Nancy: Nancy Is Happy

More about the book

A funny thing happened on the way to comic-strip immortality. For years, Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy, with its odd-looking, squat heroine and super-corny gags, was seen as the squarest comic strip. While popular with newspaper readers, it wasn’t embraced by comic-strip connoisseurs like Krazy Kat or Dick Tracy. However, a closer look revealed that Bushmiller's art approached its own kind of cartoon perfection, and those corny gags often achieved a striking zen quality. Ultimately, Nancy emerged as one of the most iconic comic strips. The American Heritage Dictionary even uses a Nancy strip to illustrate its entry on comic strips. Key figures in the Nancy revival include Art Spiegelman, Paul Karasik, Bill Griffith, Denis Kitchen, Scott McCloud, Joe Brainard, and Andy Warhol, all of whom celebrated the strip's unique charm. Beginning in Winter 2011, Fantagraphics launched an ongoing Nancy reprint project, starting with a volume collecting every daily strip from 1943 to 1946, designed by Jacob Covey. Future volumes will cover Nancy's first five years, 1938-1942. The first volume will include an introduction by Daniel Clowes, a biography of Bushmiller, and more, showcasing the enduring appeal of this beloved comic strip.