Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for May 07, 2021

It’s not that far fetched. He might be the only one willing to take the side he did.

Could be worst, your opponent could be Fern.

Phoebe vs Max or Phoebe vs Dakota… which one sounds more exciting?

Truth is, it’s lazy readers: Throw in another character and we wonder where they came from, if there’s a back story, why they are being introduced now and generally, we attain a state of comic anxiety. Better to stick to the basic plan of having two or three, maaaaybe four main characters and a supporting cast of maybe a dozen.

The floor recognizes a fan favorite shipping.

Naw it’s just that most red shirted students don’t matter.

This seems a lot like Deadpool asking why he only ever sees two of the X-men. Careful, Dana. Having your character break the fourth wall is a slippery slope.

some one’s self aware. How many people a story should have depends on how well you can del with a focus on a large cast. The Simpsons, Loud House , Peanuts I always got the feeling they did well with large casts. Shows like Gi-Joe, Transformers, X-Men and He-Man I felt had such huge casts you never took the time to really get to know a character before a new one showed up. In the case of this series I have often thought of how it could work as a cast of 10 or less humans each with a magical best friend going on adventures , exploring fantasy lands and battling dangerous creatures by blasting them with magic spells , some times getting in to hijinks with spells going wrong in funny ways and then they would some times also redeem there bad guys with friendship. But this strip seems to mainly focus on 2 characters and there friendship and some times a 3rd person shows up with no need to expand the background cast.

I typically find that 4 to 8 characters make for a good story. Avtar The Last Airbender, Digimon, Pokemon , Ghostbusters , Star Wars for example.

C’mon Phoebe. We all know your major opponents will be Max and Dakota.

4TH WALLLLLL

Hint: if you had Ferny as your opponent, Phoebe, YOU WILL LOSE. ;)

If your characters start asking “Who’s the dummy writing this stuff?” your subconsciousness may be telling you something as a writer.

To be fair, the same thing happened in Ozy and Millie – there were quite a few looks at their whole class – with LOADS of different kids (and species), but we never actually met any of them apart from Avery, Jeremy, Felicia and (rarely) Felicia’s snobby friends…

It’s “WHOM do you have to debate?”, not “WHO do you have to debate?” Marigold knows better.

-sideglances over at Dana-

Nothing like a bit of self referential humour. Might be time to expand the cast a bit more.

“LET’S GET READYYY TO —”

“Finish that sentence and they’ll sue your pants off!"

“Well, it’s the right day for it.”

(wonders about the “writers” mentioned in the cartoon)

I guess having a Unicorn will lead to the busting of the fourth wall!!!

i still liked Heavenly Nostrils for the name of the comic! talk about succumbing to the fourth wall in reverse!

Sorry I’m late; there was this huge pile of meta commentary in the way.

Nice self-own, Dana!

Could be worse. Her life could’ve been written by James Joyce…

This is one for Epic Debates of Hisssssssssstory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You look so fine Phoebe and Max. How’s the weather up there?

Now THAT’s funny!!!!

Phoebe, a good vigorous debate is a powerful expression of nerd affection.

Hey Dana, your characters have started dissing you!

Just how many Dana Simpsons are there anyway?

(and how many lazers to they have?)