Steve Dallas is a fictional character in the American comic strips of
Berke Breathed
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed (; born June 21, 1957) is an American cartoonist, children's book author, director, and screenwriter, known for his comic strips ''Bloom County'', '' Outland'', and ''Opus''. ''Bloom County'' earned Breathed the Pu ...
, most famously ''
Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, whe ...
'' in the 1980s.
He was first introduced as an obnoxious
frat boy
Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America.
Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradu ...
in the college strip ''
The Academia Waltz
''The Academia Waltz'' was Berkeley Breathed's first comic strip, published daily from 1978 to 1979 in ''The Daily Texan'' at The University of Texas at Austin, where he was a student. The strip focused primarily on college life, although it som ...
'', which ran in the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
's ''
Daily Texan
''The Daily Texan'' is the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spring semesters, and it is among t ...
'' during 1978 and 1979. Steve then reappears in ''Bloom County'' after graduation as a self-employed, unscrupulous lawyer.
He was the first character to have been featured in all four of Breathed's comic strips. He appeared regularly, albeit much older, in the Sunday-only ''
Opus
''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.).
Opus or OPUS may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...
''.
On June 12, 2013, Steve Dallas made
guest appearancein ''
Pearls Before Swine''.
In ''Bloom County''
In the early days of ''
Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, whe ...
'', Steve was usually seen hitting on schoolteacher
Bobbi Harlow
Bobbi Harlow is a fictional character in Berke Breathed's comic strip '' Bloom County''.
A schoolteacher, Bobbi is popular among her students, particularly Milo Bloom and Michael Binkley, who both harbored crushes on her. However, the conserva ...
, whom he briefly dated and failed to woo back once she left him for
Cutter John
Cutter John is a fictional character in the 1980s comic strip ''Bloom County'' by Berke Breathed.
Cutter, a Vietnam War veteran using a wheelchair due to paraplegia from a war injury, was one of the county's most well-liked citizens. Despite ...
. He frequently dated Bobbi's dimwitted cousin, Quiche Loraine, to make her jealous (the plan did not work).
Most residents of Bloom County, especially women, either despised him or indifferently tolerated his presence. The one exception was
Opus the Penguin
Opus the Penguin (Opus T. Penguin) is a fictional character created by artist Berkeley Breathed. Breathed has described him as an " existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters.
Opus has appeared in several of Breathed's crea ...
, who idolized him and tagged along with him like a younger brother. Steve often used Opus' hero worship to manipulate the hapless penguin into doing his dirty work (although occasionally Steve was heard to have threatened Opus into helping him instead).
He was often shown to hold strongly
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
political positions (albeit to a lesser extent than in ''The Academia Waltz''), to the extent that the
Reagan White House
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over D ...
's policies were only sometimes enough to satisfy him. (He remarked early in the President's tenure that he thought "
Haig and
the generals should run Reagan and his liberal pack right out of the White House.") However, both he and the other (mostly liberal) characters became less hostile to Reagan's policies as both the strip's run and Reagan's tenure ran on. In another strip, a flashback of Dallas's teenage years showed him reading conservative author
William F. Buckley
William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
's book ''
God and Man at Yale
''God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom"'' is a 1951 book by William F. Buckley Jr., based on his undergraduate experiences at Yale University. Buckley, then aged 25, criticized Yale for forcing collectivist, Keynesian, a ...
''.
Dallas did not, however, seem to hold the traditionalist religious moral principles that were associated with Reagan and his allies on the right at the time, as his womanizing and lack of religious practice would indicate. He once went so far as to say that, "My God. We've got to get
Carter
Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to:
Geography United States
* Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Carter, Montana, a census-designated place
* Carter ...
back in
the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...
" after associating
Ronald Reagan's presidency with the end of the
Sexual revolution and therefore the end of his conquests at "Bob's Bar & Flesh Market". Like most conservatives (and
liberals, and others) portrayed in Breathed's work, Steve's political positions do not appear to stem from actual convictions.
As a lawyer, Steve took on hopeless cases defending
psychotic
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavior t ...
and obviously guilty criminals and murderers, much to the chagrin of his overbearing mother. On one occasion, he ''did'' win a case (his client had allegedly murdered her husband with an
axe
An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...
), but only because the jury cared more about what the woman wore than whether or not she was innocent (at one point, she found a plastic
picnic knife and supposedly tried to make a
fillet
Fillet may refer to:
*Annulet (architecture), part of a column capital, also called a fillet
*Fillet (aircraft), a fairing smoothing the airflow at a joint between two components
*Fillet (clothing), a headband
*Fillet (cut), a piece of meat
*Fille ...
out of a
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
cameraman). A bachelor throughout the entire run of the strip, he was the most aggressive womanizer and most blatant
male chauvinist of all the eligible males in the cartoon.
Outside of the courts, Steve's professionalism was questionable. In one instance he attempts to collect from a past due client by saying "Attention criminal pervert, where the hell is my dough, you twisted goon?". Opus, however, who at the time is working as a
paralegal, writes in the actual letter "We still await payment of your legal fee".
