Bloom County (May 14, 1981)
by Guy Berkeley (Berke) Breathed (1957-)
7 x 18 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

The second appearance of Michael Binkley, and the first in a full character reveal.

While he was an ink-slinging student at UT-Austin, Breathed got noticed by The Washington Post, and he was recruited to do a nationally syndicated strip. A 1987 Pulitzer winner, he is known for Bloom County, Outland, and Opus.

Bloom County premiered on December 8, 1980 and ran through August 1989. It was revived in 2015.

Steve Dallas and Michael Binkley were both introduced in May 1981.

Binkley is the first recurring child character, after Milo Bloom, to appear in the strip.

As seen here, Binkley (who first appeared May 14 and gets his first name on May 18) originally appeared as a player on Milo’s elementary school football team. The coach is Major Bloom, who uses the team to live out his fantasy of being a great military commander. Binkley is originally depicted as a stereotypical nerd; he is much smaller than the other children and has thick glasses, bad skin, and messy hair. He has about 8 total appearances in May, and then a week later (June 8, 1981), the more familiar poofy-haired version of the character appears for the first time.

We presume these two Binkley’s are the same character, although a kid who looks like the one depicted here shows up once, on June 23.

See the additional images and judge for yourself.

May 12, 1981 (2 days before)

May 14, 1981 (as printed)

June 8, 1981

June 23, 1981

“Bringing Up Father” (July 28, 1942)
by George McManus (1884-1954) and Zeke Zekley (1915-2005)
23.25 x 5.75 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

In 1904, young George McManus was hired by Pulitzer’s New York World as a cartoonist. While he was there he created such strips as The Newlyweds, which comics historians consider the first family comic strip. In 1912, William Randolph Hearst hired McManus away to start a comic strip about a guy called Jiggs, a lower class man who came into a lot of money. With their new wealth, Maggie, Jiggs’ wife, wanted to enter the upper crust of society but Jiggs just wanted to hang out with his old friends at the local bar playing cards and pool and eat his simple favorite foods. This is the classic strip Bringing Up Father.

McManus had masterful line work with a strong deco feel to his designs. Over time, he developed the recurring motif of animating the background paintings in certain panels, and this is generally delightful.

The whimsy in the funny papers often sits in sharp contrast to the news of the day.

Earlier in July (July 4), the mass murder, by gassing, of Jews held at Auschwitz had begun. The Soviets had begun to press the Germans on the Eastern Front (Stalingrad) and the Italians at El Alamain (North Africa). On the 28thh, Stalin, seeking to reinforce the patriotic Soviet spirit, issued the famous Order 227. It’s key phrase “Not one step back!” would become a rallying cry throughout the rest of 1942 and into 1943.