Nancy and Sluggo's Guide to Life: Comics about Money, Food, and Other Essentials

by Ernie Bushmiller

If you were alive in twentieth-century America, you knew Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy —and this new collection assembles some of the greatest strips featuring the much-loved cartoon icon and her pug-nosed companion, Sluggo.

The newspaper cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller once admitted that “all my characters are conceived in desperation.” Nancy was no exception. She was the niece of the star of his other strip, Fritzi Ritzi , and meant to serve as a throwaway gag character. But Nancy could not be Within a few years, Bushmiller’s strip had been renamed for her, and she had begun her ascent into the pantheon of cartooning greats.

Nancy, along with on-and-off boyfriend Sluggo, delivered absurd laughs to readers for decades, all rendered in Bushmiller’s distinctive line that cartoonist Denis Kitchen once called “geometric perfection.” A masterpiece of humor and cartooning, Nancy earned both scorn and acclaim for decades, serving as a muse (and sometimes punching bag) for the likes of Andy Warhol, Joe Brainard, Gary Panter, Matt Groening, and more.

This collection of Bushmiller’s Nancy brings together a selection from the beloved Kitchen Sink Press editions of Nancy strips, including How Sluggo Survives! and Nancy Eats Food , as well as a number of newly selected cartoons.

Together, this wide-ranging collection offers a chance for readers to experience the full range of Bushmiller’s absurd humor and unexpected visual delights. As Nancy once “Anything can happen in a comic strip!”

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comix, Art

148 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2024

About the author

Ernest Paul "Ernie" Bushmiller, Jr. (1905 - 1982) was an American cartoonist, best known for creating the long-running daily comic strip Nancy. Bushmiller's work has been repeatedly addressed by other artists: Andy Warhol made a 1961 painting based on "Nancy"; the artist and poet Joe Brainard made numerous works based on Nancy; and many cartoonists have produced work directly inspired by or commenting on Bushmiller's art, including Art Spiegelman, Bill Griffith, Mark Newgarden and Chris Ware. The American Heritage Dictionary uses a Bushmiller "Nancy" strip to illustrate its entry on "comic strip."

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a collection of Nancy strips. You know what you're getting going in.

[David Crumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Get 'em while they're hot!'

That's actually a quote from a vintage Nancy cartoon I clipped and had pinned up near my news desk at The Detroit Free Press in the 1980s. That was around the time I began to realize that newspaper comic strips were an endangered species. The actual demise of most American newspapers happened later than that, but I realized that unlike comic books (which I have collected all my life) nobody was saving comic strips.

Later, I got involved in national efforts to promote preservation of Alley Oop and Brenda Starr, for example, and I eagerly bought reprint volumes when they were produced to help encourage further awareness of these classic strips. Of course, I'm a lifelong fan of Pogo, Little Orphan Annie, Gasoline Alley and Dick Tracy, which have always had fan clubs promoting their preservation.

But nobody cared much about Nancy for a long time. The comic strip seems so simple that it hardly warrants a second look—or so life-long comic artist and publisher Denis Kitchen explains in the opening of this new collection of Nancy strips by the esteemed New York Review Comics imprint. In fact, that's why other comic historians and publishers thought Kitchen was nuts for proposing bound collections of cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller's greatest hits.

As it turns out, Kitchen was prophetic—or at least he was well-wired into global trends in comics. One clue that Nancy (and Bushmiller's body of work) was truly exceptional was the early research of highly regarded comic creators and writers Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik. Way back in the 1980s, they were circulating an essay, "How to Read Nancy," that today has expanded into an entire book (which debuted in 2017) and has its own extensive Wikipedia page—yes, their book has its own Wikipedia page, including a link to get a PDF of their original essay.

In his opening to this new New York Review collection, Kitchen details when he first realized that Nancy was a sizzling-hot cultural icon in Europe, then in cool corners of the U.S. as well as in scholarly niches. Nancy has become something like a Zen koan of comic art: How can a comic have a funny twist when its gags are so straight-forward?

Well, I began to collect the Fantagraphics "Complete Dailies" bound series, which fizzled for some reason after three volumes—which, by the way, are now ridiculously expensive as collectors items. I even have one of Kitchen's "indie" Nancy volumes that he collected earlier.

This New York Review retrospective of Nancy, like a number of their other volumes, is an archival showcase of "the best" of a genre—so you're getting a relative handful of Bushmuller's lifetime output that's estimated to be around 16,000 comic strips.

I ordered the book to arrive when it was published, because I'll bet this handsome paperback with nice thick paperstock and crystal-clear printing (some reprints of comics, alas, are a bit fuzzy) will sell out and become yet another collector's item.

