On Bloom County, Beetle Bailey, and Garfield

POWERS: I guess you've heard about Berke Breathed dumping his daily strip?
BARRY: Yeah. I really admire him for that. It's like being in one of those movies where at the very end you realize that somebody's a hero and you're a factory worker and you shout, "Yeah!" There are a lot of cartoonists who should have quit a long time ago and stop taking the public's money. If they're not interested in doing their work any more, they should find something else to do and give that space to somebody who really has their heart in cartooning.
POWERS: I think Breathed took a lesson from the cartoonists who have been at it for 30 years and have felt unable to make a change.
BARRY: There are people who have been unable to do it because it's their livelihood; then there are people who have five strips. Who's the guy who does Beetle Bailey?
POWERS: Mort Walker.
BARRY: Yeah. And all those guys who have several strips going and are still proposing new ones -- and they're all terrible! The guy that I will not eat my words about is Jim Davis, who I think ought to go straight to hell on a greased pole. I think he's evil. The content of his strip is horrible and mean and terrible. I think the characters in Garfield are the same jerks that are in the White House. Garfield is a Republican jerk -- that's what he always struck me as: this fat, grouchy -- it's just a horrible, horrible character, and I think Jim Davis is horrible himself for creating this. The licensing is obviously a huge a deal for him. Why this guy has become a sort of cultural hero, I'll never figure out.