Nancy (comic strip)
Nancy is an American comic strip, originally written and drawn by Ernie Bushmiller and distributed by United Feature Syndicate. The strip was originally called Fritzi Ritz, but over several years, the focus changed from ditzy Fritzi to her niece Nancy, who got her own Sunday topper strip starting October 3, 1938.
History
1922 to 1982
The character of Nancy, a precocious eight-year-old, first appeared in the strip Fritzi Ritz about the airheaded flapper title character. Larry Whittington began Fritzi Ritz in 1922, and it was assumed by Bushmiller three years later. On January 2, 1933, Bushmiller introduced Fritzi's niece, Nancy. In 1949, he was quoted as saying that he originally intended Nancy "just as an incidental character and I planned to keep her for about a week and then dump her... But the little dickens was soon stealing the show and Bushmiller, the ingrate, was taking all the bows." Nancy became the focus of the daily strip, which was renamed for her in 1938 after Lawrence W. Hager, editor of the Owensboro, Kentucky Inquirer-Messenger, lobbied for the change; Sluggo Smith, Nancy's friend from the "" had been introduced earlier that year, and the strip's popularity rose. Fritzi Ritz became a secondary character, although her solo strip continued as a Sunday-only strip, and her relationship with Phil Fumble was an ongoing presence until his departure in 1968. Comics historian Don Markstein ascribed the strip's success to Bushmiller's "bold, clear art style, combined with his ability to construct a type of gag that appealed to a very broad audience.Phil Fumble made a reappearance in the November 27, 2012, strip, and became a regular character as of early January 2013, with the intention of furthering his relationship with Aunt Fritzi.
Fritzi Ritz continued as a Sunday feature until 1968. At its peak in the 1970s, Nancy ran in more than 880 newspapers, before falling to 79 shortly before Guy Gilchrist's departure from the strip in 2018.
1982 to 2018
worked on Sunday episodes of Nancy from 1982 to 1984 after Bushmiller died. During that period, David Letterman showed on TV a Nancy panel with Plastino's signature and made a joke about Plastino as a superhero name.The strip has continued to the present day by different writers and artists. Mark Lasky briefly handled the daily strip in 1982/1983 until his death from cancer at age 29. The strip was handed to Jerry Scott in 1983, who gradually started to draw the strip in a much different, more modern style than other incarnations. In 1994, the syndicate began seeking a replacement for Scott; applicants included Ivan Brunetti and Gary Hallgren. In 1995, Guy and Brad Gilchrist were given control of the strip; Guy Gilchrist subsequently became the sole author and illustrator.
Daily credits, post-Bushmiller:
- Mark Lasky: August 29, 1982 – July 9, 1983
- Jerry Scott: July 11, 1983 – September 2, 1995
- Guy Gilchrist: September 4, 1995 – February 17, 2018
- Al Plastino: November 21, 1982 – December 30, 1984
- Jerry Scott: January 6, 1985 – August 27, 1995
- Guy Gilchrist: September 3, 1995 – February 18, 2018
2018 to Present
Following a two-month hiatus, the strip resumed on April 9 with "21st-century female perspective" from a person using the pen name Olivia Jaimes, the strip's first-ever female author. At the time of the announcement, 75 newspapers still ran the strip. Jaimes said, "Nancy has been my favorite sassy grouch for a long time. I'm excited to be sassy and grouchy through her voice instead of just mine" and "the Nancy I know and love is a total jerk and also gluttonous and also has big feelings and voraciously consumes her world". Comics historian Tom Spurgeon describes Jaimes as funny and talented, with an approach to the character that both breaks with and pays homage to Bushmiller's version.
In the process, Jaimes updated the strip's technology, including Nancy frequently using her smartphone and attending robotics classes. The September 3, 2018 strip spawned an Internet meme, depicting Nancy riding a hoverboard using two phones, one of which was attached to a selfie stick, and proclaiming that "Sluggo is." Jaimes described her aim with that strip to "most upset the person who likes me the least ... somebody who's like, 'Nancy sucks now' ... what I imagine my greatest hater would despise most is Nancy interacting with every piece of technology using words you don't understand."
Art style
Bushmiller refined and simplified his drawing style over the years to create a uniquely stylized comic world. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language illustrates its entry on comic strip with a Nancy cartoon. Despite the small size of the reproduction, both the art and the gag are clear, and an eye-tracking survey once determined that Nancy was so conspicuous that it was the first strip most people viewed on a newspaper comics page.In a 1988 essay, "How to Read Nancy", Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik offered a probing analysis of Bushmiller's strip:
Comics theorist Scott McCloud described the essence of Nancy:
Cartoonist Wally Wood described Nancys design more succinctly: "By the time you decided not to read it, you already had."
Characters
;Primary characters's distinctive line-work was instantly recognizable.
