All this is to say that I know The Last Unicorn very well, so I was quite excited to learn that there would be a graphic novel adaptation in 2011. I planned to see-by myself, if necessary!-a special theatre showing of the film/author talk in D.C., where Beagle himself would talk about the story and the film, and author talks always do signings (the film tour itself was cancelled, so not all dreams are meant to be). And then when I had graduated college and was getting around by myself in New York City as a twenty-something near-adult, I went to the legendary Strand bookstore for the first time and bought myself one book, my own copy of The Last Unicorn, at long last.

And then I finally found a copy of the book in the high school library, and it blew my mind, how much bigger the story was, how much more complex and clever, and I fell in love a second time. And then in middle school, I finally had my own copy of the film on DVD. Like children do, I watched the thing I loved over and over until I had memorized the lines and the words to all of the songs by the folksy, mostly-forgotten band “America.” And then I read other unicorn books, better unicorn books that appreciated the same majesty and inherent otherworldliness and melancholy of an immortal beauty like The Last Unicorn. I was not wrong about any of this, and so began my lifelong obsession with The Last Unicorn. This unicorn was clearly engaged in some epic battle with a frankly Satanic-looking, burning red bull, and despite knowing nothing else, I was convinced it was going to be awesome.Īll of the other DVD covers are just embarrassing after this. When I was a child, modern unicorns were generally fluffy beasts with glitter in their manes, colored in pinks and rainbows and frolicking around clouds and butterflies. Beagle’s beloved classic fantasy The Last Unicorn was the 1982 animated film (for which Beagle wrote the screenplay, thank goodness) that I first pulled off a Blockbuster shelf above my head because of the brilliant unicorn on the cover. Like most people my age, my introduction to Peter S.

The last unicorn original book