Bloom County by Berke Breathed

Bloom County

A political commentary and satire starring the residents of a small-town boarding house. Characters include Milo, a ten-year-old newspaper editor, his pop culture-obsessed friend Binkley, womanizing lawyer Steve, wheelchair-bound veteran Cutter John, Bill the (mostly braindead), and Opus, a naive and optimisitic penguin. Throughout the strips they run for president, form heavy metal bands, protest unfair treatment of comic strip characters, die, come back to life, and generally lampoon 1980s politics. It is available online at gocomics.com.

Appeal: Political humor, 1980s pop culture references, absurdism, talking animals, satire adults.

Art: Dynamic expression and composition, fine use of color in Sunday strips.

Textual style: Sarcastic, ironically juvenile, loquacious.

Other: Steve and Cutter John starred in Berke Breathed's earlier comic The Academia Waltz. Breathed followed Bloom County's run with two related strips, Outland and Opus.

Awards: Breathed won the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning in 1987. 

Breathed, Berke. Tales Too Ticklish To Tell: Bloom County. Boston : Little, Brown, 1988. Print.

Dilbert by Scott Adams

Dilbert

A gag-a-day strip about computer engineers at the office. Characters include the titular Dilbert, his lazy coworker Wally, his more competent coworker Alice, their a clueless boss, Dilbert's megalomaniacal dog Dogbert, and various stereotyped professions (the accounting department, for example, is staffed by trolls). Dilbert has visited Elbonia, a technologically disadvantaged country waist-deep in mud; weathered his own dog's hostile takeover of his company; and struggled to find a woman interested in dating an engineer. It is available online at Dilbert.com.

Appeal: Work humor, sarcasm, cute animals in absurd situations, working life, for adults, revenge fantasies

Art: Absolutely clear lines, static, almost copy and paste.

Textual style: Sarcasm, pointing out the obvious to the oblivious.

Other: Scott Adams worked in banking and for AT&T for many years, office experiences that inspired Dilbert. He won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 1997.

Awards: 1997 Harvey Award for best syndicated comic strip. 1998 Max & Moritz Prize for best international comic strip. 1996 and 1997 Zombie Award for best comics strip.

Adams, Scott. Casual Day Has Gone Too Far. Kansas City, Mo. : Andrews And McMeel, 1997. Print.