Tough Like a Girl #45 – Phoebe and Her Unicorn

5 responses to “Tough Like a Girl #45 – Phoebe and Her Unicorn”

1. I agree this is a cute comic strip. I’ve come across it a few times, not enough to add to my daily reading, but it’s fun enough stories and characters. So definitely enjoyed hearing you both discuss it.

   Other comic strip collections I’ve read have all done the same thing you discussed: print them exactly in chronological order, including the Sunday strip, even if it’s unrelated to the weekday story. I can’t think of many or any that deliberately rearranged the strips for the benefit of an ongoing story, probably because the syndicated strip industry doesn’t recognize it. Either your strip is a soap opera where Sunday is always part of the same storyline, or you’re gag-a-day in which case the order doesn’t matter. Which is crazy, because as you said, Calvin & Hobbes did long story arcs Monday-Saturday, and Sunday was always its own thing because some papers would only include Sunday. Sorry to see things haven’t changed since I was buying those collections in the 90s. And 80s. And 70s. (No, I’m not a Boomer! AUGH!)

   Oh, little clarification on my Shuri comment. I wanted her series to be less strongly tied to recent Black Panther comics continuity, but I loved her interacting with other Marvel characters. In later issues, she meets Kamala Ms Marvel and Miles Spider-Man, and it’s wonderful! There, I’m done.

   Thanks for another great show, my punchers! (And thank you for mentioning my podcast. I really appreciate the support!)

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2. Thank you for this refreshing dip into a graphic novel with a lighter tone. I’ve seen it on the shelves in bookstores, but have never picked it up. I am a fan of The Last Unicorn (admittedly the Rankin and Bass animated movie, though I keep meaning to read the novel), and was interested to hear about Peter Beagle’s endorsement of the series. I was also interested to hear about the Calvin and Hobbes-like dynamic between Phoebe and Marigold. So, it has two things going for it, as far as I’m concerned. It might be fun to check it out some day, when I’m looking for some lite fare to read.

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3. I picked up v1 of Phoebe and Her Unicorn some time back because I’d seen some of the strips and enjoyed them enough I thought it was worth checking out further. But it just didn’t take for some reason and I wound up setting it aside. Your review encouraged me to go back and give it another look, and I’m glad I did, as I found a fair lot to like about it. I agree Phoebe’s dad is a lot of fun, and it’d be nice to see her mom’s art. Also, I think the use of font to indicate an accent is a clever touch. Todd the dragon is adorable and Max has a lot of potential. As for Phoebe herself, she does have a bit of that Calvin-esque attitude to her, doesn’t she? And Heavenly definitely has Hobbes’s air of superiority. I may have to check out further volumes.

   A little bit of a treat for Lis, who was looking for that Calvin in girl form energy – close to a decade ago, someone created a short tribute strip called Hobbes and Bacon. The conceit is that Calvin and Suzie got married and had a little girl named Bacon, who inherited Hobbes when she was scared one night. Someone collected them and the tribute strip to that in a gallery, and here’s the link. I hope you like it. https://imgur.com/gallery/bTzS8 All the best to you both, can’t wait to see what’s on next month’s docket.

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   1. I haven’t seen Hobbes & Bacon before, Loving it! Thank you for sharing that, Kerowen!

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4. Impressive Pod cast. Most Impressive. Hi Lis hi Nathaniel. Sounds like this was a fun comic. Though the only Web comics I read were. Girl Genus. And LFG. Any way this one seems pretty cool. Glad to hear ya’ll found characters you can see yourself in. It’s a decent art style. Ah a non Binary Unicom cool

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