First off: I *love* Opus. I’m 37 now, and though I remember Bloom County, I was too young to really understand the comic. I was drawn to its artwork, though, as I was similarly drawn to both Outland and Opus.

I hesitate labeling Berk as “old media”, but that’s how he comes across. Listening to the interview, it’s apparent that he’s well aware of his sounding (as he describes) like “the old man waving the cane”. I don’t see Berk as much older than me but when you listen to this interview you can definitely sense a generational gap. It’s obvious that he laments the transformation of media. I’m not saying he’s opposed to changes in technology; he simply doesn’t *seem* to enjoy the democratization of media (referring to it as the “flip side” of what he seems to prefer, which I might describe as the dictatorship of media).

Like Berk, I sometimes wax nostalgic over the days when a work of art could, with the support of various media outlets, become a cultural phenomenon. Yet I prefer these days, and the days yet to come — a time in which Big Media (as some refer to it) matters less. Opus is fantastic but there are some other fascinating comics that are currently delegated to “indie” status because they aren’t receiving exposure in “traditional” Big Media outlets.
Berk knows this but he seems to prefer everyone to be on the same page, for the country to be reading the same comic every Sunday, to be watching the same late night television programming. I don’t think he would dispute this. Unfortunately, times have changed and Berk — an artist, no doubt — wants to be a populist artist and an indie artist at the same time. That is, he wants to appeal to a wide — no, *huge* — audience, yet at the same time exercise his more experimental leanings. Can’t have it both ways, Berk. Love you, man, but you can’t have it both ways.