DEATH & SPARKLES AND THE SACRED GOLDEN CUPCAKE

Two adventures collide in an uproarious combination of heritage and revenge in this second series entry.

Opposing journeys, told across alternating chapters, provide insight into unicorns’ less savory qualities. In one tale, four orphaned moles end up in the care of unicorn society, where they’re assigned gardening duties. While the moles toil under the belief that they’re earning a higher status, they end up facing even more discrimination, including in unicorn court. Meanwhile, Sparkles has a glowing horn, a magic golden cupcake from his parents, and a restless urge to dance somewhere unknown for an uncertain reason. Death tags along like the friend he is. Sparkles endangers himself and others with his carelessly confident manner, instigating an argument between the two friends. Seeing ostensibly silly characters push each other into new growth, such as Sparkles experiencing humility and self-doubt or Death becoming a prankster, creates suitable dramatic foils for all the absurd humor surrounding them. The inevitable showdown with the scene-stealing moles leads to new stars in the series cast. Endless visual jokes make each page turn rewarding, from the moles’ wide variety of traps to some winking references to green pipes from a certain video game franchise. A recurring gag in which someone delivers a wall of text, only to be ignored, speaks to the relaxed nature of the story.

An expansion of unicorn lore worth following to see where it crash-lands next.