Phoebe and Her Unicorn Ending?!! Update: Strip Goes Sunday Only

Comments ²⁰

1. Grant

   Noooooo!!!

2. Darryl Heine

   So this strip is ending this month? Phoebe and Her Unicorn would be the 3rd. US newspaper strip to end in 2025 joining Candorville and Scary Gary.

   Here are my guesses for the next 2 strips to end in 2025: Gasoline Alley and Arlo & Janis.

   1. Grant

      Arlo & Janis might end this year. They are soon-to-be grandparents and that could be one step closer to the end. It is probably the more likely one to end, somehow. The Katzenjammer Kids ran 108 years. Gasoline Alley is currently at 106. Walt Wallet will be the oldest person alive for about three more years, of you get what I’m saying. Either way, having two mid-sized comic strips and an obscure one on the way out before the end of March isn’t very encouraging.

      1. Mike Peterson  (admin)

         I became a grandparent 27 years ago, and yet somehow, against all odds, I’m still here. Your notion of when Arlo & Janis will die of old age is not in accord with my reality. We’ll die when we’re ready, not when you determine it’s time.

      2. Grant

         I didn’t mean to accidentally kill off Arlo and Janis. I just meant that could be a good place to stop.

      3. Grant

         Actually I could see a situation where Gasoline Alley ends. Tribune syndicate has been struggling for the last 15 or so years, hasn’t it. Maybe, seeing where the economy is heading, TCA could go under and take Gasoline Alley with it.

      4. Unca $crooge

         The oldest character in GA, at least as established by Dick Moores, is Joel Smith, not Walt Wallet. If the Tribune Content Agency, owner of the strip, should fail, I would expect it to be sold off as it still appears to be making money.

      5. Grant

         I would say Walt Wallet is now older than Joel Smith. Joel Smith is the same age now as he’s ever been. Walt Wallet ages and is now 126 years old, beating out Inah Canabarro Lucas, the oldest non-cartoon living person by 10 whole years. You are right that TCA probably would sell Gasoline Alley off. They would probably sell off anything they could, some stuff going for more than other stuff.

3. Andrew Farago

   The Phoebe and Her Unicorn books are best-sellers in the kids’ comics/graphic novels category, and the core of Dana’s fanbase knows her from reading those at their school libraries or picking them up at Scholastic Book Fairs. Phoebe and Her Unicorn may be leaving newspapers, but I expect we’ll still be seeing new books at least two or three times a year. Wishing Dana the best with whatever’s coming up next.

4. Mike Rhode

   Which of their 4 proposed replacements is not like the others? ;^)

   They’ve got some good replacement choices, in Wallace the Brave and Crabgrass though.

   1. Grant

      My guess on the results is that Garfield wins on name recognition alone, but Crabgrass is able to put up a decent lead for second.

5. Andrew Farago

   Dana clarified her intentions today in a social media post:

   Big announcement time!
   March 30th marks ten years that “Phoebe and Her Unicorn” has been in newspaper syndication.
   “Phoebe and Her Unicorn” will continue for as long as I have a brain, eyes, and a functioning drawing hand. There will be new books for decades.
   I thought I’d reassure people of that, before dropping the following news: I’m bringing the daily newspaper strip to an end.
   The Sunday comics will continue, but as of March 30, 2025, I’m finished with daily comic strips.
   And just as, in the strip, Phoebe has moved to a new house, she’s also moving to a new medium: graphic novels.
   She’s been there before: in addition to the many books that are collections of strips, two (The Magic Storm and Unicorn Theater) are graphic novels written on their own, and probably a template for what’s to come.
   And the truth is, books are where “Phoebe and Her Unicorn” has been most successful. I’m in a couple hundred newspapers. Meanwhile I’ve sold nearly 5 million books. And books are most of my income. If the marketplace is speaking, it’s telling me people want books. So I’m going to just do that.
   I’ve known for a few years now that that’s where this was eventually headed.
   Of course, this was an emotional decision. I wanted to be a syndicated comic strip artist my whole life, for as long as I knew what one was. I was xeroxing my strip samples at Kinko’s and then mailing them to all the syndicates before I was 20. It was my unreachable dream for so long, until finally, in my 30s, I won a contest and got the opportunity to make my dream come true.
   And it’s been everything I hoped for and more. The rare, almost unique, privilege of making a living drawing unicorns. Getting to meet, and feel welcomed by, so many of my comics heroes.
   I would not trade it for anything. It’s been a great honor.
   The thing is, though, I’ve been drawing comic strips for a really long time. I started Ozy and Millie as a teenager, drew it for a decade, and now I’ve drawn “Phoebe and Her Unicorn” for 13 years. I’ve drawn many thousands of comic strips.
   I feel ready for new challenges. I have ideas for new long-form stories about Phoebe and Marigold that I’m super eager to write! And I’ll have time for other projects, too. My long-delayed graphic memoir. A long-gestating graphic novel with my sister. A book about Ozy and Milo. New challenges and projects I haven’t even thought of yet.
   But Phoebe and Marigold will remain the stars. That’s the biggest thing I want to communicate. They aren’t going anywhere!
   Thank you to everyone who’s read the strip all these years, to all the newspapers who kept running it, and to Andrews McMeel for being a great syndicate. They’re a great publisher too, and they’ll be getting a lot more unicorn books from me before this is done.
   Onward!
   With sparkles,
   Dana Simpson

   1. Grant

      This is a bit relieving. The only thing is that my newspaper only has Phoebe on weekdays. Maybe they will get it on Sundays now, I don’t know. They do have possible space. They still have Get Fuzzy and Scary Gary.

      1. Grant

         And I have two questions: Would they keep this in weekday reruns a la Doonesbury, or totally Sundays only a la FoxTrot? The other one is that the 31st of March is a Monday. Is the last weekday cartoon on the 29th, or the 5th? I don’t really expect an answer for a couple weeks, but if any of y’all know something I don’t or have any theories…

6. Ignatz

   I thought Gasoline Alley was going to end on its 100th Anniversary, with Walt going to the Old Comics Home and just staying there with Phyllis. I still think that’s how it should end.

   I just started reading Phoebe and Her Unicorn about a year ago, and it’s excellent. I’m sad to see it go, but maybe I’ll check out those books.

   1. Darryl Heine

      We thought Gasoline Alley would end in 2018 or 2020 when the strip went into rerun arcs for a time, but it kept going.

      What if Creators or King Features or Counterpoint acquired all (or almost all) the TCA strips? Unless some TCA strips – even Dick Tracy – move to Andrews-McMeel? We know Washington Post Writers Group is now defunct.

7. Darryl Heine

   So Phoebe and Her Unicorn is staying Sundays only but the daily strips are ending? Much like Fox Trot, Doonesbury, and Stone Soup did.

   So we still had 2 strips that ended in 2025: Candorville and Scary Gary.

   1. Darryl Heine

      I forgot to mention when Get Fuzzy went daily rerun mode in late 2013 it had off and on first run Sunday strips up to 2019.

8. Ray Rappisi Jr

   I enjoy her Sundays very much and happy to still be able to read them. I’m sure the freeing up of time will only bring fantastic results. Good Luck!

9. Stacy Curtis

   Good luck to Dana and Phoebe and Marigold Heavenly Nostrils! When our kiddo reads “Phoebe and Her Unicorn,” it’s in the graphic novel format. You have to go where the money and your fanbase are.
   I’d still like to see a TV show and/or a movie at some point.
   Cheers!