Opus the Penguin
Encyclopedia
Opus the Penguin is a character in the comic strips and children's books of Berkeley Breathed
, most notably the popular 1980s strip Bloom County
. Breathed has described him as an "existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters. Until November 2, 2008 he ran in the comic strip Opus
.
bringing home what he thought was a German Shepherd
, which turned out to be a penguin
, much to the disappointment of his father. After being featured in a few strips, the character was dropped for several months, before being gradually re-introduced in January, 1982, and eventually becoming a central character in Bloom County. Opus' popularity quickly grew until he became the signature character of Bloom County and of Breathed's subsequent comic strips.
Opus' appearance changed since his inception - he originally looked like a common penguin, but between 1982 and 1986 his nose grew dramatically (developing its signature bump in the middle, of which Opus is very self-conscious). Mike Binkley, during one Sunday strip, points out the fact that Opus more closely resembles a puffin
, a revelation which shocks Opus. (In the final panel of the same strip, Opus responds by telling Binkley that he looks like a carrot.) Opus says he is attracted to "svelte buoyant waterfowl".
He is usually seen wearing a bow tie
and collar, though he sometimes switches to a diagonally striped necktie
when running for public office. Beginning in Outland during the 1990s, he is also occasionally seen inexplicably wearing white briefs
.
Opus once mentioned his height during an interview for "The bureau of nosy statistics." In this comic strip he said that his height is two feet eleven inches.
, How he got from there to Bloom county is explained in "The Night Of The Mary Kay Commandos". He was separated from his mother at a young age, and much of his personality is therefore enmeshed in his sense of abandonment and yearning for a mother figure. There is never any mention of Opus' father if he ever knew him.
Over the years Opus has served as Steve Dallas
' legal secretary, journeyed to Antarctica in search of his mother, played the tuba
in heavy metal group Deathtöngue (later renamed Billy and the Boingers
), wooed (and was briefly married to) an abstract sculptor named Lola Granola
, worked as a newspaper personals editor, lifestyle columnist and comic strip writer, had brief, experimental stints employed as a farmer
, garbageman and even a cartoonist
(or, as he called it, a stripper
, which he would also be at one point), and run for vice president
on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket, along with his running mate Bill the Cat
.
In the tradition of many other popular characters, Opus apparently died (while unwillingly brought along on a balloon expedition to Washington, DC, to zap the ambassador from apartheid-era South Africa
with a ray that would temporarily turn him black) only to return with amnesia
. He later regained his memory after being in a state of intense and total shock; he heard an erroneous report that Diane Sawyer
(on whom he had an enormous crush) had married Eddie Murphy
. Another story line led Opus, in search of his mother, to a Mary Kay Cosmetics
testing building, which he was shocked to find out was cruelly using animals as test subjects for various cosmetics. Another memorable story line featured Opus being the subject of moral scorn as a perpetrator of "penguin lust". He fled Bloom County, and was absent for a long time, eventually reappearing lost in the desert, before his mother came to him in a hallucination and told him to return to his home. In another story, Opus wrote an autobiography, A Penguin's Story, which nobody bought. Milo Bloom
later rewrote the memoir, exaggerating and fabricating most of it, in his typical fashion. The new, scandalous memoir
, entitled Naked Came I
, became a bestseller in the Bloom County universe, leading Opus to even more notoriety than he had as Bill the Cat's running mate.
A major failing of Opus is his inability to resist the temptations of television infotainment
commercials, a la Ronco
, with the result being that he is frequently seen receiving crateloads of useless and arcane kitchen utensils such as "turnip
twaddlers".
Opus also has a very amusing (but somewhat unfortunate) history of "losing parts"; on several occasions, his "fanny
" has fallen off (often with a clanking sound on the floor), and he has also had instances where his nose droops or is taken completely off as a result of sneezing while using dental floss and so on. Sometimes these are combined; he has had either his nose and rear end fall off, or his nose droop while his rear end has fallen off, and so on. He eventually learned that his navel was in fact the screw that attached his rear end to his body.
Opus appeared in the Berkeley Breathed
Christmas children's book, A Wish for Wings That Work
. It was later turned into a cartoon.
. He also appeared in some of Breathed's children's books, including A Wish for Wings That Work
and Goodnight Opus
.
