Deconstruction
"How to Read ''Nancy''" is distinguished by its extensive analysis of a single ''Nancy'' comic strip originally published on August 8, 1959. The essay successively isolates and discusses the strip's individual formal elements (including the placement of word balloons, the level of the horizon line, the spotting of blacks, and panel shape and size) to demonstrate each codependent aspect of comics syntax. The essay has been used in a variety of university level courses about comics; a full 25% of syllabi listed on the National Association of Comics Arts Educators (NACAE) website include the essay in their required reading. "How to Read ''Nancy''" is an outgrowth of Karasik and Newgarden's lifelong interest in Bushmiller's work. Newgarden had previously drawn "Love's Savage Fury," a four-page tribute to ''Nancy'' originally published in ''RAW Magazine'' v. 1 #8 in 1986 (also republished in ''The Best of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy''), and the pair had assigned a ''Nancy''-related assignment to students in a "Language of Comics" class that they co-taught in the 1980s at theBook
The original "How to Read ''Nancy''" essay is available as a PDF download from Newgarden's website. Karasik and Newgarden have expanded the essay to book length, released on October 31, 2017, published by Fantagraphics Books as a companion to their multi-volume ''Nancy'' reprint series. The book won an Eisner Award in 2018 for "Best Comics Related Book".See also
* '' Understanding Comics''References
{{DEFAULTSORT:How To Read Nancy 1988 essays Essays about comics 1988 in comics Books about comics 2017 books