A key character in the early years of the strip, Major Bloom was Milo's jingoistic, right-wing grandfather as well as his custodial guardian. He was initially named "Major P. Flynn" in a very early strip, but was thereafter known as Major Bloom, or more commonly, Major.
The Major frequently had delusions about fighting Nazis and Communists (who usually turned out to be ducks), and tried to lead his grandson "the right way." In his spare time, he was head coach of Bloom County's pee-wee football team (which he used to live out his lifelong fantasy of being a military commander, a la George S. Patton), whose players included Milo and Michael Binkley.
Like most of the strip's original cast of characters, The Major faded from sight around 1983, though he did appear in the short story "The Great LaRouche Toad-Frog Massacre" in the 1986 book Bloom County Babylon.
While he stopped appearing, he and his wife were presumably still present, as they were responsible for running the boarding house where most of the characters lived.
Read more about this topic: Minor Characters In Bloom County
Famous quotes containing the words major and/or bloom:
“Uncle Ben’s brass bullet-mould
And powder horn, and Major Bogan’s face
Above the fire, in the half-light, plainly said
There’s naught to kill but the animated dead;”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Our bloom is gone. We are the fruit thereof.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)