Snug Harbor Stories: A Wallace the Brave Collection!, Hardcover/Will Henry

Think "Peanuts" if Charlie Brown were less of a mope or "Calvin & Hobbes" if Calvin weren't a bit of a psychopath. "Wallace The Brave" is about a family. 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. 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... 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. -- NPR's Glen Weldon