Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for November 21, 2020

More than one conversation going on here….

Spud is feeling a little philosophical, today.

Bear with me. I am actually going somewhere with this…

In 1983, Franco Zeffirelli’s film of the opera La Traviata actually made three and a half million dollars in American movie theaters. (Pretty amazing, though of course it made much more in Europe.) It also won several international awards for set design and cinematography.

His movies were always beautiful to look at. Most frames from his Romeo and Juliet looked like they should be in frames in a Renaissance art exhibit. His Brother Sun, Sister Moon made you feel as if you were in the scene… whether the Papal palace, a ruined church, or a field of battle.

With La Traviata, even the objects on a lady’s dressing table looked to have been placed with all the care deployed in an entire set for a lavish home.

All that is a long winded way to say that I experience a sensation looking at the panels in this strip, week after week, that I used to express about those movies: Namely that they would be worth the price of admission even if the theater’s sound system failed and the movies were silent.

I love the art, even as today when depicting rain and mud… so much that I’d spend time just looking at this strip every day even if it were written in a language I couldn’t read.

Gives me goosebumps.

Dad: “Your mom did warn me that she wanted some ‘me time’ this morning… I better get you guys back before she empties the bottle.”

Spud, are you sure you wouldn’t rather be “Spunky?”

Each panel a gem!

Way better than parking the kids in front of a TV screen..

“A series of miscalculations and bad decisions”. That happens to Spud a lot.

Something I’ve wondered about Spud. Maybe someone has mentioned this before… or maybe my notion is too far off-base for anyone to think it besides me.

But his head is square/cubical. Like a block. And there’s another well known comic kid who is often called “blockhead” and whose head is notoriously the roundest head in contemporary comics. And the color of Spud’s rainwear today impresses on me even more the like-but-unlike comparison I imagine.

I think of hapless Spud’s sense of resignation, which he occasionally pushes back at… but without any real breakthroughs.

Well. He’s not a peanut. But he is a potato.

Oh, I’m quite sure he knows your name, Spud, he just likes to tease you by pretending to get it wrong all the time.

How come Dad doesn’t know spuds name by now

Just say not, Spud.

My home town was originally named Bare Cove because it is pretty much just mud flats at low tide

I liked that film, even more than I like mud holes.

That said, who digs for bait with a pitchfork???

My mom would just have said, “Kids wash,” and laughed as she commanded us to peel and washed us in the front yard with the hose.

Wallace’s life is my fantasy life. Enjoy the moment, every moment.And all friends are just that, friends, regardless…..

Odd that Spud would view it that way. Seems like it would be his jam!

Henry stole Spud’s last line from the title of my autobiography.

‘Me time’ for Mom would see Sterling with Dad for starters!

Wallace is well grounded today in the physical while Spud waxes philosophical.

“A series of miscalculations and bad decisions …” ah Spud. What a great kid.

I am a drawer of pictures too. I love the detail in these drawings. As fun to look at as reading the panels. We are fortunate to have Mr. Henry’s work.

Dad likes to call Spud…Spunky! Sounds more exciting.

Last frame with only Spud would make a great wall poster.

Classic.

SPUNKY!

“Ordinary Bill,” despite its charm, cleverness and wit, is revealed as merely a training ground for the magnificent artwork that is Wallace the Brave. This is the best comic strip in current production..