The Bill the Cat Story: A Bloom County Epic

The heart wants what the heart wants, and in this origin story readers learn that Binkley, the human fulcrum of Breathed’s Bloom County, really wanted a cat that looks like it’s suffering from a combination of the world’s worst hangover and the world’s worst hair ball. But the newly named Bill (“it rhymed with daffodil and landfill, which somehow felt perfect”) has another interim destiny before becoming Binkley’s pet, and it’s almost Dickensian. Snatched from Binkley’s hands, Bill obliviously bounces from a role as a “North Pole sled cat” to becoming a snack for extraterrestrials—until the aliens mistake Bill for Garfield (one of Bloom County’s longest-running jokes) and deposit him back on Earth, setting in motion a reunion with Binkley. Opus, kindhearted to a fault as always, plays a small but crucial role, giving Bill a pair of smiley-face tighty whities that prove key to the happy ending. Unless readers are fanatical followers (and granted, there are plenty of those), the overall impact of this book is as ephemeral as a “Thbbft,” and mostly offers a chance to appreciate Breathed’s extravagantly rendered artwork in luscious color. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)