The american comic strip Bloom County (created by Berkeley Breathed, which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989) examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where animals can talk. The comic made many satires, including a character named Tess Turbo. Her band was The Blackheads. Tess, along with her band, The Blackheads, was a parody of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Joan apparently thought the comics were pretty funny.

In the comics, Tess Turbo was a rebellious goth rock star who first appeared at the Meadow Party’s 1984 benefit concert, (a satirical take on Steve Wozniak’s Us Festival). One of the comic strips from this time revealed her inner dialogue in which she characterized herself as a “shy, sensitive, withdrawn young woman who likes Smurf dolls, sad rainy days, and silly, romantic poetry”, in contrast to her public image.

She appeared in an earlier strip, in which Steve Dallas won a role in her MTV music video after being unknowingly entered by Opus (one of the major characters of the comic strip). Steve unsuccessfully sued her after all his chest hair was permanently burned off during the making of the video (referencing Michael Jackson‘s similar incident the previous year); during the trial, televised on The People’s Court, she called Steve a “total jerkface” who deserved everything that he got. Her songs include “Scuzzbucket From Nantucket”.