I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: A HOUSE-Zop (1991).

This is an EP that came out just after I Am the Greatest.  Released only in the UK, I found it used at Amoeba Records (I must have been on an A House binge at the time).

The EP has 6 tracks.  The opener sounds like a slightly remixed version of “You’re Too Young.”  And “Take It Easy on Me” also sounds remixed (the wah wah seems downplayed somewhat, although the song is still strong).

The other tracks are good songs from this experimental period of A House.

But for me the highlight is “When I Last Saw You,” the 5 minute version of “When I First Saw You” from Greatest.  I’d always liked the album versions’ fascinating concision and almost a capella feel.  This version tacks on a proper song, and it changes the song in wonderful ways.  I will always enjoy that short version, but this EP version is really great.

What’s interesting is that there’s virtually no record of this disc on the web.  Even though the A House homepage is known as ZOP.  The site, sadly, has not been updated for two years.  Although it does answer the question of what Dave Couse has been up to since the late 1990s.

[READ: August 22, 2010] Bloom County: Vol. 2: 1982-1984

This volume of the collection covers a lot of the comics that I know very well.  There are a number of strips that I drew (not traced) and hung in my locker in high school (I wasn’t about to cut up Loose Tales, was ?).  It also covers what I think of as my first era of social and political awareness.

I know I wasn’t totally aware of what was going on, but, via punk music mostly, I became aware of criticisms of Reagan.  And to a lesser degree, so does Bloom County.  I’m actually surprised at how apolitical it seems in retrospect.  My recollection was that it was a massively political strip.   And yes, there are a lot of political references, but for the most part it’s sort of political pop culture jokes.  Reagan gets teased a bit (although again less than you might expect), but it’s not the raging left-wingedness that I fondly recall. (That said, the strip is imbued with leftie political ideas, but they’re sort of mellow compared to now).

Rather, the political jokes are aimed at politicians as a class.  And there are commentaries about political events (couched in terms of local politicians, or, more often, in terms of Bloom County’s nonsensical “scandals” that are based on what really happened (although often the real scandals seem as absurd as the Bloom County ones).

Breathed leaves an author’s commentary on a number of the strips (I’d love more, although they are not necessary for most of them).  So he bemoans the occasional dated jokes, but aside from names (and he needed them for topical humor) the jokes stand up very well. The political mudslinging seems, amazingly, just as bad in 1983 as it did in 2008 (well, 2008 seemed worse because it lasted so DAMN LONG).  But it is fairly surprising to see how little the political arena has changed (we tend to think it’s really bad now, but I guess it was always thus).

It’s not all politics though.  I was amazed at Oliver Wendell Holmes and his hacking skills.  I didn’t think people were hacking anything in 1983, how prescient!  (although the 5 inch floppy disc joke is kind of amusing).

Steve Dallas has hit his stride.  Binkley’s anxiety closet comes to the fore.  Opus and Milo work all over the newspaper.  And then of course, there is Bill the Cat.  I remembered Bill as having a much more prominent role in the cartoon.  So far, they trot him out as a merchandising joke once in a while (almost exclusively on Sundays).  And then, (I had forgotten this) his untimely death comes the age of 3 (from acne!).

We all know Bill comes back, mind you.  And, as this volume closes, we’re just getting ready for the next Meadow Party Presidential ticket. (Bill/Opus ’84).

And of course, this collection features the awesome strip that printed the day after The Day After, a movie which impacted a generation like no movie ever will again.  And although that was a scary time, things also seems so much simpler then.  I can’t imagine all of the wild jokes that would come out of the 24/7 scandal culture, and I don’t envy anyone who tries to keep up with them.

I delighted at the strips that I remembered (I must have read Loose Tales 50 times) and I was thrilled by all the ones I had never seen before.  The end of the book contains some outtakes and Odds and Ends, which is a major treat (seeing strips that were modified from print or for the first collection).  Although it would have been awesome if we got to see more of them.

This is a really great collection and totally worth it if you have fond memories of Bloom County. I assume there will be two more volumes (the strip ended in 1989).  Volume 3 is due in November.  And I’ll be there for all of them.