#WALLACE THE BRAVE WILL HENRY FULL#

Spud’s anxieties come out full force, as he loudly declaims “Wallace!! It’s a slithery rope of DEATH!!” While Amelia is too disappointed by her trip to the boys’ bathroom to investigate the disturbance. Wallace wants to save the snake, but is reluctant to touch it. Some strips keep the story going for a few pages, as in the epic and milk-snortingly funny story of a snake found in the boys’ bathroom. However, the kids wander freely across the little fishing village, limited only by their imaginations (and their fears), and summer is a time of unlimited fun with no resource to video games, television, or cellphones but plenty of trips to the local comics store, ice cream, and Wallace’s grand pinball ambitions at the local arcade. The setting is contemporary enough for them to have a teacher with dark skin, the girls wearing pants and playing with the boys, and the occasional mention of electronics. Set in the near past in the quirky town of Snug Harbor, Wallace and his friends, the square-headed and anxious friend Spud and new girl Amelia, explore the town, the ocean, and experience all the fun and nostalgia of a screen-free childhood in their little fishing village. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.While there can be no real successor to the humor, warmth, and wry philosophy of Calvin and Hobbes, Will Henry comes in a close second with his quirky comic strip, Wallace the Brave. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. (SOUNDBITE OF ANDREW BIRD SONG, 'TRUTH LIES LOW')Ĭopyright © 2018 NPR.

I can't step away from the family clambake. And I see all my relatives, and I pig out on lobster and clams. HENRY: We do a family clambake every year. But its creator won't be attending the prestigious ceremony in San Diego next month.

WELDON: This year, 'Wallace The Brave' is nominated for two Eisner Awards, the comics industry's Oscars, basically. And I've just been, you know, studying it and working on it kind of unwavering for the last 15 years. HENRY: I truly love comic strips and the art of it and how you can get a feeling and a joke across in seconds. The world of childhood depicted in the strip is a timeless, outdoorsy one reminiscent of strips like 'Calvin & Hobbes' and 'Cul De Sac,' both of which Henry cites as influences. Wallace's friend Spud is a ball of anxiety and indecision, and his friend Amelia is a tough-as-nails troublemaker. WELDON: The tone of the strip is gentle but not toothless. And I'd like the parents to get a good read out of it 'cause they're the ones buying the books, after all. You know, I don't want it to be so, like, sappy, kiddy. WILL HENRY: I'm trying to hit that sweet spot where kids enjoy it, but parents will also enjoy it, too. He runs a gourmet wine and cheese shop in Jamestown. It's a lot like Jamestown, R.I., where the strip's creator, 33-year-old Will Henry, churns out 365 strips a year for a growing audience which devours them in newspapers, online or collected in book form. Mostly we see the world of the strip through Wallace's eyes, a sleepy East Coast beach town called Snug Harbor where the streets are lined with ice cream shops and the beaches are dotted with rocky tide pools. There's Dad, a fisherman, Mom, a gardener, their almost feral young son Sterling, who never met a bug he wouldn't eat, and his older brother Wallace, a rambunctious, imaginative kid big on exploring. GLEN WELDON, BYLINE: Think 'Peanuts' if Charlie Brown were less of a mope or 'Calvin & Hobbes' if Calvin weren't a bit of a psychopath. NPR's Glen Weldon explains how this comic strip is shaking things up at a time when the funny pages are shrinking. It is already appearing in more than a hundred newspapers. The funny pages in the newspaper - they're kind of visual comfort food, the same characters day after day, which is why the success of a new comic strip called 'Wallace The Brave' is unusual.

Wallace the brave will henry