Phoebe and Her Unicorn
Phoebe and Her Unicorn | |
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Andrews McMeel Publishing | |
Genre(s) | Humor, fantasy, children |
Phoebe and Her Unicorn is a daily
Overview
The strip begins when 9-year-old Phoebe Howell skips a rock across a pond and accidentally hits a unicorn in the face. Freed from the trap of gazing at her own reflection in the pond, the unicorn, named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, gives Phoebe one wish, which she decides to use by making the unicorn her best friend.
Marigold, like all unicorns in the series, is experienced in magic. Through various "spellcraft", she is able to perform such feats as divert or redirect rain and send text messages and broadcast a Wi-Fi hotspot through her horn. However, her most frequently-used spell is "The Shield of Boringness", which causes humans to view her as nothing out of the ordinary and allows her to interact with them on a daily basis.
Phoebe deals with childhood challenges both mundane and magical with Marigold, her friend Max, pen friend Sue, and even her arch frenemy Dakota in a quick-witted romp through a little girl's world.
Background
Following the end of her earlier Ozy and Millie, Simpson provided illustrations for
During this time, Simpson had drawn one Girl strip that included a unicorn. Soon after drawing this strip, Simpson knew that the unicorn was a necessary character to make her comic work. Girl was retooled and reimagined as Heavenly Nostrils, which is about a nine-year-old girl named Phoebe (essentially the same character from Girl[6]) who comes across Marigold Heavenly Nostrils while the latter is enraptured by her reflection in a pond; Phoebe accidentally hits her with a rock, breaking the spell and receives a granted wish as reward.[3][6]
Heavenly Nostrils was scheduled to debut on GoComics April 23, 2012,[8] but debuted a day early on April 22, 2012.[9] The strip entered into print syndication across 100 papers starting on March 30, 2015; the title of the strip was changed to Phoebe and her Unicorn for print syndication.[3][10]
Influences
Simpson drew inspiration from her real life. Phoebe herself is loosely based on Simpson's own personality.[11] Phoebe's best friend, Max, is based on Simpson's husband David.[3][failed verification] Dakota, a fellow schoolmate of Phoebe who initially teases her until she learns about the unicorn, was an amalgamation of several students that had given Simpson trouble when she was younger, but also incorporates elements of her younger sister Nicole.[6] Phoebe's parents are based on Simpson's friends who have become parents themselves but "they're also still the same weird people they were before they had kids".[11] Marigold is based partially on the unicorn character in the work The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.[12] Marigold's name was based the results of using Simpson's own name in an online unicorn name generator.[12]
The design of the unicorns draws inspiration from Medieval depictions, including the series of tapestries entitled
The strip has been favorably compared to Calvin and Hobbes with a feminine slant;[14][15][16] in contrast to Calvin and Hobbes, where the character of Hobbes is only a stuffed tiger doll that Calvin imagines is alive, Marigold the unicorn has to use magic to appear as unremarkable.[6]
Publications
In addition, translations of the comic are published in Poland, Germany, Russia, Portugal and Spain.
Other media
Scrapped television series adaptation
Phoebe and Her Unicorn has been optioned for a possible animated television and/or movie series adaptation twice, first by
Awards
- Washington State Book Award, Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award, 2015: Books for middle readers (ages 9 to 12)[19] for Phoebe and Her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle
- PNBA Book Award, 2016 for Unicorn on a Roll[20]
References
- ^ "Phoebe and Her Unicorn". GoComics. Universal Uclick. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- ^ "Universal Uclick Launches Phoebe and Her Unicorn in more than 100 Newspapers Worldwide". Universal uClick. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- ^ Fresno Bee. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
- ^ [Staff] (August 18, 2009). "Amazon and Andrews McMeel Universal Announce First Comic Strip Superstar Competition". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ "Comic Strip Superstar (via Internet Archive)". Amazon. Archived from the original on January 3, 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
- ^ a b c d e Wolfe, Billy (2015-03-29). ""Phoebe and Her Unicorn" cartoonist draws inspiration from life". Charleston Daily Mail. Archived from the original on 2015-05-02. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
- ^ Simpson, D.C. (November 2, 2010). "Status report". Retrieved 22 February 2011.
- ^ Simpson, D.C. (April 5, 2012). "The 23rd". Archived from the original on May 3, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
- ^ Simpson, D.C. (April 22, 2012). "In stealth, we have begun!". Archived from the original on August 14, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
- ^ Hanson, Merridee (2015-03-29). "Columbian adds 'Phoebe and Her Unicorn' to comics lineup". The Columbian. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
- ^ a b Sholley, Diana (2015-03-30). "'Phoebe and Her Unicorn' to debut, add whimsical flair to the funny pages". Los Angeles Daily News. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
- ^ a b Brutsch, Rachel (March 28, 2015). "'Unicorns are everywhere': Cartoonist Dana Simpson shares lessons on friendship in comic strip 'Phoebe and Her Unicorn'". Deseret News. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
- ^ Simpson, Dana (May 2014). "How to draw Marigold". Dana Simpson's deviantArt account.
- ^ Doctorow, Cory (February 2, 2015). "Heavenly Nostrils: If Hobbes was a snarky unicorn and Calvin was an awesome little girl". Boing Boing. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
- ^ Doctorow, Cory (June 13, 2015). "Unicorn on a Roll: more comics in the tradition of Calvin and Hobbes". Boing Boing. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
- The Record. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
- ^ Anthony D'Alessandro (June 18, 2020). "Nickelodeon Closing In On Comic Strip Phoebe And Her Unicorn As Potential Multi-Franchise". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
- ^ https://twitter.com/thecartoonnews/status/1608287653761253383
- ^ Simpson, Dana (October 10, 2015). "Winners of the Washington State Book Awards (2015)". The Seattle Times. Retrieved October 11, 2015.
- ^ Simpson, Dana (October 10, 2015). "2016 PNBA Book Awards". Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. Retrieved January 14, 2016.