Will 'Opus' Bloom in Comic Sections?

By: Dave Astor Hundreds of feature editors are wrestling with a cartoon penguin.

They're attempting to make room for "Opus," the Sunday-only comic "Bloom County" creator Berkeley Breathed is doing for the Washington Post Writers Group starting Nov. 23 (Syndicate World, Sept. 11). The strip has a half-page format at a time when many papers -- in an effort to save on newsprint costs -- crowd three comics on the first page and five on the inside pages of the Sunday funnies.

Among the papers purchasing "Opus" so far is The Herald in Everett, Wash. Features Editor Melanie Munk said "Opus" will appear on the top of the front page of the Herald's Sunday comics section, bumping two strips to the bottom of the front page. The comics previously on the bottom of the front page will run inside at a smaller size, and two inside comics will be canceled.

Munk said what she has seen of "Opus" makes it "totally worth" dropping two comics to create space for Breathed's new strip. "We purchased it as soon as we found out it was available," she said. "I think it will be as popular as 'Bloom County.'"

The Writers Group doesn't yet have an estimate of how many clients "Opus" will have at launch. Editorial Director/General Manager Alan Shearer did say that many major-market dailies have signed on and that papers "are calling us."

Another client is The Washington Post. "We're planning to run 'Opus,'" said Shirley M. Carswell, assistant managing editor of news administration and planning. "I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to do it yet, but it will probably involve reducing the size of a couple of strips that now run. I don't anticipate dropping anything right now."

Many papers haven't decided if they'll buy "Opus," or even seen the comic yet (the Writers Group is showing it to editors only in person to prevent samples from appearing on the Internet). But, even if they purchase Breathed's strip, few will enlarge their Sunday funnies.

"We would not expand our comics section," said Dan Norman, deputy managing editor/features and sports at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "We would have to shrink comics further or get rid of comics people like." This will be a tough decision, because Norman believes -- based on Breathed's track record -- that "Opus" is "going to be good."

Breathed won a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for "Bloom County," which ran in nearly 1,300 papers before ending in 1989. He also did the Sunday "Outland" from 1989 to 1995, has created a number of children's books, and is working on a film starring Opus.

Pam Dinsmore, assistant managing editor for features and graphics at The Sacramento Bee, said the paper would make room for "Opus" if it liked it enough. "It certainly needs to be worth a half page to run it that large," she noted. Dinsmore said the Bee is making various changes in its comics section, so "Opus" could be accommodated by shrinking some other strips.

Also waiting to see "Opus" this month was Sara Frederick, assistant features editor for production at The Miami Herald. "We're not opposed to running something a half page," she said, recalling that the Herald purchased "The Simpsons" strip. "It depends how good it is."

Other large-format comics haven't caused many papers to expand their Sunday sections. "The Simpsons" was a big comic from the beginning, and lost some potential sales as a result. And when Bill Watterson started a big Sunday "Calvin and Hobbes" in 1992 after more than six years of syndication, most clients shrunk or dropped other strips or used a tabloid half page "Calvin and Hobbes" in broadsheet sections.

"Newspapers fit in 'Calvin and Hobbes,' and they'll fit this in, too," Shearer said of the "Opus" comic.

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Et cetera ...

United Press International named Bill Creighton vice president of global sales and marketing and hired Craig McKinnis as strategic content partnership manager. Creighton started his career at UPI as a news photographer before moving to Reuters for 12 years. McKinnis joins UPI from Kiplinger Washington Editors.
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Editor's note: This November, E&P is scheduled to run its third annual "Features of the Year" spread. If you have any syndicated features you'd like to nominate, please e-mail Dave Astor (at the address below) their names and a brief explanation of why you feel they're having a particularly good 2003. The four categories include best comic, best editorial cartoons, best column, and best feature. The last category can include non-Op-Ed columns, puzzles, children's features, paginated pages, etc.