Safe Havens

"Safe Havens" is a comic strip drawn by cartoonist Bill Holbrook. It was originally syndicated by Washington Post Writers Group before switching to King Features Syndicate in 1993. Started in 1988, the strip is currently published in more than 50 newspapers. The strip originally concerned the group of pre-schoolers at Safe Havens Day Care, but has focused on Samantha and followed her as she has grown up (roughly in real-time) and gone through elementary school, high school, and (currently) college.

From internal evidence the strip is located near the seashore in a city in a big state, several hundred miles from the state capital.

Characters

(Samantha, Jenny, and Dave are the only original characters left from the Day Care. Roger entered shortly after the strip began. The strip's original main character, a boy named Matt Havens who was the son of the day care operator, was dropped early in the elementary school stretch.)

amantha Argus

Samantha is a teen growing into womanhood, with a hopeful nature and a scientific mind. Her technical side enables her to see the world rationally and realistically, which comes in handy when you're surrounded by a mermaid, the spirit of a late grandmother, living dust bunnies and a genetic mishap that turned the family border collie into a school guidance counselor.

Dave Hamper

Dave and Samantha are soulmates, a fact known to everyone but themselves. Dave is dyslexic, but found that instead of it being a disability it's simply an alternate yet perfectly viable way of interfacing with the world. He uses his unique special talents to achieve stardom on the basketball court.

Jenny

Jenny is vain, shallow and self-centered, possessing a set of personal ethics that could charitably be called "situational." She is everything that Samantha is not. Contrastingly, the two have been friends since preschool.

Remora

Remora is a 415-year-old mermaid who has decided to live on land for a while. Like all merfolk, she has the option of living 24 hours a day as half-fish, half human (i.e., Mermaid Classic), or for twelve hours fully human followed by twelve hours as a fish. In the later time frame, she lives in a tank in Samantha's room. In summer of 2006, she decided to take a vacation in the ocean with friends.

amantha's Family

Samantha's father Donald works as the safety inspector at Fastrack, Inc. (see On the Fastrack, another comic strip by Holbrook), and her mother Jeanine has been elected state senator. Samantha has a little sister named Sophie, and three grown older siblings: Sylvester, Steve and Shondra.

Grandma

When the mother of Samantha's mom died, she left Samantha a magic ring. When wearing it, Samantha can speak to her grandmother in any reflection. A former daredevil with a wealth of adventurous experiences, she sees her post-life duty as making sure Samantha doesn't spend her years glued to the front of a computer screen.

Roger

Roger is the mascot of the Havens High School Fighting Personal Digital Assistants. (The team used to be called the Lions until a "contribution" from a high-tech firm resulted in the name change.) Roger takes his mascot role incredibly seriously, communicating entirely through the costume's screen display. Roger's face has never been shown since he is always wearing some sort of full-body costume. Even in the day care, he wore a television costume.

The Other Clique

Samantha, Dave, Jenny, Remora and Roger are joined by Thomas, Bambi, Gerald, Arnold, Lisa and Winston in the Other Clique. These are the souls who never fit into any of the school's official catalog of Cliques, so they were listed in the box marked "Other." Their own mascot is (appropriately) a cat who is the clone of a dog. They're always open to new members.

Miss Callowood

Miss Callowood was the kids' elementary school teacher for several years. She had been rather trendy before becoming a teacher and had several facial piercings, although her face was never actually seen. She left teaching after getting married and having a child, although she returned for a while during the kids' high school years as a guidance counselor.

Miss Havens

Miss Havens was the operator of the day care and Matt's mother. She also was dropped when the kids entered elementary school, although she has shown up in brief sequences a few times since.

Ming

A girl, with goth interests, introduced when Dave Hamper was traded to another high school for his senior year. She fit right in and shared a college dorm room with Samantha, Remora and Jenny before marrying Don Delft, a former teammate of Dave on the Havens University basketball team who was drafted by the NBA earlier this year. Don is so tall that his face is never seen, his head extends above the top of the strip.

Luis

A hunk with eyeglasses, hispanic background and a wheelchair. He is Jenny's current boyfriend.

External links

* [http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/safehavn/about.htm Safe Havens] (King Features)
* [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/safehavens.asp Safe Havens comic] (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)