#Ernie Bushmiller got there first!
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For context, the Nancy comic is from April 19, 1947.
#since the other two have the dates it should be noted#Ernie Bushmiller got there first!#honestly just a universal experience though#way too real#nancy comic strip#nancy#fritzi ritz#ernie bushmiller#calvin and hobbes#calvin#calvin's mom#peanuts#charlie brown#charles m. schulz#parallels#funny#relatable
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Keeping Your Comic Perspectives Broad
Hi there!
This week, I've had a lot on my mind. I saw a conversation going around Bluesky about whether the big two are publishing comics for kids in a way that's reflective of their multimedia presences. I'm reading Bill Griffith's Three Rocks: The story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy and, somehow, moments after putting it down after reading for a bit this morning, managed to open Bluesky to a creator I like having no idea who Nancy is. Becca and I each read the Palestine section of Joe Sacco's Journalism since it's the only Sacco book I have that I know where it is in the house, unfortunately. And, being a Sunday morning, I did my usual Sunday round-up of new releases on the Shonen Jump app and on Webtoons. Plus all the comics I read as a regular part of my work day--action-adventure with funny animals (Sonic), action-thriller with giant monsters & robots (Godzilla), and pitches and shorts of horror and sci-fi and superheroes and all sorts of stuff. I've enjoyed a lot of different types of comics, and all of that goes back to a different conversation I saw going around earlier on Bluesky, of why comics creators who may not particularly enjoy superhero stories should still recognize the fundamental comics storytelling that they've built and refined over the past almost 100 years.
So, today we're talking briefly on all of that in talking about the importance of keeping your perspectives broad on what the medium is and can be.
Is Nancy the Purest Expression of Comics?
Like... probably! Yeah. Nancy is great, whether you're talking about modern Nancy or classic! It is the only comic I consistently remember to read every day (though I try very hard to keep up with my other two current dailies, Dumbing of Age and Gil Thorp). I am not the first to say that Nancy is a comic inherently about comics, about the format and the ways in which we interact with them. In fact, there's a whole book called How to Read Nancy which contends that you can understand all complexities of comics through a single Nancy strip. Which somehow manages to be a bold claim and something so inherently true if you've ever read Nancy that it almost renders the book superfluous.
Something a lot of folks who are not Nancy-heads probably don't realize is that the strip is *technically* 101 years old. It started as a different strip, Fritzi Ritz, with a different creator, Larry Whittington. Nancy herself showed up in 1933, and accidentally kinda took over. Good for her. And, under Bushmiller's (and later assistants') pen, it became this just really condensed form of comics in usually 3-4 panel gag strips that play with all the conventions of the form. I've mentioned the new Comic Devices site and I genuinely believe you can probably find any of the devices mentioned in the great history of Nancy strips.
With this high pedigree and recognition by many cartoonists and the heights of how big it got as a newpaper comic, you'd think Nancy would be an instantly recognizable character to anyone who has ever read a comic and... she's iconic, no doubt, but especially now, I don't think that's true (see the above where I mentioned a creator I like having no idea who Nancy was).
The Conventions of Superheroes
The reason I bring up Nancy in particular is that Nancy is a comic strip. Yes, Nancy has also been a comic book and many strips are also now digital as well as print, but my point being, outside of a few strip collections and your more literary books like Three Rocks or How to Read Nancy, you aren't going to see a lot of Nancy at your local bookstore or comic shop. And that's also kind of one of the things I love about comics as a medium. While there are obvious downsides too, I do love that comics readers are spoiled with choice. Whatever genre may strike your fancy, whatever method of comics storytelling--single issues, collections and OGNs, webcomics, strips, weird hybrid things, whatever--you can kind of find and enjoy if that's what you want.
I bring this all up in reference to superheroes because there is still, even within creator spaces, I think there tend to be misconceptions about what "superhero comics" are, or bad experiences with superhero comics leading to a rejection of the breadth of that form of storytelling.
Take, for example, the many times I have gone into a bookstore (not usually comic shops, but bookstores) and have seen a display that reads something like "Comics without superheroes" and then it has Sandman on it. I think my local library's had that sort of display too. And I'm like... Martian Manhunter and Doctor Destiny are in volume 1 of this thing. Sandman is very much a part of the DC universe, it's just not telling "traditional" superhero narratives. But it is a book that exists within and because of superhero storytelling. Same with pretty much all of early/retroactively Vertigo--Swamp Thing, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Hellblazer, Lucifer, that weird Prez one-shot, etc.
Or, alternatively, take the folks who love My Hero Academia and don't have the same relationship with other superhero comics. Yes, the actual forms of them tend to be different, but that thing wears it's Big 2 influences on its sleeve.
