Berkeley Breathed and “Mars Needs Moms”
Berkeley Breathed and “Mars Needs Moms”
If you don’t remember the name, you’re forgiven. Somewhat. But odds are you remember his creations. “Bloom County” with Opus (the penguin) and Bill the Cat should be enough to jog the memory. Even though he gave up the grind of a daily comic strip, and went on to Sundays only with “Outland” and then “Opus”, Berkeley Breathed can be forgiven as he has placed himself firmly into the hearts of fans of all ages.
And that was very well demonstrated last Saturday on a stop of his tour to promote his latest effort, a book titled “Mars Needs Moms”. It was a cool morning in Alameda as a good sized group of folks made their way to the Books Inc. location there. Early arrivals were greeted with a display of all of the Berkeley Breathed titles in print waiting to be taken home, after being paid for, of course.
Don’t ask about the giraffe... I don’t know how it relates.
Penguins, I do get.
Especially as that’s the publisher of the new book.
Shortly after 11 a.m. Berkeley Breathed arrived and gave the audience a short explanation of how this book came to be, as well as delving into some of the controversy it has generated, including the loss of his publisher over a particularly important image and story point that he refused to concede. Check out this link to a great interview, along with images and a podcast, from SF Gate.
After a short reading of the first part of the book, Berkeley was able to spend time signing books and more for the very appreciative groups of fans.
Berkeley Breathed and the new book, “Mars Needs Moms”
Among some of those other items folks brought along were a small plush Opus, some strips from various newspapers and the laserdisc copy of “A Wish For Wings That Work”, that being my own. He mentioned that they had seen a number of other folks bringing their laserdisc copies at other stops on the tour. And while it was not a landmark in animation by any means, it was a fun reminder of those glory days of Opus and Bill the Cat. And no news on the DVD front for this title, although he did hope to check in the MCA Universal, just in case...
As a final aside, I mentioned that I had written a story for Jim Hill Media about the video a few years ago. That brought the reply, “Jim Hill? Who is Jim Hill? Does he work for Disney?” If you haven’t seen Jim’s column on the new book, it’s worth a read, especially as it mentions that Disney has acquired the rights to the book.
The book tour went on to another stop in the Bay Area later that day and finished in San Diego, appropriately enough on Mother’s Day, where his mom lives. Even she didn’t get the story of the new book. he hoped to try and explain it again.
Like You To Meet...
Wednesday, May 16, 2007