Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for March 15, 2024

Phoebe’s comment in the last panel reminds me of when Crazy Hand from Super Smash Bros acts like a spider.

Is this like in Death Note where you trade half your lifespan for your Shinigami’s eyes?

Any excuse to lower your art standards. But are spiders easier to draw?

That explains AI drawn hands. They look like spiders with all the legs.

♪♫ She’s got Mari Nostril Eyes… ♪♫

And Phoebe might suffer a meltdown seeing anymore people with spider appendages. Good going Mari.XD

I hope the audience gets to see what she sees I have a feeling we won’t

Oddball memory, triggered by Phoebe’s words: a “kid detective” story, back when I was a kid (in the Sixties; I can remember the Sixties, which proves I wasn’t there), had a scene early on when the narrator had found an odd coin and was phoning his friend for advice about it. One of the bad guys had given it to him by accident (payment for a newspaper, but it wasn’t the dime he’d meant to give), and now tried swiping it back. The guy reached around a corner or partition, so his face and body weren’t in sight, and groped on a table to find the coin by feel. The narrator specifically mentioned that the hand, moving on the tabletop, made him think of an unusually large (and hairy) spider….

It changes the mind’s interpretation of what you see. Much sneakier.

Has Phoebe ever aged? She doesn’t seem to have grown compared to Marigold’s consistent size.

Thank goodness Phoebe’s eyes didn’t explode. That would’ve been gross.

You only have 4 fingers any Phoebe!

Now you know how Marigold (and I guess other Unicorns) see you, and I guess other humans as well!

Phoebe takes her first step towards insanity.

And comic strip hands look like human hands with a finger missing.

So unicorn eyes are like being stoned?

I love having spider hooves!

Shouldn’t Phoebe have gotten new eyelashes like Marigold’s as part of the bargain?

This is a great example of how important subtlety is in comic art. Marigold’s expression in panel 4 is almost identical to that of panel 2, except for the tiny downturn of her mouth. It completely changes her expression, and reinforces the content of her speech balloon. You can feel her slight horror at spiders as hands, plus her relief at finally having someone else who understands. Now that I’ve done my pedantic thing for today, I’ll be moving along…

And Phoebe will never see her fingers the same again.

Happy Ides of March!

Phoebe on her way to write “Naked lunch 2”

I have a prediction where this is going: Phoebie sees her reflection through unicorn eyes, falls in love. Argues Marigold is not in fact the loveliest.