Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for November 21, 2024

Seagull was there when Sterling first arrived.

But Mom, WHY had the milk gone bad at that very instant? Answer me that, Mom.

Great, totally unexpected, last panel.

Those who don’t understand the auguries don’t deserve an explanation. Talking about Wallace here.

Milk gone bad. Mom’s cover story regarding the coming of Sterling and how nothing would ever be the same… she knew…(not to say it would be bad, just different)

That’s a sterling example of dissembling.

Yeah, that’s it, the milk….that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Haha! Nothing to do with sweet Sterling, no no.

Careful Mom. We were walking on a trail through the Florida Everglades when we spotted a large owl sitting on a tree branch directly above the trail. But what we didn’t see was the big pile of owl droppings right in the middle of the trail.

“I sense EVIL in your path… DROP IT and RUN” rough translation “HOOT H-H-H-HOOOOOOOOOOOOT”

In more than one hundred languages historically spoken in the six inhabited continents, owls are the most frequently cited animal soothsayers. That is to say that they have a very ancient and worldwide reputation for kn(owl)edge of the future. Their appearances and utterances were most commonly cited as bad omens and were usually related to death, ghosts and… fear. Ambiguously, such knowledge, when properly considered, could have the positive effect of forewarning of possible problems. To be forewarned is to prepare for the worst and perhaps prevent it.

I’ve worked with a LOT of owls; trust me, they are not wise soothsayers..

It couldn’t have been a portent of doom about Sterling?

Yeah, no. It wasn’t the milk…Sterling, maybe???

It was an omen for sure and a joy that they had the little demon now. What a relief for the animal kingdom.

I am hearing ‘Ave Satani’ from The Omen (1976) by Jerry Goldsmith. BTW, Jerry had composed music for numerous well-known films and television shows.

The middle panel is so smart, with the two inserts of each stare. Who else in art is doing things like that?

He’s the daughter of Rosemary’s baby, a regular, old-fashioned ghoul

Will “Hoot Hoot” Henry. What a hoot.

……did not know what to say……

Sounds like the milk going bad was the result of Sterling coming.

Either that it was concerning Sterling’s…Sterlingness.

Sterling Denial

Missed it by that much, mom.

Pretty subtle strip. Obviously, we’re meant to guess that the owl would be warning what a monster Sterling would turn out to be.

Pretty sure he wasn‘t warning you about the milk…

There was an owl in our neighborhood that one of the neighbors would put food out for. They even got it to take the food from their hands. They forgot it was a wild animal. One evening one of their children brought the food out. The owl silently flew down and took out her eye. A painful and tragic lesson.

I saw an owl swoop down and grab and kill a bird sitting on a tree branch. Sadly, it was my pet bird who escaped from the house earlier.

Or maybe it was the demonseed…..

The least of your worries at that point.

We have two owls in our neighborhood. I see one or the other occasionally. They leave owl pellets in my yard constantly, proof of mouse population control. I love them (All birds,really).

OK, I snorted my coffee on this one.

Sterling was never a baby. He was “an infant.”

The owl knew!

The owl was telling you to leave the wolf-child to the wolves.

Future. Elaborate production of the terrifying first song of “Carmina Burana.” Singers, the entire adult population of Snug Harbor. The conductor, an adult, crazed Sterling Maclellan. Sung in Latin… Here is an English translation….

O Fortune,

like the moon

you are changeable,

ever waxing

and waning;

hateful life

first oppresses

and then soothes

as fancy takes it;

poverty,

power,

it melts them like ice.

Fate, savage

and empty,

you are a turning wheel,

your position malevolent,

vain health

always dissolves,

shadowed

and veiled

you plague me too;

now through the game

my naked back

I bring to your villainy.

Fate, in health

and in virtue,

is now against me,

affection

and defeat

always enslaved.

So at this hour

without delay

pluck the vibrating string;

since Fate

strikes down the strong,

everyone weep with me