Eight years after Outland ended, Opus returned in a second Sunday-only strip simply titled Opus
, in 2003. The first few strips showed Opus's discontent living in Antarctica with his overbearing mother. A misdirected Mars
probe happened to give him the means to return to Bloom County, where he set about looking for his old friends. To date, he has been reunited with four — Bill the Cat
, Steve Dallas, and (on June 3, 2007), Michael Binkley
and Oliver Wendell Jones
.
According to the July 10, 2005 edition of the Opus
comic strip, Opus lived at 996 Melba Lane, presumably in Bloom County.
Opus appears on the label of Honest Tea
's Peach Oo-la-long tea.
In the November 2, 2008 strip, Opus leaves the comic world forever and sleeps happily in bed in the children's book Goodnight Moon
. The last panel at one point could be viewed online, at http://www.humanesociety.org/opus.
An archive of the last comic strip can be found here: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2008/11/04/berkeley-breath/
Berkeley Breathed
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 that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters and through humorous analogies...
, most notably the popular 1980s strip Bloom County
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
. Breathed has described him as an "existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters. Until November 2, 2008 he ran in the comic strip Opus
Opus (comic strip)
Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland....
.
Introduction and appearance
Opus was originally introduced in June, 1981, as a one-time gag about hapless Mike BinkleyMichael Binkley
Michael Binkley is a fictional character in Berke Breathed's cartoon strip Bloom County.Michael, known to all simply as 'Binkley,' is a 10-year-old boy who lives at the Bloom County Boarding House with his father Tom . Binkley is in the same class as Milo Bloom, his best friend...
bringing home what he thought was a German Shepherd
German Shepherd Dog
The German Shepherd Dog , also known as an Alsatian or just the German Shepherd, is a breed of large-sized dog that originated in Germany. The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of dog, with its origin dating to 1899. As part of the Herding Group, the German Shepherd is a working dog...
, which turned out to be a penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
, much to the disappointment of his father. After being featured in a few strips, the character was dropped for several months, before being gradually re-introduced in January, 1982, and eventually becoming a central character in Bloom County. Opus' popularity quickly grew until he became the signature character of Bloom County and of Breathed's subsequent comic strips.
Opus' appearance changed since his inception - he originally looked like a common penguin, but between 1982 and 1986 his nose grew dramatically (developing its signature bump in the middle, of which Opus is very self-conscious). Mike Binkley, during one Sunday strip, points out the fact that Opus more closely resembles a puffin
Puffin
Puffins are any of three small species of auk in the bird genus Fratercula with a brightly coloured beak during the breeding season. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among...
, a revelation which shocks Opus. (In the final panel of the same strip, Opus responds by telling Binkley that he looks like a carrot.) Opus says he is attracted to "svelte buoyant waterfowl".
He is usually seen wearing a bow tie
Bow tie
The bow tie is a type of men's necktie. It consists of a ribbon of fabric tied around the collar in a symmetrical manner such that the two opposite ends form loops. Ready-tied bow ties are available, in which the distinctive bow is sewn into shape and the band around the neck incorporates a clip....
and collar, though he sometimes switches to a diagonally striped necktie
Necktie
A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
when running for public office. Beginning in Outland during the 1990s, he is also occasionally seen inexplicably wearing white briefs
Briefs
Briefs are a type of short, tight underwear and swimwear, as opposed to styles where the material extends down the legs.In the case of men's underwear, briefs, unlike boxer shorts, hold the wearer's genitals in a relatively fixed position, which make briefs a popular underwear choice for men who...
.
Opus once mentioned his height during an interview for "The bureau of nosy statistics." In this comic strip he said that his height is two feet eleven inches.
Notable storylines
According to Opus' back story, he is from the Falkland IslandsFalkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
, How he got from there to Bloom county is explained in "The Night Of The Mary Kay Commandos". He was separated from his mother at a young age, and much of his personality is therefore enmeshed in his sense of abandonment and yearning for a mother figure. There is never any mention of Opus' father if he ever knew him.
