nancy nancy links

April 25, 2005 11:04 AM

RAISING NANCIES : "Their most unexpected attribute was a weird, screeching noise they relentlessly emitted — A cross between a high-pitched belch and the sound produced by rubbing the suface of a balloon!" Amonia hazed humor from comics artist Howard Cruse, based on Ernie Bushmiller's classic, odd, and still-subversive character NANCY — who it seems for the sake of conversation was herself based on another (real life) Nancy ...(And as long as the subject is Nancy, here's one other related parody and a very addictive dada-like game).
posted by Peter H (16 comments total)

DANCING NANCIES.
posted by waldo at 11:49 AM on April 25, 2005

The primary post is neat. But I have to mention how much I frigging hate Nancy.
posted by Mayor Curley at 11:50 AM on April 25, 2005

Lordy. Back in the day, when I was first starting my freshman year of college and was still neck-deep in self-denial about my latent...err...nanciness, I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to walk onto campus and see flyers for the campus GLBT organization that featured two Nancies and two Sluggos gleefully walking along holding hands together. I think that's what kept me from coming out for so long; who wants to be a Sluggo?

</random flashback>
posted by ChrisTN at 12:14 PM on April 25, 2005

Actually, in my twenties, I knew a couple who greatly resembled Nancy & Sluggo. So for a wedding present, we got them nancy & sluggo t-shirts.
posted by jonmc at 12:18 PM on April 25, 2005

Nice post--thanks.
posted by Prospero at 12:27 PM on April 25, 2005

I give this post three rocks.
posted by Dr. Wu at 1:16 PM on April 25, 2005

This very much reminds me of An Electric Sheep Thanksgiving Special.
posted by aubilenon at 1:17 PM on April 25, 2005

The first thing I thought of was Dancing Nancies, but I see Waldo beat me to it :)
posted by mike3k at 1:24 PM on April 25, 2005

Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby is an excellent book. Certainly as good as Maus, if not better.
posted by jiawen at 2:34 PM on April 25, 2005

Zippy creator Bill Griffith is a huge Nancy fan. Zippy, Nancy: I love'em both.

Of course, when Ernie kicked the bucket and that hack kept on drawing the strip: boy was I pissed. Even worse than them new-fangled Felix the Cat cartoons.
posted by kozad at 3:11 PM on April 25, 2005

Cruse's Stuck Rubber Baby is an excellent book. Certainly as good as Maus, if not better.

I'd take issue with this. Cruse's book is very, very good, but better than Maus? Nope, not even close.
posted by ninthart at 3:12 PM on April 25, 2005

I give this post three rocks.

High praise, indeed!

(Really, I mean it!)
posted by interrobang at 4:35 PM on April 25, 2005

Ha, THANKS for the thanks, AND for the rocks.
ChrisTN - Cruse is a noted gay cartoonist, Stuck Rubber Baby (as mentioned above - more info) being his strongest work on that sort of thing. I agree it's not in Maus' league but it's very good on its own. You might like it. It has a good 'personal nanciness' quality, too. Heh.

Meanwhile, I have no comment on Dave Mathews other than I thought of that now famous line from Dodge Ball about throwing up a little in my mouth when I clicked waldo's link! That was a dirty trick, getting me to click that. I say, bringin Dave Matthews into a Nancy thread, my my..

I really like how Bill Griffith (and Cruse) draw Nancy. Ivan Brunetti and Chris Ware have done some great Nancy drawings, too. In fact, DAMMIT - the link I forgot about was Brunetti once tried to get the Nancy job when it was open! This is especially hilarious if you know Brunetti's work.

(digs around)

IVAN BRUNETTI'S NANCY SUBMISSION

The Other Side of Ivan Brunetti Not safe for work but funny as hell.
posted by Peter H at 5:00 PM on April 25, 2005

I'd take issue with this. Cruse's book is very, very good, but better than Maus? Nope, not even close.

I thought Maus was a bit too stereotypical in places; even though it played with the pig/mouse/cat thing, it sometimes reveled in it. The father also sometimes seemed a little too stereotypical. Maus was very powerful, but I think several scenes in Stuck Rubber Baby (the "shattered" scene, the scene on the steps with the now-hippie, former-homophobe) were more powerful than anything in Maus. But I'm probably biased towards Stuck Rubber Baby because I'm more concerned about the issues in it than the ones in Maus. So maybe we just disagree.
posted by jiawen at 9:05 PM on April 25, 2005

Why Jeff Williams on the shirt, is it hailing this IJOCA editorial board member?
posted by tellurian at 9:22 PM on April 25, 2005

More of Ivan Brunetti's Nancy tryouts were published in issue 26 of Roctober magazine, available here and here.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:31 PM on April 25, 2005