The Academia Waltz was Berke Breathed's first cartoon, published daily from 1978 to 1979 in The Daily Texan at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student. The strip focused primarily on college life, although it sometimes made references to big news stories of the time (such as the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979). Berkeley (Berke) Breathed (last name rhymes with method) is a cartoonist, childrens book author/illustrator, director and screenwriter, best know for his comic strip Bloom County, a 80s era cartoon-comic strip which dealt with socio-political issues, as seen through the eyes of highly exaggerated characters, and humorous... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... The University of Texas at Austin, often called UT or Texas, is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. ... Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station consists of two nuclear reactors, each with its own containment building and cooling towers. ...

Characters

• Steve Dallas was a sleazy fraternity member preoccupied with the pursuit of sex. He became an icon in many circles at the University of Texas, which was not Breathed's intent.
• Kitzi was Steve's girlfriend. She often found ways to bend Steve to her will, a fact not always clear to Steve.
• Rabies was Steve's reluctant canine friend.
• Saigon John was a wheelchair-bound Vietnam War veteran who frequently attended protest marches. He did not often see "eye to eye" with the conservative Steve.

Two of the characters from The Academia Waltz would be resurrected for Breathed's next strip, Bloom County: Steve Dallas and Saigon John (called "Cutter John" in Bloom County). Rabies also became a character early on in the strip, but disappeared around the time that Opus the penguin (who would later become Breathed's most popular character) appeared. Steve Dallas was a fictional unscrupulous lawyer in the 1980s comic strip Bloom County, by Berke Breathed. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The dog is a canine mammal of the Order Carnivora. ... Cutter John is a fictional character in the 1980s comic strip Bloom County by Berke Breathed. ... The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the National Liberation Front (NLF, or Viet Cong) against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its allies — notably the United States military in support of... A veteran refers to a person who is experienced in a particular area, particularly referring to people in the armed forces. ... Bloom County was a popular comic strip by Berke Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980 until August 6, 1989. ... Opus the Penguin is a large-nosed, existentialist penguin, a main character in the Bloom County comic strip series and other works by Berke Breathed. ...

Kitzi later made a guest appearance in Bloom County in 1985, although the character had been altered to be Steve's younger sister rather than his girlfriend. This article is about the year. ...

Collections

Two collections featuring the comic were published. They are currently out of print and extremely rare, or as Breathed's website claims, "EBay is your only hope." [1]. eBay Inc. ...

• The Academia Waltz (1979)
• The Academia Waltz: Bowing Out (1980)

A few Academia Waltz comics were also reprinted in the Bloom County collection Classics of Western Literature (1990).

Universal Press Syndicate offers "Academia Waltz" through their subscription service mycomicspage.com.

External links

• Berkeley Breathed's website
• The Daily Texan - The newspaper where The Academia Waltz was originally printed