Newsmakers

Q&A: Berkeley Breathed

The world's most famous penguin, Opus, can be found almost everywhere--greeting cards, kids' books--except in the newspaper comics pages where he was born. But come November, Opus will be back, starring in his own strip. NEWSWEEK's Brad Stone traded e-mails with Opus's creator, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Bloom County" cartoonist Berkeley Breathed.

It's been eight years since you left the funny pages. Why return?

The women and the money. Alas, money is sparse in today's underheated newspaper world, and the only woman is a little beauty named Sophie-Bean Breathed [his daughter], who can recite the entire first line of Mister Rogers's "Neighbor" song--in a belch.

Tell us about the new strip, "Opus."

It's a Sunday feature hand-painted by me. One tries not to sound snarky--but I can tell you that all other comics are colored in Bangkok by child slaves and orangutans.