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Lutz Man Guesses 'Opus' Ending

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By KEITH MORELLI

kmorelli@tampatrib.com

Published: November 11, 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.

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.

The grand prize winner was Allen, 48, a fan of the illustrated penguin for more than two decades.

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

In the right hand corner is the book's last line, tweaked by Breathed. It says: "Goodnight Opus and goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere."

The prize was a $10,000 donation made to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay in Allen's name, plus 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."

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