He was briefly the manager of
Billy and the Boingers, a
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drums, backing vocals), Phil Collen (guitar, backing vocals), ...
-esque
glam metal
Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam ...
band consisting of Opus,
Bill the Cat, and Hodge-Podge.
Steve briefly became a different person shortly after he was abducted by
aliens. On board their spaceship, the aliens had originally planned to transplant
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
's brain into Steve's head. However, after Steve threatened the aliens with a
lawsuit, they decided to perform the "Gephardtization" process on him instead, which was the same procedure used previously on then-
U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt to completely reverse opinions and attitudes. After being presumed dead by the residents of Bloom County, Steve was zapped back to earth a few days later. To the whole county's amazement, he was now a sensitive, caring liberal and
feminist. He stopped wearing his trademark sunglasses, quit smoking, got a
perm
Perm or PERM may refer to:
Places
*Perm, Russia, a city in Russia
** Permsky District, the district
**Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005
**Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005
**Perm Governorate, an administra ...
(thinking it made him look like
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...
), and
canvassed for
Jesse Jackson's 1988 Presidential campaign.
This carried on for about a year, until Steve found out that his girlfriend Gladys was cheating on him with the bassist for "
Guns 'n Spittle" and Opus had been using his
toothbrush
A toothbrush is an oral hygiene tool used to clean the teeth, gums, and tongue. It consists of a head of tightly clustered bristles, atop of which toothpaste can be applied, mounted on a handle which facilitates the cleaning of hard-to-reach ar ...
to comb his
nose hair. Devastated, he resolved to forever avenge feminine betrayal, and by doing so, he put his trademark sunglasses back on. He immediately returned to his old, cantankerous self.
During the closing down of ''Bloom County'' in the final days of the strip, Steve seeks employment in other strips. He is seen (in the strip) to land a guest spot in ''
Cathy
''Cathy'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life—food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes f ...
'', much to the title character's horror. (Many years later, in the revived
Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, whe ...
, the Cathy character slept with Steve Dallas, and regretted it in the morning.)
In the 21st century reboot of
Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, whe ...
Steve remains a major character.
''Outland'' and ''Opus''
At the end of ''
Outland'' in 1995, Steve came out of
the closet
''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and human ...
and admitted he was gay. In his final appearance in the comic, he had
married a man (''
Doonesbury
''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, ...
's''
Mark Slackmeyer) and was thinking about
adopting children.
However, in ''
Opus
''Opus'' (pl. ''opera'') is a Latin word meaning "work". Italian equivalents are ''opera'' (singular) and ''opere'' (pl.).
Opus or OPUS may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* Opus number, (abbr. Op.) specifying order of (usually) publicatio ...
'' nine years later, Steve was back to his babe-mongering ways after enrolling in the "Rev. Doogle De-Poofta" which used
shock therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive the ...
to attempt to "cure" homosexuality; in a form of
conversion therapy
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. In contrast to evidence-based medicine and cl ...
. Steve was depicted as a middle-aged man with thinning hair and a noticeable paunch.
Steve was also reunited with his long-lost son Augie (presumably named after
Augie Doggie), and reluctantly took on the role of father figure. The August 26, 2007 strip implied that he was romantically involved with the recently re-introduced character
Lola Granola
Lola Granola, also known as Fatima Struggle, is a fictional character in the comic strips ''Bloom County'' and ''Opus'' by Berkeley Breathed.
Lola, a free spirited hippie and abstract artist, is the unlikely fiancée of Opus the Penguin. Their p ...
, a former love interest of Opus.
The "real" Steve Dallas
Breathed has stated that Dallas was based on a real person.
Steve Dallas...a frat-boy lawyer who I knew in school. He's never written me. I suspect he was shot by an annoyed girlfriend, which saved me many legal fees[Breathed, Berke (2009). ''Bloom County: The Complete Library: Volume One: 1980–1982'', San Diego: IDW Publishing. pp 68. .]
The name "Steve Dallas" also appears in the classic and cynical noir film ''
Sweet Smell of Success
''Sweet Smell of Success'' is a 1957 American film noir drama film directed by Alexander Mackendrick, starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, and Martin Milner, and written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman, and Mackendrick fr ...
'', wherein a cool jazz musician named Steve Dallas dates the wrong girl (kid sister of a sinister and influential columnist played by
Burt Lancaster) and gets set up for a drug bust as a result.
In the 2013 movie ''
Are You Here'', Owen Wilson plays 'Steve Dallas', an inveterate womanizer. In one scene, Dallas is slumped in a recliner wearing sunglasses just as his Bloom County namesake often does.
Notes
References
*Breathed, Berke (1990). ''Classics of Western Literature''. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dallas, Steve
Bloom County characters
Comics characters introduced in 1978
Fictional Republicans (United States)
Fictional lawyers