"Opus" nearing the end

 Berkeley Breathed is pulling the plug on his comic "Opus" after Nov. 2. The 5-year-old Sunday comic with a political bent, starring the penguin from Breathed's Pulitzer Prize-winning comic "Bloom County," is ending just before the presidential election. Breathed also writes screenplays, novels and children's books. "With the crisis in Wall Street and Washington, I'm suspending my comic strip to assist the nation," he said Monday. "The best way I can help is to leave politics permanently and write funny stories for America's kids. I call on John McCain to join me."