Wallace the Brave is a comic strip created by Will Henry, the pen name of William Henry Wilson. The first strip came out on June 29, 2015.
The strip is set in the small seaside town of Snug Harbor, which Henry based on his hometown of Jamestown, Rhode Island. The title character is adventurous boy Wallace McClellan. He shares the stage with his fun-loving parents, his odd baby brother Sterling, his angst-ridden best friend Spud, brash new kid in town Amelia, and (as of late) academic overachiever Rose.
Fans of Calvin and Hobbes and Cul-de-sac could well find a lot to like in this strip.
Provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Spud really likes Amelia in a way she really doesn't like him.
- Abusive Parents: What little we've seen of Spud's mom paints a picture of an overbearing matriarch feeding her son's anxieties who's all too eager to ship her son off to a "Siberian mining camp" the second he does anything out of line, even something as simple as losing his gloves.
- Accidental Misnaming: Wallace's dad, to date, has never gotten Spud's name right.
- Big Eater: Spud is often shown craving for food, especially pizza.
- Butt-Monkey: Things rarely, if ever, go Spud's way. Staining his pants then ripping the pair Wallace gave him to avoid embarrassment, getting mistaken for a raccoon, walking off the pier in the middle of his rants, anything's on the table when it comes to Spud's misfortunes.
- Chekhov's Gag: One storyline began with a seemingly random gag where Wallace filled Spud's backpack with a bowling ball. Later, when Spud gets captured by a half-blind dogcatcher, he was able to escape by breaking the cage open with the said bowling ball.
- Didn't Want an Adventure: Spud, being extremely risk-averse, rarely enjoys getting dragged into Wallace's misadventures.
- Fiery Redhead: Amelia has bright red hair and the most explosive personality of the main characters.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The main child characters:
- Wallace (Sanguine) — A fun-loving Fearless Fool.
- Spud (Melancholic) — Nervous Wreck who gets dragged along.
- Sterling (Phlegmatic) — Borderline feral baby brother indifferent to custom.
- After Rose is introduced, she becomes a much more traditional Phlegmatic character, a Cute Bookworm who rarely initiates wacky antics but is placidly okay about going along with them.
- Amelia (Choleric) — Aggressive tomboy.
- Free-Range Children: The child characters go out a lot without adult supervision.
- Friend to All Living Things: Doesn't matter if it's butterflies or giant snapping turtles, Wallace treats every creature with dignity and respect.
- Hidden Depths: Spud has expressed a love for hip-hop music and in one strip admitted he wants to be an orthodontist when he grows up, as well as open a bed and breakfast in another.
- Imaginary Friend: Spud has one in the form of Gary, a troll bellhop who brings him sandwiches at really weird times. Like when Spud's waiting for the bus...and Gary's currently hiding in the sewer drain.
- Is This Thing Still On?: After Spud gets lost in a cornfield,
Wallace calls him on the walkie-talkie and remarks that someone should warn Spud about the dangers of alien abduction in a cornfield, but probably leave out the horrifying experiments they'd subject him to...only to realize he'd been holding the button down in the last panel. - I Was Beaten by a Girl: Subverted when Wallace lost a bet to Rose. While he was upset that he lost, he made it clear to Amelia it was not for this reason.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's hard to tell how much of the more fantastical elements (e.g., talking seagulls, Spud's imaginary friend who keeps giving him sandwiches at inopportune times) are real and how much is in the kids' imagination.
- Meaningful Name: The name "Wallace" paired with a Scottish or at least Gaelic surname seems intended to evoke William Wallace.
- Mistaken for Dog: Happened to Spud in one storyline due to the dogcatcher being an elderly man who can barely see.
- Nervous Wreck: Everything gives Spud anxiety, from the beach (the sharks can smell how delicious he is!) to crossing bridges (think of the trolls!).
- Prefers Going Barefoot: On the first day of summer vacation, Wallace takes the shoes he wore through the school year and throws them into the sea in order to fulfill his vow to go barefoot for the next three months.
- Retro Universe: The Free-Range Children aspect combined with the relative absence of video games and cell phones make the setting seem more like the mid-to-late 20th century rather than the 21st.
- Running Gag:
- Wallace throwing his shoes into the sea.
- Wallace getting distracted by butterflies.
- Spud ordering pizza in the middle of the group's hijinks.
- Spud accidentally walking off the pier.
- Spud's bizarrely square head.
- Sterling running around naked, thinking of setting things on fire, and/or eating bugs.
- Sixth Ranger: Rose (the Terminator) is often seen joining Wallace and others in recent strips, being the Only Sane Man among the group.
- Surfer Dude: Wallace's mom is a dedicated surfer.
- Title Drop: In the series of strips when the main characters go Sasquatch hunting for the first time, Wallace covers his face in war paint and declares himself "Wallace the Brave".
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Amelia and Rose.
- Wild Child: Sterling, full stop. His first appearance in the strip was him waking up after a nap and yelling that he had dreamed he was a dinosaur.
- Worth It: Amelia has this face when she dropped a pumpkin from the roof of the school.
