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Berke Breathed interviews    [ Humor ]

Slashdot has a story and some links to new Berke Breathed interviews up.   I've gone through and looked for other previous interviews posted over the past few years:

MSNBC Interview
Deseret News
The Onion AV Club

And some older Slashdot stories on Berke Breathed's interviews:

On the Onion AV Club interview
Scott Kurtz of PvP and Chris Jackson of In2It convince Berke to talk

For me, 1995 was the end of an era.   No more Outland, no more Calvin & Hobbes, no more Far Side.   The cartoons that defined my childhood and adolescence did not go quiet into that dark night, but strived mightily, shone, and voluntarily retired.   Their authors pulled what Michael Jordan wanted to do, only before he did, and with more grace and dignity.

I flip to the comics page now, and find it far more dreary and bleak than it was 10 years ago.   There's some old favorites and new stars like The Boondocks exist, but the soul and sincerity that used to exist in Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes is no more.

Dilbert, though funny, is so mechanical and exploitative (Scott Adams never met a merchandizing deal or a tie-in or profit that he didn't like).

I still read comics, on-line though.   Sluggy Freelance, User Friendly and Penny Arcade are fun, but none have the philosphical depth of Bill Watterson, or the political incisiveness and soft soul of Berke Breathed, or the true oddball sense of humor like Gary Larson.

An era has passed, the last golden era on the comics page, and will not rise again there, I fear.   The future of graphic entertainment lies either on the Internet or in collections and graphic novels, not on a slowly fading mass-media market supplanted by cable and satellite TV, niche magazines and publications, and the all-enveloping force of the 'Net.