"How to Read ''Nancy''" is an essay by

Mark Newgarden Mark Newgarden (born August 1, 1959, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American underground cartoonist. His work has appeared widely, and his influential shape-shifting weekly feature ''Newgarden'', which appeared in alternative weekly newspapers lik ...

and Paul Karasik, originally published in ''The Best of Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy'' by Brian Walker (Henry Holt/Comicana, 1988). The piece examines the comic strip ''Nancy'', focusing on Bushmiller's use of the comics language to deliver a gag. Finding correspondences to the

minimalist architecture In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include D ...

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

, the essay calls ''Nancy'' "a complex amalgam of formal rules laid out by tsdesigner."

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 Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

, 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 the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

in New York. One example of student work from that class, cartoonist

R. Sikoryak Robert Sikoryak (born 1964) is an American artist whose work is usually signed R. Sikoryak. He specializes in making comic adaptations of literature classics. Under the series title ''Masterpiece Comics'', these include ''Crime and Punishment'' re ...

's "Ancy," was later published in ''

Legal Action Comics ''Legal Action Comics'' is a series of comics anthologies edited by illustrator Danny Hellman which features work from many alternative comics artists. The first volume in the series was published in 2001,Hellman, Danny, editor. (2001). ''Legal Ac ...

'' v. 1.

Book

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 Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

as a companion to their multi-volume ''Nancy'' reprint series. The book won an Eisner Award in 2018 for "Best Comics Related Book".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:How To Read Nancy 1988 essays Essays about comics 1988 in comics Books about comics 2017 books

Deconstruction

Book

See also

References