Portnoy (Bloom County Character)

Portnoy is a character in Berke Breathed's comic strip Bloom County. Portnoy was one of the critters that could talk, and was often surly mouthed and bigoted, usually leading Hodge-Podge, his best friend, to have to cover his mouth. When Bill the Cat became a televangelist denouncing "penguin lust", Portnoy helped run Opus the penguin out of town. The character was named for Portnoy's Complaint, a novel about sexual frustration.

Portnoy changed physically over the years; sometimes into an entirely different animal. It was initially unknown what species he was; sometimes a squirrel, a possum, or a gopher. Finally he was revealed as a groundhog, which he had hidden because Hodge didn't associate with "pigs". Eventually the two made up.

Portnoy and Hodge enjoy human-like entertainment, such as strip bars and playing jokes on others (Portnoy once pretended to be stuffed).

Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County series
Comic strips
  • The Academia Waltz
  • Bloom County
  • Outland
  • Opus
Picture books
  • A Wish for Wings that Work
  • The Last Basselope
  • Goodnight Opus
Collections
  • Loose Tails
  • Toons For Our Times
  • Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things
  • Bloom County Babylon
  • Billy and the Boingers Bootleg
  • Tales Too Ticklish to Tell
  • The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos
Characters
  • Bill the Cat
  • Michael Binkley
  • Milo Bloom
  • Cutter John
  • Steve Dallas
  • Lola Granola
  • Bobbi Harlow
  • Hodge-Podge
  • Oliver Wendell Jones
  • Milquetoast the Cockroach
  • Opus the Penguin
  • Portnoy
  • Ronald-Ann Smith
  • others

Famous quotes containing the word county:

    “I believe the citizens of Marion County and the United States want to have judges who have feelings and who are human beings.”
    —Paula Lopossa, U.S. judge. As quoted in the New York Times, p. B9 (May 21, 1993)