# Explain the comic strip Nancy to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597 "2006-01-05T17:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/1 "2006-01-05T17:51:24Z")
As my username would indicate, I’m a fan of the old time comic strips. I’ll admit from the start that I’ve never gotten the appeal of _Krazy Kat_ - okay, I understand that many people think George Herriman was a genius, but I’m sorry I just don’t get it. Let’s move on. The other mystery to me is _Nancy_ - I heard enough people say that Ernie Bushmiller’s _Nancy_ is brilliant to know that there must be something to it. But I don’t see it. It may be because I haven’t read very many old Bushmiller strips. But I used to read it back in the seventies and I never felt like _Nancy_ was anything special. Did Bushmiller maybe peak back in the forties and fifties and coast in his later years? Can somebody explain to me what I was missing? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/2 "2006-01-05T17:57:00Z")
I don’t know many people who will seriously argue that **Nancy** was brilliant. Maybe ironically (it was especially dire as it aged and was as much of a punchline for a bad comic strip that **The Family Circle** is today). The early **Nancy** strips were decent, but no more than average than the strips of its day. As time went on, it became notorious as a collection of trite bad jokes surfing on it’s older popularity. A few artists (including some good ones) have cited Nancy’s straightforward style as an inspiration, but I don’t think anyone really thinks it was much more than minor strip, always outclassed by any of a dozen strips at any time in its history. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/3 "2006-01-05T17:59:36Z")
The strip was originally about Aunt Fritzi and was called **Fritzi Ritz**. Nancy, originally a supporting character, gradually became the focus of the strip. Juvenile hijinks were getting bigger laffs than the travails of a flapper, one supposes. As for what you are missing, I couldn’t say. I’ve read the old strips in reprint and they are pretty bland fare. FTR, I never “got” **Krazy Kat** either. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/4 "2006-01-05T18:02:52Z")
I can’t help you there. I remember _Nancy_ in the '60s and '70s, and it was universally reviled as the dumbest comic strip ever, even dumber than _Family Circus_ (which at least had some thought put into it, even if it was trite). _Nancy_ was just braindead. The 1st edition of the _American Heritage Dictionary_ chose a _Nancy_ strip as the margin illustration for the entry “comic strip.” It showed Nancy finding “Talking Dolls” in a store for only $1, she gets happy and buys one. The box says “Made in Japan.” When she takes the doll out, its words in the word-balloon are written in an obviously phony attempt at counterfeiting Japanese _kanji_ characters (and everyone knows that Japanese is written in a blend of three scripts: _kanji_, _hiragana_, and _katakana_. I’m appalled at the casually racist cultural ignorance that once used to be accepted as normal. Ernie Bushmiller was too lazy to drag his fat butt to the library or bookstore and find some examples of real Japanese writing? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/5 "2006-01-05T19:21:34Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I’m appalled at the casually racist cultural ignorance that once used to be accepted as normal. Ernie Bushmiller was too lazy to drag his fat butt to the library or bookstore and find some examples of real Japanese writing? There was certainly plenty of casual racism in “th’ old days,” and comics (strips and books) were full of it. But if the strip in question was written in the '50’s or even '60’s, I think it’d take an awful lot more effort than you imagine to get it right. Now whether that’s an excuse or not is up to you. Anyway, I think I too have heard people express admiration for Bushmiller’s lines less than his words. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/6 "2006-01-05T19:51:14Z")