Over the years Opus has served as Steve Dallas
Steve Dallas
Steve Dallas is a fictional character in the American comic strips of Berke Breathed, most famously Bloom County in the 1980s.He was first introduced as an obnoxious frat boy in the college strip The Academia Waltz, which ran in the University of Texas's Daily Texan during 1978 and 1979...
' legal secretary, journeyed to Antarctica in search of his mother, played the tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
in heavy metal group Deathtöngue (later renamed Billy and the Boingers
Billy and the Boingers
Billy and the Boingers is a fictional heavy metal rock band from the comic strip Bloom County, originally known as Deathtöngue.Most of the Deathtöngue saga is contained in the Bloom County collection Billy and the Boingers Bootleg, which included a flexi-disc containing what were apparently two...
), wooed (and was briefly married to) an abstract sculptor named Lola Granola
Lola Granola
Lola Granola, also known as Fatima Struggle, is a fictional character in the comic strips Bloom County and Opus by Berkeley Breathed.Lola, a free spirited hippie and abstract artist, is the unlikely fiancée of Opus the Penguin...
, worked as a newspaper personals editor, lifestyle columnist and comic strip writer, had brief, experimental stints employed as a farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, garbageman and even a cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
(or, as he called it, a stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
, which he would also be at one point), and run for vice president
Vice president
A vice president is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name comes from the Latin vice meaning 'in place of'. In some countries, the vice president is called the deputy president...
on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket, along with his running mate Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat, or Bill D. Cat, according to the final Outland strip, is a fictional cat appearing in the works of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, beginning with the comic strip Bloom County in the 1980s and continuing in Outland and Opus in the following decades...
.
In the tradition of many other popular characters, Opus apparently died (while unwillingly brought along on a balloon expedition to Washington, DC, to zap the ambassador from apartheid-era South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
with a ray that would temporarily turn him black) only to return with amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
. He later regained his memory after being in a state of intense and total shock; he heard an erroneous report that Diane Sawyer
Diane Sawyer
Lila Diane Sawyer is the current anchor of ABC News' flagship program, ABC World News. Previously, Sawyer had been co-anchor of ABC Newss morning news program, Good Morning America ....
(on whom he had an enormous crush) had married Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
. Another story line led Opus, in search of his mother, to a Mary Kay Cosmetics
Mary Kay
Mary Kay, Inc. is a privately held company that sells skin care and cosmetics products. Mary Kay World Headquarters is located in Addison, Texas, United States, a Dallas suburb. Mary Kay Ash founded Mary Kay Inc. on Friday, September 13, 1963...
testing building, which he was shocked to find out was cruelly using animals as test subjects for various cosmetics. Another memorable story line featured Opus being the subject of moral scorn as a perpetrator of "penguin lust". He fled Bloom County, and was absent for a long time, eventually reappearing lost in the desert, before his mother came to him in a hallucination and told him to return to his home. In another story, Opus wrote an autobiography, A Penguin's Story, which nobody bought. Milo Bloom
Milo Bloom
Milo Bloom is a fictional character in the American comic strip Bloom County. He was originally the main character, but was soon overshadowed by his best friend Michael Binkley and later on by Opus the penguin.-In Bloom County:...
later rewrote the memoir, exaggerating and fabricating most of it, in his typical fashion. The new, scandalous memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, entitled Naked Came I
Naked Came I
Naked Came I is a bestselling 1963 historical novel by David Weiss based on the life of sculptor Auguste Rodin.Naked Came I portrays Rodin as a born artist who was driven to be an artist because his desire and temperament would allow him to be nothing else...
, became a bestseller in the Bloom County universe, leading Opus to even more notoriety than he had as Bill the Cat's running mate.
A major failing of Opus is his inability to resist the temptations of television infotainment
Infotainment
Infotainment is "information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers." It is a neologistic portmanteau of information and entertainment, referring to a type of media which provides a combination of...
commercials, a la Ronco
Ronco
Ronco is an American company that manufactures and sells a variety of items and devices, most commonly those used in the kitchen. Ron Popeil founded the company in 1964, and commercials for the company's products soon became pervasive and memorable, in part thanks to Popeil's personal sales pitches...
, with the result being that he is frequently seen receiving crateloads of useless and arcane kitchen utensils such as "turnip
Turnip
The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock...
twaddlers".