- Nancy Ritz, a typical and somewhat mischievous eight-year-old girl. She encourages her friend Sluggo to improve himself and is instantly jealous of any other girls who pay attention to him. During Gilchrists's run, she was portrayed as living in Three Rocks, Tennessee although her home town was unspecified by other artists. Bushmiller located her home as 220 Oak Street next to Elm Avenue. Aside from creating Nancy as Fritzi's niece, Bushmiller claimed to know nothing about her lineage, adding 'Very occasionally, I get curious kids asking me, but I don't know what to tell them.'
- Fritzi Ritz, Nancy's paternal aunt, with whom she lives. This character was gradually phased out beginning in the mid-1980s before being dropped entirely by the end of the decade but returned as a main character in 1995 when the strip was taken over by brothers Brad and Guy Gilchrist. In the current version of Nancy, Fritzi acts as Nancy's full-time carer.
- Sluggo Smith, Nancy's best friend, introduced in 1938. Sluggo is Nancy's age and is a poor ragamuffin-type from the wrong side of the tracks. He is sometimes described as Nancy's boyfriend. He is portrayed as lazy, and his favourite pastime seems to be napping; in 1976 Bushmiller told a reporter who asked how Sluggo supported himself: "I assume he delivers groceries on Saturday, or something like that.". Sluggo lives at 720 Drabb Street in an abandoned house he found and according to a storyline in 2013 strips, is taken care of by truck driver "uncles" Les and More, who discovered that he had lived in an orphanage; his mother died after he was born, and his father died serving his country. Sluggo's Uncle Vince is "shady" and his rich Aunt Maggie in California doesn't care about him because he reminds her of when she was poor. Sluggo ran away from the orphanage, and his cousin Chauncey gave him $200 and he took the train as far as Three Rocks.
- Agnes and Lucy, Nancy's identical twin friends in the Jaimes version. Agnes, the more wily twin, wears her hair down, and Lucy, the more idealistic and artistic twin, wears her hair up.
- Esther, a girl in Nancy's class in the Jaimes version. Introduced in 2018, she has a patchy relationship with Nancy.
- Judy, Nancy's cousin who looks like her.
- Lyle, a blonde male classmate of Nancy's in the Jaimes version, who nearly always wears sandals with socks, regardless of the weather.
- Marigold, Sluggo's tomboy cousin.
- Melissa Bangles, one of Nancy's teachers in the Jaimes version, who had thwarted hopes of a basketball career.
- Mildred, originally Esther's and then also Nancy's rival in the Jaimes version. She goes to a nearby magnet school that Esther used to also attend.
- Nancy's art camp counselor, an unnamed character in the Jaimes version, who is a very physically fit art teacher.
- Nita, Nancy's math and robotics teacher, a character in the Jaimes version whose internal monologue often reflects on the difficulty and rewards of teaching.
- Old man, an unnamed character in the Jaimes version, a cranky oldster who has been affectionately dubbed "Earnest Dangit" by some fans.
- Oona Goosepimple, the spooky-looking child who lives in a haunted house down the road from Nancy's house. She originally appeared only in the comic book version of the strip, during John Stanley's tenure in the late 1950s and early 1960s. She appeared in the actual comic strip for the first time on October 16, 2013.
- Pee Wee, a neighborhood toddler.
- Phil Fumble, Fritzi's boyfriend. Previously a central character in the strip, he was written out in 1968 but made a reappearance in late 2012, subsequently marrying Fritzi in Gilchrist's last strip. This character does not currently appear in Jaimes' version of the strip.
- Poochie, Nancy's dog, included in the Bushmiller and Gilchrist versions and first seen in the Jaimes version of the strip on June 27, 2018, and first mentioned by name in the Jaimes version on September 23, 2019.
- Pussycat, Nancy's adopted stray cat, who does not currently appear in the Jaimes version of the strip.
- Rollo Haveall, the stereotypical but nonetheless friendly rich kid. In the early 1940s, the rich kid was known as Marmaduke and in 2013, Rollo's father's name is given as Rollo Marmaduke Sr.
- Spike, the town bully who frequently fights with Sluggo, but does not always win out.
Awards
In 1995, the strip was selected as one of the 20 in the "Comic Strip Classics" series of commemorative U.S. postage stamps.
Comic books
There were first several Fritzi Ritz comic stories in comics published by United Feature. These include Fritzi Ritz No. 1, 3–7, #27–36 ; United Comics #8–36 ; Tip Topper Comics #1–28 ; St John published Fritzi Ritz #37–55. Dell published Fitzi Ritz #56–59Nancy appeared in comic books—initially in a 1940s comic strip reprint title from United Feature, later St. John Publications and later in a Dell comic written by John Stanley. Titled Nancy and Sluggo, United Feature published #16–23, St. John published #121–145. Titled Nancy, until retitled Nancy and Sluggo with issue #174, Dell published #146–187.. Dell also published Dell Giants devoted to Nancy, and a Four Color #1034. Nancy and Sluggo also appeared in stories in Tip Top Comics published by United Feature, St. Johns, and Dell, Sparkler #1–120 and Sparkle #1–33 published by United Feature. Fritzi Ritz and Nancy appeared in several Comics on Parade published by United Feature.
