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Tag: ernie bushmiller

Grown Men Reading Nancy

Writing for the New York Review Books, Dash Shaw reviews How To Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels by Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden: 

Today, comics are studied in colleges and reviewed in prominent magazines, but they are often discussed either as vessels for urgent, personal stories or as objects filled with beautiful, unusual graphics. They are rarely discussed or reviewed for their “cartooning,” the particular panel-to-panel magic, the arrangement of elements that mysteriously combines reading and looking, and distinguishes why a comic like Nancy is masterful and others are not. Beautiful cartooning affects a comic the way a well-chosen word, arriving at the right time in a sentence, makes for good writing, or the way a room composed with the right combination of things in the exact right places is good interior design.

I don’t think it’s any secret that I love Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy. It is, as the review points out, a beautifully constructed comic strip. But it is more than that. It’s also genuinely warm, funny, and relatable. I see a bit of my kids in Nancy and Sluggo, I see a bit of myself too.

I that think Steven Heller kind of gets to it in this interview with co-author Paul Karasik: 

Nancy reminded me of someone close to me. In fact, she reminded me of me in a deeply existential way that cannot be explained properly in this brief column… In any case, whenever a collection of strips emerged, I’d scarf them up. They were gags but poignant. They were comic but deep. And Sluggo. How can you not love Sluggo? This was the world of comics where kids were the wise ones, the keepers of wisdom and truth. 

If you haven’t read any of the Nancy comic strips don’t start with How to Read Nancy (with all due respect to Karasik and Newgarden!), start with Nancy is Happy, the first volume of daily strips republished by Fantagraphics.  

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Happy New Year!

Happy  New Year!

(It may be 2014, but Nancy is Happy is still one of my favourite Tumblrs. Some things will never change…)

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Nancy and the Messy Shelves

Who doesn’t like tidy shelves?

I do have a strange and peculiar love of Ernie Bushmiller’s ‘Nancy’ comic strips, especially when odd panels are taken out of context, but Fantagraphics are doing a great job of collecting them properly into books (designed by Jacob Covey). Two volumes — Nancy is Happy and Nancy Likes Christmas — are currently available, with surely more to come (?).

(via Nancy Is Happy)

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Happy New Year

Apologies for two Nancy  posts in a row, but if you’re a parent of small children and you spent the holidays at home, you will probably be able to relate:

Normal service will resume shortly (once I’ve dug myself out of toys, craft materials and dress-up clothes). Happy New Year.

(image via the fabulous Nancy is Happy)

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Hooray for Christmas

Happy holidays!

Nancy Likes Christmas has just been published by Fantagraphics.

(via the awesome Nancy is Happy).

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