Bloom County fans are gonna like this: The Bloom County Library -- consisting of every strip in the cartoon's 9-year history -- will be published beginning in October 2009.

The five-volume, hardcover set will contain the daily and Sunday strips in chronological order, according to Publishers Weekly. Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed began the strip on Dec. 8, 1980, illustrating the takes of Opus, Bill the Cat, Milo & Michael and Cutter John. Breathed won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987, but discontinued the series in 1989. Two spin-off, Sunday-only strips -- Outland and Opus -- followed.

In addition to the strips, The Bloom County Library will also feature "Context Pages," to provide perspective by explaining real-life events and newsmakers from the '80s to help newer readers understand the comics.

"Fans have pestered me for years for this ultimate Bloom County collection in that polite, respectful badgering way that only fans can manage," Breathed said in a statement released by IDW Publishing, which is producing the books. "Thank God I can now tell them something better than just 'please remove your tent from my lawn.' "

[Publicity art from IDW Publishing]