Phil’s Filings

004 - A Wish I Didn’t Know I Made

Originally uploaded by SkyJammer

When I was growing up, Bloom County was one of my favorite comic strips. No, check that — it was my favorite comic strip. I started reading it in 1984, when the Banana Jr. 6000 appeared. Come the summer of 1985, I was clipping it from the newspaper on a daily basis. The Banana Jr. didn’t appear all that much after a while, but Opus the Penguin grew on me, so much so that he became my favorite character.

I loved Opus. A lot. I have Opus books, Opus shirts, Opus calendars, Opus mugs, Opus dolls, Opus ornaments — lots and lots of Opus stuff.

Back in 1991, I was excited to learn that Opus and Bill would be in a Christmas special — A Wish for Wings that Work. I taped it and watched it repeatedly. It aired again in 1992 — and then vanished, never to be shown on TV.

It came out on VHS in the mid-1990s, and I bought it. Back in 2001, when Michael Bell appeared at BotCon, I got his signature on the case, since he voiced Opus.

And last year, I found out that Berke Breathed didn’t really like the special. So I figured it would never appear on DVD.

But a few days ago, I read on Jenn Dolari’s LiveJournal that she received a copy of it on DVD for Christmas.

What’s that? Could it be real? Or was it a VHS copy that had been burned to DVD?

Well, she told me Universal put it out on DVD this past year. So I checked Best Buy, and they had it on their website. I went there after dinner and got it for $13.

It has no extras — just the special and subtitles.

But I don’t care. I have my Opus Christmas special on DVD. And that makes me very happy.

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