November 23, 2003

Opus, Where are You?

Today, you could call me Mr. Gump. I stayed up too late last night doing nothing productive. I slept all day and missed the Packers' victory over the 49ers. My obsession with Kings of Chaos has taken a bad turn. I've been yelling at my computer because twice in the last day my army has been attacked and lots and lots of gold has been stolen. Stupid, yes, but it's just added to my irritability. Then the Christamas shopping season is picking up, and my store doesn't have enough workers. I have to run around helping even people who only come during Christmas and can only describe the book they want as "yellow and written by a woman."

What really set me off is a comic strip or lack of one. I haven't wanted the comics section in my Sunday newspaper in years. But today is a special day. Berkeley Breathed brought America's most famous penguin, Opus, back to comics. The Berkeley Breathed website assured me the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel would have it. I pulled the section out and hunted for my favorite water-proof bird. It wasn't at the top of the first page where it deserved to be. I open up the section. Second page? Nope! Third? Nope! Fourth? Fifth? No! Nada! I know, they saved Opus for the last page just so fans wouldn't have to sift throught dreck like Pickles and Hi & Lois. I turn to the last and final page hoping the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel isn't one of the most inept papers in America. Was Opus there making some witty introduction telling the world he's back? That may have been exactly what he did, but I have no idea. Opus is no where to be found. The Journal Sentinel can publish a racist jerk like Aaron McGruder (of the unfunny Boondocks) and old Far Side strips, but not Opus.

(I'm hoping my paper was missing a page of comics because Dilbert wasn't in there either. If that's what happened then my ire goes to the Journal Sentinel's printing department for their incompetence.)

It's bad enough that Opus wasn't in the newspaper, but what's worse is the strip isn't available on the Web. Does the Washington Post (which syndicates Opus) and Breathed think people will subscribe to the paper just for one strip? If so, I'd start short selling Post stock.

I can't comment on Breathed's return to comics because I haven't seen it. I'm left with a bunch of links from Daniel Drezner and this short review from James Joyner:

Let's just say the debut strip wasn't worth the ten year wait.

It's not a good reason to be grumpy, but to bad.

"Opus Lives!"