universe!

[Aaron P · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorites.

[Kyrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breathed isn't as funny as Trudeau's Doonesbury, but he makes up for it in quirkiness.