Comic Strip Review: Virtual Unicorn Experience by Dana Simpson
Phoebe Grizelda Howell is nine years old and is fascinated by unicorns. Unlike most girls her age, she actually knows one, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils. They met when Phoebe skipped a rock across a pond and accidentally hit Marigold in the face. This actually saved the unicorn from endlessly staring at her own reflection, and after some silliness, they became friends.
Heavenly Nostrils started life as a webcomic in 2012, then shifted to appearing in newspapers in 2015 under the more explanatory title of Phoebe and Her Unicorn. As of 2025, the daily strip is in reruns (with some new Sundays) as the creator concentrates on graphic novel editions.
This is the twelfth collection in the series, so the characters are well established. Phoebe is a mostly good kid who is a bit weird in a normal way, especially given her circumstances. She gets along well with her parents, Ethan the system administrator and Emily the painter. Her parents have actually met Marigold and are cool with the friendship, but sometimes set boundaries.
Marigold is vain even by unicorn standards, which are pretty high. After all, unicorns are immortal, possess unearthly beauty (kept in check by the Shield of Boringness) and have magical powers far beyond those of other beings. She has a habit of shouting “UNICORN!” when she pulls off something impressive or as an explanation for some cool thing she can do. But Marigold is otherwise good-natured and part of her journey is learning through her relationship with Phoebe that humans have worth as well.
The most commonly appearing human supporting character is Dakota, a more conventionally attractive and “popular” girl who is stuck up and started as a bully towards Phoebe. After various incidents, including gaining magic hair for a while, and discovering her affinity with goblins, Dakota mellowed out some and is now Phoebe’s frenemy.
Phoebe’s closest male friend is Max, a book smart kid who fancies being a robot when he grows up.
There are also some recurring unicorn characters, such as Lord Splendid Humility, who is always hiding in bushes so as not to overwhelm others with his magnificence. (We only ever see his horn.)
This volume starts with Phoebe learning that Marigold will actually float on air if she gets a sincere compliment, which comes up in the context of applying hoof polish.
A “sparkle infusion” temporarily gives Phoebe a unicorn tail.
Marigold suffers a rare setback when she doesn’t get the lead role in a unicorn play, and does not take it well.
Then comes the title storyline. Marigold accompanies Phoebe’s class on a trip to the science museum. She witnesses Max having fun with a VR device to give him the experience of flying. This inspires our magical friend to create a magical helmet (which looks like a VR helmet) to give Phoebe a virtual unicorn experience. It’s…sparkly.
Phoebe and Dakota watch the finale of “Confetti Canyon” together, not quite admitting how close they’ve become.
Phoebe is put on trial in Unicorn Court for “being a human.” She pleads, “yeah, so?” At the end, she’s reassured that she’s “one of the good ones” which is of course no reassurance at all.
And the closing strip reveals that sunsets are legally unicorns under unicorn law.
This is a gentle strip primarily aimed at children, so generally doesn’t get into darker subject matter (though a recent Sunday strip did reference the problematic behavior of a children’s book author spoiling Phoebe’s enjoyment of the books, and we all know who it’s referring to.) There’s a glossary of words that very young readers might not be familiar with, like “opalescent.” One unusual word that isn’t in the glossary is explained in the strip it appears in, “pronking.”
The strip mostly ignored aging, though eventually Phoebe did have a tenth birthday. Despite having had multiple Christmases in there.
The art is cartoony, and there’s pages on how to draw the two main characters. Marigold’s mane swoop is always on the side of her head away from the viewer; it’s magic.
Recommended to children’s fantasy fans and their children.
