If you remember Bill the Cat and Opus the Penguin fondly, you’ll want to check out the Bloom County Digital Library! Right now, volumes 1 – 3 are on sale for $6.99 each.
Editor’s Note: some negative reviews on Volume 1 complain that the text in the strips is too small to read and cannot be enlarged, but when I downloaded a sample I found there’s just one strip per “page” and the text is easily legible, even with my astigmatic eyes. If you want to be sure, just try downloading the sample(s) first.
– April L. Hamilton
Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 1 (3.5/5 stars)
Specially formatted digital edition! Collecting every strip from December 8, 1980, through December 31, 1981, in chronological order, with a new cover insert by Breathed.
Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County burst onto the American comic scene in December 1980 and it soon became one of the most popular comic strips of all time. The endearing and quirky denizens of the strip included Milo Bloom, Steve Dallas, Michael Binkley, Cutter John, Bill the Cat, and Opus the Penguin.
Bloom County was a strip that dealt with many issues relevant to the period. Occasional “Context comments” are added throughout this collection, giving the reader a greater understanding of the time. This is the first time Bloom County has been collected in a digital library. IDW will add more volumes, one year per volume.
Each newspaper strip is reproduced in chronological order from first to last. Great effort has been made to ensure the highest production values are achieved.
Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 2 (5/5 stars)
One Amazon reviewer says:
“If you’ve been following the formatting issues with other entries in this series, I can tell you this– I just downloaded the sample onto my kindle fire , and it is just perfect. The formatting is oriented the proper direction, and the content is actually readable. In fact, some extra care has been taken to give every strip a nicely designed setting.”
“So, Breathed’s genius comics in a nicely formatted kindle-friendly package. So perhaps they are working their way through to fix things, in which case, be sure to try the sample before you buy the particular volume. If properly formatted, this is well worth your time and money.”
Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 3 (4.5/5 stars)
One Amazon reviewer says:
“For me this was when his comic came into its own. I was reading this and Calvin and Hobbes at the time, and these were classics. The humor is a bit snarky which makes for fun reading. If only Amazon could get its act together and get Vol. 4, 5, and 6 in the same format as the first three then I would buy them. That was the heyday of Bloom County.”