Henry’s art has a quirky, sketchy quality that clearly marks his individual style.
Although some peripheral characters like the teacher have darker skin, all the main characters are white. This is not surprising since things keep happening to him, like a skull suddenly showing up in his cut-paper snowflake. Spud’s anxieties are played for laughs-he’s scared of giant fish, monsters, heights, and pretty much everything else. Gordon, the hall monitor, is a stereotypical nerd, complete with asthma, who shows up in a few strips. There are a few outdated characters and strips. Other stories are told in a few quickly drawn panels, including Wallace’s grand dream of getting a llama, an analysis of the motives of seagulls, reflections on the joys (and tribulations) of being a grown-up, and more.
“Serves her right for havin’ such a dinky pet,” mutters Amelia, and that’s that. Alas, the story ends tragically when they slip the snake into the wrong locker and the gerbil brought for show-and-tell is no more. 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. 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.
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