In early October 2008, the author declared he was terminating the strip because of his expectation that the United States was going to face tough times and his desire to depart from his most famous character "on a lighter note".

Though he returned to Antarctica at the end of Outland, Opus traveled back home to Bloom County, only to find that time has changed everything and everyone he once held dear.

His employment usually depended on the week's joke – since Opus began, he has so far been a political operative, a garbageman, and a newspaper ombudsman – but he was most often depicted as a syndicated cartoonist.

While his mother, maiden name Bougm,[2] was no longer "long-lost," she was not all he had imagined her to be after a decades-long search, and he was frequently seeking the comfort of an ideal mother-figure.

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.

On October 6, 2008, Breathed announced that the strip would end after November 2 that year,[7] and even decided to do a contest for people to guess what Opus's fate is on BerkeleyBreathed.com.

The final strip showed Steve opening a copy of Goodnight Moon and seeing Opus tucked in bed, sleeping peacefully with a mother rabbit watching over him.

[10] In numerous interviews before launching Opus, Berke Breathed stated his hopes that the strip would help reinvigorate the medium of newspaper comics.

[3][11] In an interview appearing in the April 2007 issue of Texas Monthly, Breathed announced that he planned to end the strip by killing off the main character.

[12] On April 2, 2007 the journal Editor & Publisher reported on this interview in a story titled "Will Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed Kill Off Opus the Penguin?

"[13] However, Breathed's editor has reportedly quoted him as stating, "I mentioned Opus' literal death just for talking points on my [book] tour coming up.

According to The Washington Post Writers Group, this was to provide "space for Breathed to offer richness and depth, similar to the breathtaking imagery in his popular children's books.

Initially, in an effort to help boost physical newspaper sales, the strip was barred from appearing online; however, in 2005, that too changed and Opus became officially available on the web.

[20][21] In August 2006 The Weinstein Company revealed in a press release for an animated version of The Nutty Professor that it had a "CG-animated project" called "Opus" "in the works".