<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8e3da161-39c8-4c5d-b306-2ba471a54c99/9701EC6B-606B-430B-ACE1-1103E52C84FF/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3" style="font-size: 11px;">www.npr.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3"><H1>Farewell Opus; Hello Pete, The Perfectly Practical Pig</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3"><P><SPAN class="program"><A href="http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2">All Things Considered</A>,</SPAN> <SPAN class="date">October 6, 2008 · </SPAN> This just in: The bowtie-wearing, tuba-playing, onetime vice presidential candidate on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket is headed for that great comic strip in the sky; cartoonist Berkeley Breathed announced today that he is giving up his Sunday comic strip <EM>Opus</EM> to focus on children's books instead. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.npr.org/img/C1DD643B-B7FD-4919-A7F1-FE2F70353979" alt="Berkeley Breathed" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3"><P>That announcement signals the end of Opus, the charming penguin who has entertained comics readers for nearly 30 years, starting with <EM>Bloom County.</EM> Though Breathed has retired the character before, this time, he says, he means it. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3"><P>"I'll be leaving Opus in a way that it should be very clear that this time there's no going back home," says Breathed. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95441421&ps=bb3"><P>Breathed says that he's not usually sentimental about his characters. Still, he found himself "unrealistically emotional" about drawing the final strip, taking pains to make sure the penguin's last pose was perfect. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/9701EC6B-606B-430B-ACE1-1103E52C84FF/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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