As with San Diego I am going to break Long Beach Comic Con down to a few posts as there was too much fun for one post. This post will focus on the coolest part of the convention for me, which was meeting Berkeley Breathead creator of the comic strips Bloom County, Outland and Opus. I can count on one hand the amount of people that were the most influential creators that helped me either want to do what I do or whose work helped me get there once I wanted to do. Berkeley is one of them. I wrote recently of Jack Kirby who taught me personally that no one is small enough to be treated less than another and his art showed me how to move a character around a page in away that it’s hard to believe the illustration is really a static image. With Berkeley I read Opus when I was kid and enjoyed it more than the others for reason that I didn’t know at the time. Now I can look back and see that it was unique on the comic strips page in a way that also made Peanuts, For Better or For Worse in a category all their own. Bloom County though struck a cord in me where now I can see where what I love doing now started reading Bloom County as a kid. The absolute best thing about meeting Berkeley is that he turned out be rather a nice guy actually, something you always should be concerned about when meeting those whose only exposure you’ve had is their work. Thank you Berkeley for being so cool

Berkeley’s work taught me a few things that I’ve only just recently been able to feel comfortable working with to any degree of quality:
- It introduced me to the ensemble cast so that when I was introduced to the true master of it, Jack Benny, I could enjoy it on a completely different level THEN use
it with my own storytelling.
- What you can really do with character design for animals
- That you can have an animal do and say things that you could never get away with if you had a person did or said the same thing.
- It, along with Bugs and the Warner Bros cast, showed me how to make a world like our own but to tweak it the right way to support the punch line.

The ensemble cast
Berkeley Bloom County ensemble cast is something I latched onto when I was a kid and to this day that format is how I like to structure my comic strip stories. It allows a wonderful range of storytelling because what you need a story or a part of a story to be can be embodied in a particular character. It’s a powerful tool for any sustained amount of time you need to stay with a setting, like years and with comic strips. I’ve seen people that try to take one or two characters and make them fit into situations that they just don’t work in, like having Richie Rich work as a dish washer at a burger joint. Unless there’s a very good reason it jumps over so many contrived situations strangled to tell a story you want with a character that really doesn’t fit the situation. With an ensemble cast you don’t have that problem. If you have a lower income uneducated characters in your ensemble roster, you simply drop him / here / it into that gag.

Creature and animal design
What sung to me initially about his work was the animals, creatures and character design. So much of proportions and design can literally show you the characters personality, and animals / creatures have the most flexible range of design to have them BE what you want of them. Berkeley did something amazing with his animals, they were animals AND they had the traits of people too. So many times animals are merely furry people and don’t retain any of the nature that you think would be inherent in being their species. Bekeley’s animals were both animals, as in penguins that loved fish and cat’s that threw up hairballs. They also embodied the elements of people that we could identify and connect with that existed in world much like our own. Their reality and their needs / wants was on like our own only slightly bent to best push that strips punch line: Bill & Opus ran for President in world like the one we live in with all of it’s perils and issues did affected Bloom County’s residents as it did our own. Thus Berkley’s animals had the perfect match that I hope to brining to “And Now Back To The Show” where they are at once very much their kind of animal, but also very much a person whom you can identify with.
It also didn’t hurt that the artwork was very good too.

To create a context for Brethead’s singing on Saturday, let me say that Bloom County started on December 8th, 1980 and Saturday October 3rd, 2009 was his first ever-comic convention appearance of any kind. He’d had book signings but those were for books of which I wasn’t really old enough to enjoy after they were out of print, much less have any concept of attendending such book singings. Thus for me this was a BIG thing for me.



The reason was signing was to promote “Bloom County: The Complete Library Volume One 1980-1982”. This is an important thing, even for fans like me that might have not only have all of his books (Picture link), but in first additions. The reason is that the books previously released are incomplete. To cover a year of strips you’d need to release a 100 plus page book each year with three or more comics per page, something editors thought even his readership thought might not support years ago. The new book will not only have all his Bloom County printed work, but also have extra notes and other goodies.



I bought the first volume of his too be complete set of Bloom County books and also brought a few things for him to sign. The first thing that made a good impression to me was that he wanted to actually talk. I told him how he was an inspiration and how his creature and animal design and writing was something that really affected me. It took him bit by surprise I think and said that it was nice to have a positive effect. Next I produced his first book (first edition too.) I then submitted to him something that not only go a “wow” out of him but a “You still have that?” from the guy behind me in line. It was the record that came with “Billy and the Boingers”. As the record was meant to be removed from the book and played getting the record, and one intact is a rarity.

The panel was amazing. As it was his first he didn’t know what to do so he had a full presentation on his creative process.



That was truly fun for me as it was nice to see how and why he worked. The panel warrants a full post, so instead of me making one I’ll direct you to one and move on (CBR post). It was less a panel and more a seminar on writing and creativity.

This was a result of an editor telling him he could not draw Snoopy's head


Brethead had a second signing after the panel. By the time I got down to the floor they were just capping off the line and I was second to last. I just wanted to say thank you again. When I got up there I did and Breathed said he didn’t know what else to do as he’d signed everything I’ve put in front of him. I said if he would be so kind as to draw a sketch I’d value it highly so he did.



It’s now one of my most valuable sketches, and Breathed turned out to be a really cool guy, which is what really made the experience worthwhile. Thank you Berkeley Brethead for helping me fall in love with the storytelling of the ensemble cast and what you can really do with animals in a strip.

Thank you Berkeley Breathed for being cool when we meet, for a great educational panel, for signing my stuff and for being such an inspiration to me.
Next blog post: Kirby Krackle – a band just for comics and geekdom, but to close this post out here’s some of the more fun and random moments from the first Long Beach Comic Con…

And in the random, but to fun to not to post stuff here's some fun that I captured via the fun of my iPhone.

Jonelle and I when we (briefly) meet Jeph Loeb



An old friend Christy Marie (if you don’t know who she is, just google Christy Marie and Slave Leia)



Attention: Cute Overload

Apparently this is available for purchase if your daughter is the right size and wants to be a Clone Trooper.

View from our booth


Things you only see at a Conventions: Black Bolt playing a guitar while a female Deadpool dances to the music.


And as usual if you want to see our pictures you can check them out the rest of pictures of Breathed's panel on:

Mobile Me Gallery
http://gallery.me.com/theshadowknows#100279&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=13

or Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/topherdavila/sets/72157622547473754/

and for the Long Beach Comic Con in general:

Mobile Me Gallery
http://gallery.me.com/theshadowknows#100279&bgcolor=black&view=grid

or Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/topherdavila/sets/72157622380928175/

Wednesdays post will be a general wrap up of the a band that I've really grown to love that also has complete relevance on this blog "Kirby Krackle" as well as a new "And Now Back To The Show" (finally right?)