The strip does seem to have attracted some highbrow attention at times. Back in 1989, Kitchen Sink Press came out with a series of thematic Nancy collections with titles like _Nancy Eats Food._ I once read an ad for it which praised the strip’s “minimalism.” No telling if it was ironic or not. [the simpsons] GENXER 1: That Homer Simpson is so cool! GENXER 2: Are you being sarcastic, man? GENXER 1: [pause] I don’t even know any more. [/ts] Apart from that, what can you say? Some folks just liked it. How else did it remain in syndication so long? From Don Markstein’s Toonopedia – [http://www.toonopedia.com/nancy.htm:](http://www.toonopedia.com/nancy.htm:) > [@](#): > > Fritzi Ritz was a typical 1920s strip about a pretty girl, in the tradition of Cliff Sterrett’s Positive Polly and Martin Branner’s Winnie Winkle. It was created in 1922 by cartoonist Larry Whittington, and taken over in 1925 by 20-year-old Ernie Bushmiller. (Bushmiller’s later claim of having created Fritzi is absolutely false.) Bushmiller’s bold, clear art style, combined with his ability to construct a type of gag that appealed to a very broad audience, brought the strip to new heights of popularity — and his introduction of Fritzi’s niece, Nancy, in 1933, carried it higher yet. > > \ > > Toward the end of his life, Bushmiller relied more and more on his assistants, Al Plastino (best known for his work on Superman in the 1950s and '60s, and for ghosting Ferd’nand in the '70s and '80s) and Will Johnson. He died in 1982, and the strip was taken over by Mark Lansky. Lansky died in 1983, and Jerry Scott became Nancy’s writer/artist. Scott completely revamped the strip, giving it both a more modern look and a sassier brand of humor. This seems not to have been very popular with the readers. When he left in 1995 to concentrate on Baby Blues (which he does with Rick Kirkman), the new team, Guy and Brad Gilchrist, drew their inspiration straight from Bushmiller — even to the point of re-using many of the earlier cartoonist’s gags. > > Although a few modern cartoonists, such as Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), cite Bushmiller’s iconic style and communicative abilities as an inspiration — and although he did win the 1976 Reuben Award — Nancy’s creator has enjoyed very little critical acclaim. But his work has always been immensely popular with the general public. BTW, check out the hilariously surreal “Raising Nancies” story by underground cartoonist Howard Cruse: [http://www.howardcruse.com/comicsvault/nancies/](http://www.howardcruse.com/comicsvault/nancies/) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/7 "2006-01-05T19:53:50Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > There was certainly plenty of casual racism in “th’ old days,” and comics (strips and books) were full of it. But if the strip in question was written in the '50’s or even '60’s, I think it’d take an awful lot more effort than you imagine to get it right. Now whether that’s an excuse or not is up to you. There was no need to “get it right.” All Bushmiller was doing was make the reader understand that the doll was speaking Japanese. The fact that it wasn’t an actual Japanese phrase or writing has nothing to do with racism or sloppiness: none of his audience would be idiot enough to complain that it wasn’t “accurate” and, frankly, it pretty sad that anyone thinks this is a flaw in that strip. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/8 "2006-01-05T19:55:17Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The 1st edition of the _American Heritage Dictionary_ chose a _Nancy_ strip as the margin illustration for the entry “comic strip.” It showed Nancy finding “Talking Dolls” in a store for only $1, she gets happy and buys one. The box says “Made in Japan.” When she takes the doll out, its words in the word-balloon are written in an obviously phony attempt at counterfeiting Japanese _kanji_ characters (and everyone knows that Japanese is written in a blend of three scripts: _kanji_, _hiragana_, and _katakana_. > > I’m appalled at the casually racist cultural ignorance that once used to be accepted as normal. Ernie Bushmiller was too lazy to drag his fat butt to the library or bookstore and find some examples of real Japanese writing? So? I remember a _Garfield_ strip where Garfield is playing with the telephone and Jon is chuckling over how cute it is. In the next panel you see a word-balloon full of Chinese-looking characters come out of the receiver while Garfield wears a self-satisfied smirk (like, “Just wait for your next phone bill, Jon!”) If those are real characters from Chinese or any other language I would be very surprised. How would that be an example of anti-Sinicism? It’s an established cartoon convention that you can represent foreigners’ speech/writing with any kind of random gibberish. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/9 "2006-01-05T20:02:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > There was no need to “get it right.” All Bushmiller was doing was make the reader understand that the doll was speaking Japanese. The fact that it wasn’t an actual Japanese phrase or writing has nothing to do with racism or sloppiness: none of his audience would be idiot enough to complain that it wasn’t “accurate” and, frankly, it pretty sad that anyone thinks this is a flaw in that strip. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I’m not convinced. It seems to me analagous to someone aping chinese by saying (god forgive me) “ching chong chong chin chong.” If the joke were about a doll made in France (yes, I recognize that the socioeconomic history of the 20th century wouldn’t gestate such a gag, but bear with me), would you expect Bushmiller to have just put in a bunch of random letters with accent marks? I doubt it. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/10 "2006-01-05T20:31:05Z")