And that's likely a good thing, I guess. Someone else will be able to convince a publisher to give us another Nancy book—and I'll be in the Amazon pre-order queue for that one, to

[CHAD HADEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernie Bushmiller was a genius

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bushmiller wrings so much humor from seemingly simple elements – Nancy's and Sluggo's idiosyncratic but universally relatable character traits, as well as his perfectly pared-down draftsmanship. This feels like the progenitor to the work of modern artists like Chris Ware in its economical and impactful uses of basic shapes and narratives.

It's perfection in comic strip form.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book could have gone on forever. I would never stop reading it.

[Megan Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy to have a collection of Nancy comics back in print! A wonderful addition to my bookshelf. Bushmiller's drawings are so utterly themselves.

[John Yingling · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The strips in this collection of Nancy cartoons have been culled by comix publisher Denis Kitchen from his five books of Nancy strips, published in the late 1980s. Included here, too, are strips that have never been reprinted before, all on the topic of money (?!). Now that Fantagraphics’ reprint series is moribund (having stopped at Volume 3, which takes us to 1951, when Bushmiller’s career still had decades to go), it’s great to have new (for many of us) Nancy strips in book form and cheering to see that Bushmiller’s knack for a good gag didn’t fade. Denis Kitchen delivers on the request made to him by NYRComics to produce a “best of” volume, which satisfies well the appetites of both Nancy neophytes and old fans—the visual gags (which play with the format of newspaper strips), the puns, and of course Nancy’s eternal spunk and DIY attitude—which probably helps explain Kitchen’s observation in his intro that many young women are now discovering and falling in love with Nancy. Most of the strips are from the ‘60s and ‘70s, and none (I think) repeat any in the Fantagraphics reprint series. Pairs well with Bill Griffith’s new biography of Bushmiller, Three Rocks.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[John “Hoss” · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of Bushmiller’s incredible comic strip. I used to have all of the fantagraphic versions of Nancy but got rid of two of them. I regret that a lot. I’ve never been able to get a cheap copy if the kitchen sink books, so when this was announced I had to get it. Within this book’s contents are curated strips from the kitchen sink books and a new intro from Denis Kitchen. I really like seeing the appreciation for Bushmiller’s comic, and hope this new interest will inspire more books or collections to come out. As an aspiring cartoonist I like reading everything I can to learn from the masters. If you’re a comic strip fan, you owe it to yourself to get this for your collection. It’s guaranteed to make you laugh and worth revisiting.

[Greg L Goldstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, I love Nancy. I own a quite a few collections.

This book is an anomaly. An odd selection of strips that misses many of the surrealistic classics that define the strip. And the layout is somewhat haphazard as well.

That said, its a an ok introduction to the strip if you're just starting down the rabbit hole.

[Lisa Burris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is a neat little shot of nostalgia. There have been very few Nancy collections, and those that have been published are already our of date. That makes this volume special, and it's sure to be a collectors' item. Besides which, it's just a fun strip, and the illustrator, Ernie Bushmiller had a unique perspective, so his work was innovative and has stood the test of time.

[Chris Barsanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consider this serenely odd book a palate cleanser for a chaotic time...

Full review is at Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An utterly charming classic comic series! What a delightful treat to read a fun collection of misadventures that harken back to "the good old days". Nancy and Sluggo are utterly charming and the series was great for a laugh!

[Keith Kavanagh · Rating 3 out of 5]

any interaction with nancy and sluggo is always a pleasure however I was slightly disappointed by the specific sections, I felt there were quite a few duds because they were bound by the theme, whereas a random selection could have produced some of the funnier strips

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a book to read and, to be honest, some of the comics did not seem funny or I didn't really get. This is more of "collector's" book for me. The comic strip Nancy has been in print since 1938 which evolved from an early comic strip, Fritzi Ritz.

[batya7 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got it for my Mom (90). As a collection, it's OK, but I didn't like the chapters showing comics by category. The comics themselves are odd-sized, too. That's why I gave it a 2.

Reminded me why I hated Nancy comics. I only read the first group.

[Leslie Basney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes memories are best.

[Myrna ♡]

me when the book isnt actually out but ive still read it 🤭a banger tho !! just what i needed this week

[Roy Kenagy]

ICPL ONLY IA HOLDING 24_09_30

$20.28 AMAZON

[Cody Wilson]

Nancy comics are a great time. I especially like the "money" section of comic strips. It's always interesting to take in the economic perspective of someone who lived through the Great Depression.

[Booper]

sluggo I could've parented you ToT

[Angel Shadd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds me so much of being a kid. 🤎