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Lutz Man Guesses Comic Strip's Ending, Wins $10,000 For Charity

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2008

TAMPA - Opus sleeps with the bunnies, and Stephen Allen of Lutz saw it coming.

Opus, the quirky, 28-year-old penguin who first waddled his way into American culture nearly 30 years ago as a character in the "Bloom County" comic strip was last seen sound asleep in a snug bed with a stuffed bunny nuzzling his neck.

That was the last panel of the last "Opus" comic strip that appeared in newspapers across the nation Nov. 2.

As part of a charitable endeavor, the strip's author, Berkeley Breathed, staged a contest asking readers to guess what the final panel would be. Fifty-five readers made the right guess.

Ten were drawn from a "Carmen Miranda fruit hat." The one grand prize winner was Allen, 48, who has been a fan of the animated penguin for more than a couple of decades.

He had surmised that the final panel would draw on "Good Night Moon," the classic children's book by Margaret Wise Brown. He was right. The final panel mirrored the last page of the book, except that Opus was inserted, soundly asleep in bed.

In the lower right hand corner is the book's last line, with a bit of tweaking by Breathed. It says: "Goodnight Opus and goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere."

Breathed "had left clues leading up to the final strip," said Allen, who has read the comic strip and its predecessor, "Bloom County,'' since the mid 1980s. He noticed clues referencing "Good Night Moon" throughout the strip recently.

There was a painting on a wall one day, a reference to a cow jumping over the moon in another.

"When he announced the contest," Allen said, "I went back and on the online archives and had a pretty good idea of what it would be."

He found out he had won late on the afternoon of Nov. 2. He said he had his computer on all day and logged onto Breathed's Web page.

He saw there were 55 winners and then 10 finalists. After a while, the announcement was made.

"It's great to have been given the opportunity by him and the Humane Society to win it for Tampa Bay," Allen said.

The prize was a $10,000 donation made to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay in Allen's name. He also will get a 25-year "Opus" anthology signed by the author.

Allen said no one else in his family has a full appreciation of "Opus."

"I'm the only one who really reads 'Opus,' " he said. "Once in a while, if there is a good joke, I will push it across the table to my wife."

Breathed has quit the comic strip to concentrate on children's books.

"Opus is napping. He sleeps in peace, dreaming of a world just ahead brimming with kindness and grace and ubiquitous bowties," said Breathed on his Web site.

"Please don't mourn him," the author writes. "He lives in all my children's stories, if you look. I hope to meet you again there.

"Thank you truly for coming along with us on Opus' 28-year journey."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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