Word: bloomingly
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...exactly will the balance be struck? What is a controlled expression of opinion that does not threaten the party's authority? Thousands believed their criticism within bounds when Mao urged freethinking in the mid-1950s campaign known as "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom." Then Deng, whom Mao had / once described as "a needle wrapped in cotton," orchestrated a crackdown that sent many to prison for merely following the Great Helmsman's invitation to criticize...
...Outland" does not even integrate humor and surrealism as well as G.B. Trudeau's "Doonesbury." Breathed's "Bloom County," though funny in its commentary on 1980s culture, was basically "Doonesbury" with funny animals. By the looks of "Outland," Breathed is still playing in Trudeau's shadow. If you want artistic adventurism in the comic pages, look to Trudeau's talking cigarette or his personification of Old Man History. Or look to Zippy the Pinhead. Or look to Life In Hell. Or even to Calvin and Hobbes...
...idea. I would be more amenable to Breathed's intellectualism if he put any care into his drawing. After all, he has a whole week to form a really powerful set images. But "Outland" looks as sketchy and hurried as the worst weeks of "Bloom County." It certainly doesn't measure up to the artistry of "Calvin and Hobbes" in one of its Sunday Spaceman Spiff strips...
BREATHED promised us a lot with this strip. He said he was burned out on "Bloom County," but he has shown no signs of revival in "Outland." It is hard to believe he has made an honest attempt at a new artistic direction. Trudeau and Gary Larson took sabbaticals to save themselves from burnout, but they did not reject their characters. Breathed did. Anyone who owns an Opus T-shirt should feel betrayed...
...best, "Outland" is a very poor parlor trip. At worst, it's "Bloom County" on crack...