Nancy was reprinted in the UK comic book, The Topper, from the 1950s through the 1970s. Nancy also had its own monthly comic book magazine of newspaper reprints in Norway during 1956–1959.
Animation
Nancy was featured in two animated shorts by the Terrytoons studio in 1942–1943: School Daze and Doing Their Bit.In 1971, several newly created Nancy and Sluggo cartoons appeared on the Saturday morning cartoon series Archie's TV Funnies, which starred the Archie Comic Series characters running a television station. Nancy appeared along with seven other comic strip characters: Emmy Lou, Broom-Hilda, Dick Tracy, The Dropouts, Moon Mullins, the Captain and the Kids and Smokey Stover. The series lasted one season. In 1978, she was also featured in several segments of Filmation's animated show Fabulous Funnies, a repackaging of Archie's TV Funnies material minus the Archie characters wraparounds.
Foreign versions
Nancy has been translated into a variety of languages, often with changes to characters' names. In Sweden, the strip is called Lisa och Sluggo. In French, Nancy is called Philomène in Canada, and Zoé in France, where the strip is called Arthur et Zoé. Nancy also appeared on the back cover of the popular Arabic children magazine Majid during the 80s, she was known as Moza while Sluggo was portrayed as her brother Rashoud. In Mexico she is known as Periquita, while Sluggo is called Tito.Cultural references
Bushmiller's art work has inspired other artists:;Comics
- Cartoonist Bill Griffith has used the characters and emulated Bushmiller's style frequently in his Zippy the Pinhead.
- Cartoonist Scott McCloud developed a card game, 5-card Nancy, in which players use random panels of Nancy to create their own stories. McCloud also included a Nancy cameo in his book, Understanding Comics. When describing the "non-sequitur" transition type, several unrelated images appear between panels. One is an upside-down picture of Nancy being struck by lightning with the caption "Danger".
- Cartoonist Mark Newgarden has included Nancy in his work.
- Pearls Before Swine cartoonist Stephan Pastis portrayed Nancy and Sluggo as extras to replace Rat and Goat during the 2003 "Pearls Labor Dispute".
- Mad has run several parodies, including "Nansy", in which Nancy is transformed into the main character of several other comic strips, including Donald Duck, Dick Tracy and Li'l Abner, all with that same hyphen-nose and frizzy hairdo. Also in Mad, Bushmiller gets the hardboiled treatment: "If Mickey Spillane Wrote Nancy".
- Quino's Mafalda bears a strong resemblance to the earlier Nancy, which Quino mocks in one strip, where Miguelito buys a Nancy magazine and shows it to Mafalda noticing the resemblance, only for Mafalda to retort that she looks more like his grandmother.
- Cartoonist Max Cannon often includes Stubbo, a boy drawn in Bushmiller's style, in his Red Meat strip.
- Nancy was the subject of Andy Warhol's 1961 painting Nancy.
- Nancy was the subject of several pop art works by Joe Brainard, collected in The Nancy Book, Siglio Press. They include:
- * If Nancy Was an Ashtray, 1972
- * If Nancy Was a Boy, 1972
- * If Nancy Was a da Vinci Sketch, 1972
- * Nancy Diptych, 1974
- * If Nancy Was a Painting by de Kooning, 1975
- In Mexico, the character, shown in the comic strips, become so popular that a socks company used her image and name in Spanish for a brand of girl's anklets very popular in Guadalajara, to the point it has her own song and commercials.
- Periquita #200 is seen on a table in a restaurant near the end of the film Roma.
Collections
- Nancy, Pocket Books
- The Best of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy by Brian Walker, Henry Holt
- Kitchen Sink Press series:
- * Nancy Eats Food
- * How Sluggo Survives
- * Nancy Dreams and Schemes
- * Bums, Beatniks and Hippies / Artists and Con Artists
- * Nancy's Pets
- Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Nancy: The Enduring Wisdom of Ernie Bushmiller, Pharos Books
- Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1942–1945, Fantagraphics Books
- Nancy Likes Christmas: Complete Dailies 1946–1948, Fantagraphics Books
- Nancy Loves Sluggo: Complete Dailies 1949–1951, Fantagraphics Books
- Nancy Vol. 1: The John Stanley Library, Drawn and Quarterly
- Nancy Vol. 2: The John Stanley Library, Drawn and Quarterly
- Nancy Vol. 3: The John Stanley Library, Drawn and Quarterly
- Nancy: A Comic Collection, Andrews McMeel Publishing
''Random Acts of Nancy''
Following Guy Gilchrist's departure from Nancy, this strip was discontinued.