Original artwork for Nancy comic strip, July 3, 1974

Ernie Bushmiller (artist)

N.p. N.p., 1974. Original two-panel artwork by Ernie Bushmiller for the October 11, 1977 daily strip of his seminal comic strip Nancy. This particular two-panel strip features Sluggo beating the summer heat in a manner that is quintessential Bushmiller. With Bushmiller's original signature in the second frame, per standard practice.

As with American cinema, it was the French who first championed the studied simplicity of Bushmiller's un-deconstructible combination of rigid artistic style and even more rigidly governed humor. In 2012, Fantagraphics Press took on the long overdue task of putting the complete series into book form.

In our estimation, Daniel Clowes put it best in his introduction to Fantagraphics' first volume of Bushmiller's long run. Clowes astutely points out that the Nancy seems to come "from some primal Jungian dreamscape, miraculously transmitted into the morning paper." He goes on to say how he imagines Bushmiller at work, "carefully extracting every shred of irony from each frame."

20.5 x 7 inches. Near Fine.


[Book #169533]