Bloom County/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Note that this list also applies to the strip's spin-offs, Outland and Opus.

Milo Bloom

The star of Bloom County from its earliest days, Milo was the group's Only Sane Man, though he could be goofy as the rest of his friends when the situation called for it. Also a dedicated journalist with a habit for completely making up stories stretching the truth.

  • Almighty Janitor: Has a lot of pull at the Bloom Beacon despite being the intern and later copy boy.
    • It helps that the Chief Editor is a jittery wreck trying from trying and failing to hold off his yellow-journalism impulses, and thus spends much of his time hunched on his desk in agony as Milo temps him.
  • Characterization Marches On: See below.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Early in the strip, to the point of having a crush on Betty Crocker. He mellowed out with time but still has traces of it.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Intrepid Reporter: Parodied.
  • Lurid Tales of Doom: What he publishes in most of his articles for the paper.
  • Only Sane Man: For most of the strip, especially in the Meadow Party storylines.
  • Put on a Bus: He wasn't in Outland or Opus. (Though he did have a nonspeaking cameo in one of the last Outland strips...as a passenger on a bus!)
  • The Short Guy with Glasses

Opus

An anxious, lovable penguin and the main character for most of Bloom County and its two sequel strips (Outland and Opus). Opus is very nervous and often forced into situations he'd rather not be in; he is also a sucker for late night TV ads. He was also on a quest to find his mother for some of the duration of Bloom County and Outland, finding her at the end of the latter. But then he promptly fled in Opus when he found her insufferable.

  • Butt Monkey: Forced into doing a lot of things and treated like crap by the world a good chunk of the time.
  • Breakout Character / Ensemble Darkhorse: Opus was originally only supposed to appear for a few weeks, but both the fans and Breathed himself loved the character so much, he quickly became a regular and eventually the main character. "Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts" was arguably his breakout.
  • Everything's Better with Penguins
  • Interspecies Romance: Was engaged to human Lola Granola for at least a year and has gone on dates with other human women.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: After he and Cutter John disappeared over the ocean, he returned with regular amnesia. But after a while his normal personality and memories returned but what happened to Cutter John was unknown.
    • Luckily months later, a false claim that Eddie Murphy was marrying Opus' crush Diane Sawyer shocked him enough to jar his memory.
  • Missing Mom: A recurring theme in Bloom County and Outland.
  • My Beloved Smother: See Wanting Is Better Than Having below.
  • Put on a Bus: Twice. The first time he and Cutter John were lost at sea and presumed dead and he came back with amnesia. Then later in the strip, after Bill became Fundamentally Oral Bill, he was kicked out of the Boarding House by the converted house members after Bill decried "Penguin Lust" on TV. He came back later after Bill stopped being popular and stayed ever since.
  • Retcon: He used to be Binkley's pet.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With every single character except Binkley, though it's mostly one sided.
  • Wanting Is Better Than Having: Opus searched all of Bloom County and Outland for his mother only to find out she was overly controlling and tried to force him to marry a large, repulsive penguin named Eunice.

Bill The Cat

The second most famous character.

  • Anthropomorphic Shift: Became taller and longer-limbed over time. The trope was inverted as well, as Bill also gradually stopped speaking in anything but grunts and "ack"s and suffered a major drop in intelligence.
  • Back From the Dead: Thanks to Oliver cloning him from his only remains (His tongue).
  • Breakout Character: Created by Breathed as the least marketable character possible, he ended up with tons of merchandise.
  • The Chew Toy
  • Expansion Pack Past
  • Fat Cat: In any of the early strips.
  • Kavorka Man: Especially in Outland.
  • Overly Long Tongue
  • The Unintelligible: he only speaks coherently every once in a while. Usually he says little more than "ACK."
  • Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: He has been a lot of things, including a TV star, heavy metal frontman, dead, Meadow Party Presidential candidate, Rajneesh cultist, communist, evangelist and Donald Trump. (And that's just in the Bloom County canon...)

Michael Binkley

A wide eyed idealist and Milo and Opus' best friend. Lived with his dad Tom, who he clashed with with their polar opposite personalities. Also has a closet full of anxieties.

  • Breakout Character: Went from a nerdy Klinger to one of the main characters.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Especially early on.
  • Future Loser
  • Last-Name Basis: His real name is Michael Binkley, but even his dad calls him Binkley.
  • Missing Mom: Ran away with a Hell's Angel about 2 years after Binkley first appeared.
  • The Pollyanna
  • Retcon: By the beginning of Opus, Binkley had apparently aged into a teenager, had a disastrous first kiss, and had become a Tibetan eunuch. He returned in a later comic, unaged, with zero explanation.

Steve Dallas

A scumbag lawyer with murderers as his almost exclusive clientele, Dallas is a dedicated Republican, drinker, smoker, and womanizer. He's also Breathed longest lasting character, starting with his college strip The Academia Waltz. He is the only character to be in every single one of Breathed's strips. Later had his personality flip-flopped to become a sensitive guy, then flipped back.

Oliver Wendell Jones

The resident nerd of the area. Both a dedicated hacker and mad scientist.

Cutter John

A war veteran. He relies on a wheelchair to get around. Well liked by everyone and dated Bobbi until she left the cast.

Portnoy and Hodge Podge

Respectively, a groundhog and jackrabbit who sometimes hang out with Milo, Binkley and Opus. Early on, they also hung out with a couple other animals, including an unnamed bear.

Rosebud

A basselope (basset hound/antelope) who appeared late in the Bloom County run.

Ronald-Ann Smith

A young black girl from the "wrong side of the tracks" during Bloom County. Became the main character during Outland before Opus took over and eventually disappeared from the strip entirely.

Bobbi Harlow

A 20-something feminist teacher who was a main character during Bloom County's early years. Eventually became less and less important until she up and disappeared from the strip. Dated Steve and then Cutter John.

Lola Granola

Opus' fiance for about a year in Bloom County. Was a modern artist with a personality opposite Opus'.

Yaz Pistachio

Bobbi Harlow's teenage niece, who only appeared in the comic in 1983.

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