Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for February 16, 2023

Phoebe the novel critic.

The concept of fiction transcends medium. This is the asteroid where I will die, after living a long and fulfilling life on it.

Eh, I rather write in paper. Your arms might get tired more easily, but at least you don’t damage your eyes too often.

Phoebe is smarter than this… what gives?

When grading this I hope the teacher takes that into consideration!

No, no! This is the asteroid I’n willing to boogie on.

Phoebe makes a good point. The expressions on characters in comics and graphic novels help us to identify with them.

I just finished collecting the threegraphic novels of Zita the Space Girl, and are better than 99.99% of actual tv/streaming shows.

Rorschach, Silk Spectre II, Doctor Manhattan & Nite Owl II, among others, agree with Phoebe’s assessment of graphic novels.

My only issue is with people who use “graphic novel” as a synonym for “comic book”, apparently because they’re too insecure or pretentious to admit that they read, write, draw, or make movies and TV shows based on comic books. Note that most of my examples are people who work in the industry. I’m so tired of seeing the credits of a movie or TV show say "Based on the graphic novel by … ". I’m particularly looking at you Walking Dead franchise. Graphic novel refers to a specific publishing format. “Maus” or “God Loves, Man Kills” are graphic novels; Avengers # 235 is a comic book. Trade paperback collections reprinting multiple issues of a comic book don’t count either.

Aren’t comics sort of an abridged Graphic Novel?

Seems like a novel idea

Well, her approach could use a little work, but I otherwise approve of the message. :D

Someone refresh my memory, has Calvin ever been assigned to write a book report? If not, maybe he could have done one on “Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey”.

I think that should be “This is the asteroid on which I’m willing to die.” I was taught that sentences shouldn’t end with a preposition.

Yay!

I like the way Phoebe is drawn here where the bottom of her eyes is not traced out so much

Hmm…No mention of theme or symbolism. Doesn’t bode well for the grade.

I’m with Phoebe here. My oldest son hated to read. Wouldn’t pick up a book. But he loved Calvin and Hobbes, which have a great vocabulary, so I bought him every book. He read them all.

Well, technically speaking they are, because they’re bound volumes. But there’s little doubt that it takes a lot less effort to read a graphic novel than a text-only book.

I would say that if a teacher allowed students to do book reports on graphic novels, it would be only fair to require the student to write about two books instead of one.

I’m with Phoebe