I think I'm drifting a bit, so to refocus on the point--even if you don't think you like superhero stories, chances are, there are some that would really resonate with you because superhero stories aren't a monolith. And, y'know, I also sometimes wonder if I'm the one with odd taste because while I may have genre preferences in the types of media I consume, I'm usually pretty flexible with trying different samples from different forms and finding stuff I like even if not everything's for me (like... I'm not a big jazz guy, but there's definitely some that does it for me). And the reason you'll find that there are stories that work for you is superheroes are a vehicle for storytelling the same as many other things. Superhero stories can be political commentary, they can be self-aware, they can be horror or romance or suspense or or sci-fi or sometimes even non-fiction autobiography. What you want is likely there, there just might be some extra footwork to find what you want.
And, if nothing else, you can find some amazing craft within superhero comics. I often link to it because I think it's quite the analysis, but years ago, ComicsAlliance ran a really great multi-part piece on superheroes as the basics of color theory and how that can apply outside the world of superhero comics. So many tricks to lettering and layouts and foreshortening and the ways in which we can create shorthand or pose bodies or create interesting juxtapositions can be found in superhero comics. And that's true of kind of any type of comic. You can find bits that you like there.
The other reason I stress all of this, and one of the other big misconceptions I think people sometimes have about superhero comics, is as I mentioned earlier, I saw a thread questioning basically "Are there comics starring Spider-Verse star, Spider-Gwen, that my middle grader can read?" And the short answer is yes! She's got a major role in Marvel Action: Spider-Man. A lot of her comics runs, honestly, pretty kid-friendly as long as you accept that your kid might have some questions about like... a few instances of word choices or like relationships. Which is how a lot of comics still are--we think of single issue comics that aren't shelved in the kids section as being "child inappropriate" and certainly, some of them are, but a lot of them are fine for an inquisitive kid. And, yes, publishers are trying to make it easier with clearer options for younger folks, like the DC younger reader graphic novels program or Marvel's Scholastic books.
Enjoy a Little of Everything Here's the big takeaway. If you let them be, comics can be a buffet of delights. You can sample so many different things and eat as much as you want and sometimes find, sure, this soup doesn't really work for you, but the one next to it slaps. And I think the best creators are people who recognize that and fully embrace it and try to read a lot of other comics in their various forms and genres and also, of course, consume plenty of other non-comics work too and maybe have some sort of life outside of pop culture. But whether it is trying to stay abreast of what is currently happening in comics to see if someone else is executing a similar idea or to be able to recommend a book to a lost parent or to really be able to seek out the things you personally enjoy and be able to incorporate the best of that into your own work, I think you've got to take comics with a broad perspective.
That's it for me this week! See ya soon!
What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Joe Pera Talks with You (TV show), Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Anime), Gone Girl (Movie... I might've watched this two weeks ago, but hey, still slaps), Three Rocks (Comic), Journalism by Joe Sacco (Comic), Nancy (Comic), Lego Masters (TV show)
New Releases this week (11/15/2023): Godzilla Rivals: vs. Mechagodzilla (Editor) - As an aside, a couple of my Godzilla creators, Kara Huset from Rivals: vs. Mechagodzilla and Lane Lloyd from an upcoming War for Humanity cover, are going through a bit of a tough time and could use some extra work. If you've got anything to send their way, I can vouch for 'em! They are both creators where in like 3-5 years, you'll be notable for getting them before they blew up!
Final Order Cutoffs next week (11/20/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog #68 (Editor)
New Releases next week (11/22/2023): Brynmore #5 (Editor)
Announcements: Do you have $10, want some cool comics, and also want to do good in the world? Adam Szym put together Comics for Gaza's Children on itch.io. They're already a third of the way to their overall goal and just launched this morning. It's over 100 items from more than 50 creators across a ton of different genres. I have a comic in there because Becca volunteered Jimmy Squarefoot as well as their adult NSFW comic with letterer Duke NuCum, Rivals. All proceeds are going to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.
If you have more money to give, the Cartoonist Cooperative is doing E-Sim cards for Gaza. You can donate a digital sim card so that residents can get access to the internet and have more functional phones and, in exchange, get some comics or a drawing or whatever else is available from the many participating artists.
You can also give more directly. If you don't have money, and I get it, you can call or fax or email or show up at the offices of your representatives. And, of course, if you need to step away for a bit so that you can do more again later on, please take care of yourself.
