Berkeley Breathed

Cutter John is a fictional character in the 1980s comic strip Bloom County by Berke Breathed. Cutter, a wheelchair-user and Vietnam War veteran was one of the county's most well-liked citizens. Despite being somewhat childish and awkward at times, he was very popular with the ladies, particularly... schoolteacher Bobbi Harlow. Cutter also was a good friend to many of the animal characters of Bloom County, often role-playing Star Trek with them . Cutter claims he was injured outside Quang-Tri in 1969, in a booby-trapped tunnel. He says that three of his buddies risked their lives to save him. Because he was inside a tunnel, he probably was a tunnel rat during the war. In one story arc, he and Opus the Penguin were lost at sea while attempting to cause havoc at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. . Having blown off course and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, Cutter was captured by a Soviet submarine and held as a spy.
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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. Bill also appeared in some of... Breathed's illustrated children's books, including A Wish for Wings That Work, which was also made into an animated Christmas television special, and also on greeting cards and other sundry merchandise. The cat's most frequent spoken sentiments are "Ack!" and "Thbbft!", unlike most other animals in Breathed's work, who not only can speak English, but have advanced vocabularies. The former is a result of his regularly choking on hairballs, the latter sound an approximation of the "raspberry". Bill the Cat is commonly seen as a parody of Jim Davis' Garfield . Breathed has also described Bill as his attempt to create a character so repulsive that it would have absolutely no merchandising potential.
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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. Opus was originally introduced in June, 1981, as a one-time gag about hapless Mike Binkley 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 .
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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. Milo is the most worldly and cynical of all the characters; he is seemingly the only... county resident who cares about politics and goings-on in the world outside his small town. He lives in the Bloom County Boarding House with his grandparents, Major Bloom and Bess Bloom. Said grandparents run the boarding house where most of the characters live. Milo is also a reporter for the Bloom Beacon and later the Bloom Picayune, where he engages in controversial reporting . In early strips, he regularly bothers Senator Bedfellow with ridiculous questions, asking for confirming accusations , and attempting to convict him for virtually anything, although Bedfellow is not his only target.
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