MR. BREATHED'S OPUS
Phil Frank Sunday, November 23, 2003
The scene: a corner table at John's Grill on a recent damp day. Media folk kibbitz over crustaceans while two cartoonists have a chance for a little one-on-one, a rare treat because they are separated by a great distance.
Besides questions being answered, pens are drawn and characters rendered to illustrate, literally, various points. Berkeley Breathed is difficult to corner, even when sitting in a corner. But in this cartoonist-to-cartoonist chat -- one of the few, and very infrequent, interviews he's giving -- he gives us a small peek inside one humorist's psyche as we celebrate his return to the Sunday comics pages after an 8-year hiatus.
Phil Frank: Are you back because you felt that at this point the world needed Opus, or were you missing your bully pulpit?
Berkeley Breathed: The world needs Opus? Right, it needs him like a fish needs that nerdy electric Segway scooter. Or heck, like a human needs a Segway.
Rather, it's what Opus needs. Which is finishing. Unfinished characters make me as unsettled as a messy hallway will keep my wife from sleeping soundly..
Q: There's not a lot available about your background, Berke. But readers are interested in the creators of the features they enjoy. Give them, if you would, a little information about yourself.
A: Don't hafta. Can't make me..
Q: You have pulled a bit of a coup by not allowing any of the papers that have purchased your Sunday strip to actually see the feature before it appears.
Explain why you did this.
A: Because of the damn Internet and the snarky little office imps -- especially ones around newsrooms -- who feel they need to upload everything they can get their sticky little digital digits on. It's more fun if you didn't see the next two months of cartoons in advance all over the Web, wouldn't you agree? Say yes..
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/23/PKGJF32J551.DTL