Opus also has a very amusing (but somewhat unfortunate) history of "losing parts"; on several occasions, his "fanny
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
" has fallen off (often with a clanking sound on the floor), and he has also had instances where his nose droops or is taken completely off as a result of sneezing while using dental floss and so on. Sometimes these are combined; he has had either his nose and rear end fall off, or his nose droop while his rear end has fallen off, and so on. He eventually learned that his navel was in fact the screw that attached his rear end to his body.
Opus appeared in the Berkeley Breathed
Berkeley Breathed
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 that dealt with sociopolitical issues as understood by fanciful characters and through humorous analogies...
Christmas children's book, A Wish for Wings That Work
A Wish for Wings That Work
On December 13, 1991, an animated special was released. It was directed by Skip Jones and was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio for Universal Cartoon Studios...
. It was later turned into a cartoon.
Post–Bloom County
Opus was the second Bloom County regular to appear in the Sunday-only Outland strip, after Outlands original protagonist, Ronald-Ann SmithRonald-Ann Smith
Ronald-Ann Smith was a character in Berkeley Breathed's comic strips Bloom County and Outland.Named after Ronald Reagan, Ronald-Ann was a young African American girl "from the wrong side of the trax" in Bloom County. Appearing late in the strip's run, Ronald-Ann was presented as a polar opposite of...
. He also appeared in some of Breathed's children's books, including A Wish for Wings That Work
A Wish for Wings That Work
On December 13, 1991, an animated special was released. It was directed by Skip Jones and was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio for Universal Cartoon Studios...
and Goodnight Opus
Goodnight Opus
Goodnight Opus is a 1993 children's book by Berkeley Breathed featuring Opus the Penguin.Goodnight Opus is a take-off of the popular Goodnight Moon children's book; this book actually begins with Opus being read Goodnight Moon by a maternal nanny figure while he sits in bed in his pink pajamas...
.
Eight years after Outland ended, Opus returned in a second Sunday-only strip simply titled Opus
Opus (comic strip)
Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland....
, in 2003. The first few strips showed Opus's discontent living in Antarctica with his overbearing mother. A misdirected Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
probe happened to give him the means to return to Bloom County, where he set about looking for his old friends. To date, he has been reunited with four — Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat
Bill the Cat, or Bill D. Cat, according to the final Outland strip, is a fictional cat appearing in the works of cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, beginning with the comic strip Bloom County in the 1980s and continuing in Outland and Opus in the following decades...
, Steve Dallas, and (on June 3, 2007), Michael Binkley
Michael Binkley
Michael Binkley is a fictional character in Berke Breathed's cartoon strip Bloom County.Michael, known to all simply as 'Binkley,' is a 10-year-old boy who lives at the Bloom County Boarding House with his father Tom . Binkley is in the same class as Milo Bloom, his best friend...
and Oliver Wendell Jones
Oliver Wendell Jones
Oliver Wendell Jones is a fictional character in Bloom County, Outland and Opus, three comic strips by American cartoonist Berkeley Breathed.-Fictional character biography:...
.
According to the July 10, 2005 edition of the Opus
Opus (comic strip)
Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland....
comic strip, Opus lived at 996 Melba Lane, presumably in Bloom County.
Opus appears on the label of Honest Tea
Honest Tea
Honest Tea is a bottled organic tea company based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff. On February 5, 2008, the Coca-Cola Company announced its purchase of a 40% stake of the company at $43 million....
's Peach Oo-la-long tea.
Ending
On October 6, 2008, Berkeley Breathed announced that he would retire the character on November 2. He added that "I'll be leaving Opus in a way that it should be very clear that this time there's no going back home" and that he felt "unrealistically emotional" about drawing the final Opus strip and writing a final ending.In the November 2, 2008 strip, Opus leaves the comic world forever and sleeps happily in bed in the children's book Goodnight Moon
Goodnight Moon
Goodnight Moon is an American children's book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It was first published in 1947, and is a highly acclaimed example of a bedtime story. It is about a child saying goodnight to everything around: "Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight...
. The last panel at one point could be viewed online, at http://www.humanesociety.org/opus.
An archive of the last comic strip can be found here: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2008/11/04/berkeley-breath/
External links
- Berkeley Breathed's website
- Opus archive at washingtonpost.com