"Opus" fans who wondered where the cartoon character would wind up now have their answer -- but only if they were able get it online.
The lovable penguin landed snugly in the last page of "Goodnight Moon," Margaret Wise Brown's classic children's book, tucked under the covers and sleeping soundly with the little bunny. Mama Rabbit sits nearby in her rocking chair, knitting in the warm glow of the table lamp in front of a cozy fire. In the corner is the book's famous last line, with a slight adjustment: "Goodnight Opus and goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere."
The mystery wasn't solved in the strip's final newspaper appearance on Sunday. Instead, creator Berkeley Breathed directed readers to the Web site of the Humane Society -- www.humanesociety.org/opus -- where the last panel appears.
Breathed announced last month he was ending the strip to concentrate on his children's books, so the choice of "Goodnight Moon" was fitting. He invited readers to guess Opus' "final paradise," which was to be "a place without fear or pain or political ads." He also dropped hints, drawing little copies of the book in Opus' luggage and other places.
Breathed also said he wanted to stop the strip before "Opus" became a political screed. "The best way I can help is to leave politics permanently and write funny stories for America's kids," he said. "I call on John McCain to join me."
So when his own Web site, www.berkeleybreathed.com, went down on Sunday, Breathed wrote a tongue-in-cheek e-mail to Joan Walsh, editor of Salon.com, speculating that he'd been hacked by Republicans.
"The McCain campaign is behind the shutdown of BerkeleyBreathed.com, where the winner of the $10,000 Opus Paradise Contest is named," Breathed wrote. "The GOP is not going to figure a way to rig the Florida election results this time, so they've obviously set their eyes on something easier. The $10,000 winner is in Tampa Bay. Think about that. Please check back later ..."
The big winner turned out to be Stephen Allen of Lutz, Fla., who won a $10,000 donation to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. Breathed reported that he'd had 6,000 entries; 55 were correct, so the winners' names were chosen from a Carmen Miranda fruit hat.
Friendship resident Sarah Axtell, 14 and a freshman at Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, was one of 10 runners-up who will receive a signed 25-year "Opus" collection.
"We read 'Goodnight Moon' a lot when she was a baby," said her mother, Diana Ames. "She thought the answer was quite obvious."
First Published: November 4, 2008, 5:00 a.m.