And this last part is unlikely, because you're someone who reads and/or works in comics, but if you've still got a couple of dollars, why not support some struggling artists? Aside from those already mentioned, you can visit my webstore, my Patreon, or my Kofi, and you can always visit Becca's portfolio/shop/Patreon/Twitch streams too. Depending on what time I have to go through things and update my shop, I'm hoping to do a little something for Small Business Saturday-Cyber Monday.
Pic of the Week: When Becca and I were grocery shopping the other day, we saw a genuinely very impressively sized eggplant. It was bigger than their hand. And hilarious eggplant as dick aside, honestly, it made us kinda bummed that we don't like eggplant because that's just a really impressive veggie!
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Nancy has been 8-years-old for 85 years running. She’s always been a little sassy, a little rude, 100-percent kid. In all of her iterations she hates school, loves cookies and is always causing minor commotions. Revamped by an artist using the pseudonym Olivia Jaimes, Nancy has taken on a new life, for the first time hanging out with non-white characters, musing about the social dynamics of texting and the proportion of time we spend online today where (ironically) many people will read this comic.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../nancy-more-relatable.../
Nancy was born on January 2, 1933, as a bit character in the popular syndicated newspaper comic Fritzi Ritz drawn then by the now-revered cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller. He was the youngest cartoonist to helm a nationally syndicated strip. “He experimented with a whole host of cousins and nephews, all male characters throughout the ’20s performing the same role Nancy did. None of them really stuck,” Mark Newgarden, who co-authored the book How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels with Paul Karasik, says. “He tried making that character female in the ’30s, and the result was really instantaneous.” People loved her.
A classic Nancy strip as drawn by Ernie Bushmiller is purposefully pristine, Newgarden and Karasik argue in their book. “The simplicity is a carefully designed function of a complex amalgam of formal rules,” they write. Or in other words: its simpleness is its brilliance. Everything Bushmiller did, they argue, is precisely executed to get the laugh—and they do mean everything, from the panel size and the blackest sections to the facial expressions and scripted lines
By 1938, Nancy had taken over the title of the strip. “That speaks to her stickiness as well. We see her as a proto-feminist, a real role model for little girls,” Karasik says. “She’s resilient and she’s tough. She’s a great problem solver. And she’s still a real kid.” Women of the ’30s had benefited greatly from the first wave of feminism in the ’20s, which got white women the right to vote. Eleanor Roosevelt was first lady, and when the Second World War began in 1941, women stepped into men’s roles everywhere from factories to the baseball diamond.
Read more https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../nancy-more-relatable.../
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The first book collecting the new Nancy comic is incredibly, fantastically, impossibly great
One of the great moments of my adulthood was my discovery -- courtesy of Mark's posts here on Boing Boing -- of the incredible work that Ernie Bushmiller did on Nancy from 1933 until his death in 1982. He was succeeded by a series of station-keeping cartoonists, some of whom were very adept at aping his unique comic timing, sense of the absurd, and confident draftmanship, but none of whom every made me have that aha moment -- until 2018, when the mysterious, pseudonymous Olivia Jaimes took over, kicking off a run of astoundingly great new Nancys that have been collected into one of the greatest new comic-strip collections I've read in a decade.
Here's the thing: Bushmiller's successors were pretty good at creating strips that felt like Bushmiller might have created them, but Jaimes's Nancy makes me feel like Bushmiller made his readers feel during his 50 year run.
Jaimes's Nancy is obsessed with her phone and social media, she lives in our modern, contemporary world, she goes to after-school robotics club, all things that are a million miles from Bushmiller's strips -- but if Bushmiller was creating Nancy in 2018, this is the Nancy he would have created. This is the non-anachronistic, modern Nancy that is totally, utterly true to Bushmiller's sensibilities, and that blend of modernity and Bushmillerian faithfulness makes today's Nancy perfectly suited for being shared between kids and their grownups.
I've been reading the new book around the house for the past day or so, and everyone else who has transited the house in that time has repeatedly stopped me to say, "Why are you laughing so hard at that book?" Honestly, I just want to give everyone a copy of this.
The book's got some terrific forematter and appendices, too, including a revealing interview wiht Vulture, an illuminating and insightful essay on the structural problems that made the funnies so white and male by Hillary "Rhymes With Orange" Price, and some charming fan-art portraits of Nancy.
Jaimes herself is shrouded in mystery: she did a single notorious live appearance at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus where she wore a hilarious disguise and then ran into a closet (!). But her personality comes through very strongly in her strips. She is clearly a precious gift from the universe to an undeserving human race, and I am so glad she's doing what she's doing.
Nancy [Olivia Jaimes/Andrews McMeel]
https://boingboing.net/2019/10/17/sluggo-is-truly-lit.html
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