I saw a Japanese cartoon a few years back in which written English was represented as a mix of vertical lines and little circles, vaguely like this: |°lI0dOp||° I wasn’t offended. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/11 "2006-01-05T20:35:53Z")
I always was annoyed by Nancy’s hair. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/12 "2006-01-05T21:33:40Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I saw a Japanese cartoon a few years back in which written English was represented as a mix of vertical lines and little circles, vaguely like this: > > |°lI0dOp||° > I wasn’t offended. You sure that’s not Martian? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/13 "2006-01-05T21:37:32Z")
Nancy and Mutt & Jeff where the 2 comics as a kid in the 70’s that I never once found funny. Snuffy Smith was rarely humorous. Jim ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/14 "2006-01-05T21:45:01Z")
I had a friend back in the '60s who swore that he always read _Nancy_ every day because he was afraid he would miss the one time that it was funny. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/15 "2006-01-05T21:49:10Z")
> [@MisterThyristor](#): > > I had a friend back in the '60s who swore that he always read _Nancy_ every day because he was afraid he would miss the one time that it was funny. I take it that it is safe to say that this never actually happened? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/16 "2006-01-05T21:52:22Z")
The champion of the “Bushmiller was a genius” view is Denis Kitchen, cartoonist and former publisher of Kitchen Sink Comics. In a Comics Journal interview, he explained that Nancy was the comic strip in its purest, least=pretentious form. When you see a tree or a boulder in the background, it’s a perfectly generic tree or boulder. The peephole in a wooden fence is the perfectly generic hole in a wooden fence. It’s the dumbest of artforms dumbed down to the purest level. And that takes a degree of genius. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/17 "2006-01-05T21:58:09Z")
[Denis Kitchen discusses Ernie Bushmiller.](http://www.deniskitchen.com/docs/TMCM.Bushmiller.html) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/18 "2006-01-05T22:15:08Z")
> [@MisterThyristor](#): > > I had a friend back in the '60s who swore that he always read _Nancy_ every day because he was afraid he would miss the one time that it was funny. I read it every day so as not to miss any Fritzi. ::wolf whistle:: ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/19 "2006-01-06T00:03:30Z")
I’m a fan of Bushmiller’s “Nancy” but I didn’t like the revised versions by the other artists after Bushmiller. I don’t think I can explain the appeal. The cartoon was inherently simple, from the the drawing style to the stories. Much of the appeal of “Nancy” was in the sight gags. And with “Nancy” you don’t have to be part of a certain demographic to enjoy it or get it. There’s a sort of simple timelessness to it, counter to many comics which remain stuck in the time period they represent complete with specific concerns to that time period. There are quite a few old “Nancy” strips at [I Love Comix](http://ilovecomixnancy.blogspot.com/). A modern strip that I like that owes much of its visual style, and often, the sight gag style to “Nancy” is [“Underworld”](http://www.kazunderworld.com/) by Kaz. The nice thing about “Underworld” however it that, unlike “Nancy”, it’s very jaded and adult-oriented, while still owing much to Bushmiller. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597/20 "2006-01-06T00:21:25Z")
**MisterThyristor** wrote: > [@](#): > > I had a friend back in the '60s who swore that he always read Nancy every day because he was afraid he would miss the one time that it was funny. I remember the day that Laugh Parade was funny. I wish I’d saved it, because nobody believes me. It went something like this: Guy walks up to an alien. There’s a flying saucer in the background, and the alien has an accoustic guitar. The caption read, “I have a message for the people of earth, and it goes a little something like this…” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-comic-strip-nancy-to-me/338597.md?page=2)