On August 31, 2008, "the Creator" (Berkeley Breathed) spoke to Opus and hinted that the strip will end soon. The next week, Opus was visited by the ghost of Elvis who told Opus to find a place where he wants to be forever, because he will stay in that one spot after he "dies." e.g., Elvis is condemned to sit on the toilet forever because that's where he happened to be when he died.

Opus tried to fly to a tropical island on September 14, but when he was asked for his passport, he told the ticket clerk that he smuggled himself into the U.S. 30 years ago. He was promptly arrested by airport security whilst screaming, "God Bless George Bush!" Opus was taken to the Department of Homeland Security and waterboarded. The guards told him to, "start talking, Akbar!" Opus complained to "the Creator," saying he couldn't just let the strip end like this. "The Creator" then placed Opus in an animal shelter, and mockingly said, "Happy?" to which Opus replied "NO!!"

The next week, September 26th, 2008, saw Opus bemoaning having to spend his eternity in a county animal shelter. At the behest of a fellow inmate, a scruffy dog, Opus soon began sharing his memories of his past and recounts his life through the run of Breathed's strips. Many shots of him in well known stories from Bloom County are then shown, including Opus saying "bozo" to a politician on the TV in 1981, misunderstanding a money grubbing cultist in 1982, sharing a mass dandelion break with other characters in 1983, his role in the rock band Deathtöngue in 1984, dreaming romantically of Diane Sawyer in 1985 and a current joke about Sarah Palin set in 1986. The strip included a tag at the bottom indicating it would be continued the next week.

At this point, a trio of island-native girls arrive at the shelter; they only have room for one companion to live with them in their paradise. On October 6, 2008, Breathed announced that the strip would end after November 2 that year,^[5] and even decided to do a contest for people to guess what Opus's fate is on BerkeleyBreathed.com. The winner will have $10,000 donated to the animal shelter of their choosing.^[6]

On October 19, 2008, Steve Dallas was shown barging into the Bloom County Animal Shelter's lobby demanding to see Opus, claiming Opus owed him $20. The clerk stationed there informed Steve that Opus had chosen his final eternity and that Steve should do so likewise, and very quickly. The conversation ended with Steve finally realizing he was in a cartoon strip by breaking the fourth wall and asking the clerk who "all those scruffy-looking people [are]." as he looked at the readers, to which the clerk replied, "Probably Democrats at this point," since he did this after dropping his towel, standing naked (but with a black censoring block over his more intimate areas).

The next week, Steve found the tropical island girls and told them to give back Opus. It was then revealed that Opus had let his doggy companion in the shelter go with the girls, said "goodnight," and returned to the kennel. After seeing a vision of former "Bloom County" residents (Milo, Binkley, Oliver, Cutter John, Portnoy, and Bill the Cat) wave goodbye as they rode off into the distance atop Cutter John's wheelchair, Steve walked back to the animal shelter to find nothing but Opus' bow tie and an empty kennel. The final strip showed a glowing light coming from a box inside the kennel.

Steve reaches into the box, and smiles at what he sees. Following a link to the Humane Society (http://www.humanesociety.org/opus, which shows the last panel as part of the $10,000 contest), it shows Steve opening a copy of "Goodnight Moon" and seeing Opus tucked in bed, sleeping peacefully with a mother rabbit watching over him.



WELL Good bye my old cartoon friend I will surely miss my stories with Opus.

Me and this cartoon character grew up together during the 80's. When I was in the 9th grade, I remember reading this silly little cartoon about a Penguin named Opus. I have no idea why I loved this cartoon, it stands for almost everything that i am against but, never the less, I would read it daily and get a huge laugh out of it. I loved the Opus character and even mailed out my Christmas cards with Opus and even had a few Christmas ornaments and I even had a stuffed animal toy of Opus.

On my reward money for the students, some of the bills have Opus the Penguin on them. I know my students have no idea who he is but I like the look of it on my class money.

I am sorry that the cartoon has ended. Charlie Brown said it best, "I need more Hello's in my life"