The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos
| Company type | Book compilation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Comics |
| Predecessor | Tales Too Ticklish to Tell |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Founder | Berkeley Breathed |
| Successor | Happy Trails! |
| Products | Bloom County comic strip compilations |
The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos represents the seventh compilation of the Bloom County comic strip series authored by Berkeley Breathed, released in 1989 through Little Brown & Co. This volume succeeds Tales Too Ticklish to Tell and precedes Happy Trails!. Notably, it incorporates "smell-o-toons" designed to complement the Mary Kay narrative, allowing readers to lift a flap and experience a scented strip.
Summaries of Key Story Arcs
- Opus is pressured into accepting the 1988 Meadow Party vice-presidential nomination while presidential hopeful Bill the Cat remains incapacitated. Campaign funds come from the United Cocaine Smugglers. (p1, 8 strips)
- The father of Binkley, a staunch Democrat, wrestles with skepticism regarding Jesse Jackson's electability, whereas Oliver's father extends forgiveness on behalf of African Americans. (p3, 5 strips)
- A new figure, Milquetoast the Cockroach, disrupts Opus’s speeches with heckling and inserts subliminal messages into characters’ dreams. (p5, 7 strips)
- Steve Dallas discloses that his father has been alive but mistakenly treated as laundry by his mother, who has remarried several times. (p8, 3 strips)
- Romantic entanglements arise as Bill the Cat dates socialite Cornelia Guest, inciting jealousy from former partner Jeane Kirkpatrick. After receiving a machine gun from the NRA, Bill wreaks havoc in his neighborhood. (p10, 9 strips)
- The intoxicated frontrunner Spuds Mackenzie collides with Mother Teresa’s vehicle; ensuing scandals prompt Budweiser to replace him with the Care Bears. (p15, 6 strips)
- Opus tries smoking to seek excitement but ultimately quits due to societal disapproval. (p23, 9 strips)
- Oliver competes against Stephen Hawking in pursuit of a Grand Unification Theory. (p26, 5 strips)
- After a Supreme Court decision prohibits male-only clubs, Bloom County introduces female character Rosebud the Basselope, following controversy involving existing characters. (p28, 29 strips)
- Character introduction: Ronald-Ann Smith. (p43, 2 strips)
- The Republican Un-American Tendencies Committee brands Opus a "liberal," resulting in his removal from the Meadow Party ticket and replacement by an ultraconservative figure. (p44, 10 strips)
- Opus attempts agriculture but endures a $37 million deficit; government aid rescues his farm. (p48, 7 strips)
- The media uncovers that Bill the Cat served with the Canadian National Moose Mounties during the Vietnam War. (p52, 4 strips)
- Oliver creates "Dr. Oliver's Cat-Sweat Scalp Tonic," a deodorant that stimulates hair growth; after its prohibition and emergence as a black-market item, Congress legalizes it to curb crime. (p54, 27 strips)
- Opus locates his mother alive within a cosmetics laboratory and observes animal testing at Mary Kay; caught amid clashes between Mary Kay Commandos and animal rights activists, he is ultimately freed into a 7-Eleven ice machine. This storyline reportedly influenced Mary Kay's 1989 decision to suspend animal testing. (p68, 19 strips)
- On election day, following Albert Goldman's exposé on Bill the Cat, the Meadow Party adds Walter Mondale to their ticket but is defeated by George H. W. Bush. Milo Bloom’s unethical strategies fail to secure victory. (p78, 18 strips)