Bare Minimum comics

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Nancy and Sluggo are still around today, which slightly lummoxes me as the strip has always seemed to carry minimalism way too far. The story goes that Ernie Bushmiller had an assortment of Nancy and Sluggo rubber stamps made up, and he would pick a few, press them on an ink pad and smack them on the page, ink in a few word balloons and be done for the day. This isn't as unlikely as you might think. Mac Raboy's drawings of Captain Marvel Jr were cut and pasted all over the pages of other artists, and Jack Burnley's Starman repeated the same five or six poses from story to story (and sometimes repeated themselves within the same story). Of course, with those two artists, there was a lot of care to detail and anatomy in their drawing, while Bushmiller's were simple icons a step above stick figures, but the principle is the same.

Of course, Nancy and Sluggo began as minor characters in FRITZI RITZ (which started in 1922), which they gradually took over in the sort of coup that comics undergo sometimes. The same thing happened to WASH TUBBS becoming CAPTAIN EASY, for example.This is from November 16, 1941, and there's more craftsmanship here than meets the eye at first. The very first panel, with the little inset of Phil running, is so economical. We see Fritzi on the phone and (to us)she is still talking while Phil already has his coat on and is running down the street. He's so eager, in fact, that his little inset overlaps into the next panel. It's a tiny moment, but I love spotting little bits of storytelling art like that.This strip also brings up the convention that comics women are nearly always drawn in a more realistic and attractive way than the men are. This even extends to funny animals, for some reason. Check out how Bushmiller takes care to make Fritzi and the store mannequins such babes, while Phil and Ronnie are goofballs. Phil also seems to be foreshadowing the Simpsons' trait of having just an outline of hair on top of the head.


Aunt and niece on January 20, 2009, sharing a tender Roy Rogers moment. The mixture of styles is startling. Next to the more realistic Fritzi, the cartoonish Nancy (even with shading) looks a bit like some ET about to abduct her.

Comments

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Scott Kurtz (http://www.pvponline.com/) used to use templates of the characters to create PVP; don't know if he still does, tho'.

[halloweenjack.insanejournal.com]

Also: Scott McCloud's Five-Card Nancy (http://www.scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/nancy/index.html).

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Thanks for the links. I like the idea of Nancy as "Plato's playground," reduced to only what's necessary.

You know what might be funny? Giving NANCY to various inkers to see what they do with it.

Nancy

[peur_evol.insanejournal.com]

Not sure if you're a Bushmiller purist or not, but one of John Stanley's Nancy comics is being reprinted for this year's FREE COMIC BOOK DAY (http://www.freecomicbookday.com/comic.asp?ID=28).

Re: Nancy

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

Nice to see some variety being promoted.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

I'm curious - why, exactly, is Fritzi crying in that second strip? Is there any particular reason? Did some great tragedy happen?

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

She's watching the end of the old Roy Rogers TV series and is getting all mushy and sentimental. It's ironic that the song is "Happy trails to you, till we meet again," and both Roy and Dale are long dead.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Ah. Yeah, I guess that makes sense - I was thinking that she might have had something to do with Roy Rogers at some point - maybe he cameod in her strip or something - and this was a subtle nod to it.

[morgana006.insanejournal.com]

Wait, I'm confused. Nancy and Sluggo was the one rumored to have the stamps? Because the last two panels of the Fritzi Ritz comic...

Although, on closer inspection, it looks more like they took the image of Fritzi on with the coat on from the previous panel and scaled it down. There's an interesting -

Erm. I am not sure why I care this much.

[bwmedia.wordpress.com (from insanejournal.com)]

And people complain about sprite comics. They're catching up, what with no Bob and George to rip-off and having to do their own thing. Much like these "rubber stamp" comics.

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

DOONESBURY was an example of a hugely popular strip that seemed to use a Xerox machine on a daily basis.