Attempting to Avoid the Kids Toy Market: Bloom County Toys
Bloom County, a subtly political cartoon inspired by the subversive Doonsbury, ran for eight years, with characters like the bow-tie wearing penguin Opus, and the questionably alive cat-mess Bill the Cat. For a time in the mid to late 1980s, Bill the Cat and Opus were everywhere, toys, T-shirts, figurines. Ironically, its creator Berke Breathed was unimpressed with the merchandising of cartoon strips, like Garfield’s rampant popularity. He wanted the anti- Garfield. Breathed designed Bill as a joke, making him the least appealing character to turn into a toy. According to Breathed, “The gag, honestly, was to draw a cartoon character that had zero – or even minus – merchandising appeal.” Bill was misshapen, drooling, constantly coughing hairballs and swarming with flies and dirt flecks. Yet Bill captured the toy market, perhaps because of his imperfections. Kids saw themselves in Bill, a complete mess who still managed to function in society.