I wasn’t familiar with the strip Sarah’s Scribbles, collected as Adulthood Is a Myth, but I can certainly see why it was popular enough to make it into a book. Sarah Andersen has put together a collection of semi-autobiographical strips about feeling unable to cope. These are not unique observations — not wanting to get out of bed, not feeling able to communicate or socialize well, feeling unattractive — but they are deep, discouraging feelings most people can relate to, […]

Unicorn on a Roll is the followup to Phoebe and Her Unicorn. Dana Simpson continues the whimsy, charm, and comedy of her strip with more kid/fantasy creature adventures. The book begins with a reaffirmation of the friendship between Phoebe and Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, as they reflect on how they met almost a year ago. That conveniently sums up the premise and appeal of the strip for new readers, too, as we see Marigold’s vanity and Phoebe’s crankiness (often spurred by […]

When a friend recommended the Phoebe and Her Unicorn comic strip (formerly known as Heavenly Nostrils) to me, she described it as a more modern, girl-centered Calvin and Hobbes. She was right. Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson is the first collection of the strips. Phoebe is playing near a pond in the woods when she skips a stone that hits Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, a unicorn. Marigold is so beautiful (at least, in her own mind) that she was […]