COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Four Color 1034 Universal
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Grade:
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9.4
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Page Quality:
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CREAM TO OFF-WHITE
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Certification #:
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0911622010
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Owner:
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4GEMWORKS
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Nancy and Sluggo Summer camp 9-11/59
None of the cover art , script or interior art is identified. As is eluded to below, Little Lulu’s John Stanley may have drawn Nancy and Sluggo. This is the only appearance of Nancy and /or Sluggo in all the Four Color history.
This copy is tied with two others as the second best copies of six graded to date. A single 9.6 tops the census as of now. 02/13. I originally bought this comic graded, as is, from Heritage Auctions.
Table of Contents
1. 1. The Sign Painter
Sluggo
2. 2. The Huntress
Nancy
3. 3. Off to Camp
Nancy
4. 4. Camp Fafomama
Nancy
5. 5. The Bank Holdup
Nancy
6. 6. The Muddy Lake
Nancy
7. 7. The Ghost Story
Nancy
8. 8. Roughing It with Rollo
Nancy
9. 9. The Bear Scare
Nancy
10. 10. A Midnight Stroll
Nancy
11. 11. The Champion
Pee Wee
12. 12. The Ant Eater
Nosey Rosie
13. 13. The Caterpillar Scare
Nancy Also the back cover of this copy.
Toonpedia has a great bit of background on Nancy as well as Sluggo. Please enjoy: Like Snuffy Smith, Captain Easy, Steve Roper and many other comics stars, Nancy started out as a bit player and wound up taking over the series. Fritzi Ritz was a typical 1920s strip about a pretty girl, in the tradition of Cliff Sterrett's Positive Polly and Martin Branner's Winnie Winkle. It was created in 1922 by cartoonist Larry Whittington, and taken over in 1925 by 20-year-old Ernie Bushmiller. (Bushmiller's later claim of having created Fritzi is absolutely false.) Bushmiller's bold, clear art style, combined with his ability to construct a type of gag that appealed to a very broad audience, brought the strip to new heights of popularity — and his introduction of Fritzi's niece, Nancy, in 1933, carried it higher yet.
Two important developments occurred in 1938. Sluggo Smith, Nancy's friend from the "wrong side of the tracks", was introduced in January; and later that year, Aunt Fritzi's name was dropped from the title of the daily strip, which continued as Nancy. At the same time, Bushmiller's Sunday page underwent a similar change. Formerly, half of it had been devoted to Fritzi and the other half to her boyfriend, Phil Fumble. Phil's half was taken over by Nancy. Years later, when newspaper space became tighter and cartoonists were no longer allowed whole pages to themselves, Fritzi's half disappeared, and the transformation was complete. Fritzi Ritz was a bit player where she had formerly been the star.
When Dell took over the Nancy & Sluggo title, they assigned it to cartoonist John Stanley, whose decades of work on Little Lulu is highly regarded by today's comics aficionados. During Stanley's tenure, which lasted until the early 1960s, two characters were introduced — Sluggo's crabby neighbor, Mr. McOnion; and the little girl who lives in a haunted house, Oona Goosepimple. Oona, in particular, proved a memorable addition to the cast, despite the fact that neither she nor McOnion ever appeared outside of Stanley's comics. Nancy & Sluggo was discontinued in 1963, and Nancy never again appeared in comic books.
Nancy had two very brief and undistinguished careers as an animated character. In 1942, she became the only outside character ever licensed by Terrytoons, the studio that produced Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle. Only two cartoons came out, and they're virtually forgotten today. And in 1971, an Archie TV show used Nancy in one of its segments — rotating with The Captain & the Kids, Broom-Hilda, Smokey Stover, and other comic strip characters. These cartoons were reprised in 1978, under the title Fabulous Funnies.
Nancy's only recent foray outside of newspaper strips was onto a U.S. postage stamp. In 1995, she, along with The Katzenjammer Kids, Prince Valiant, Brenda Starr and several others, was part of the "Comic Strip Classics" series of commemoratives.
Toward the end of his life, Bushmiller relied more and more on his assistants, Al Plastino (best known for his work on Superman in the 1950s and '60s, and for ghosting Ferd'nand in the '70s and '80s) and Will Johnson. He died in 1982, and the strip was taken over by Mark Lansky. Lansky died in 1983, and Jerry Scott became Nancy's writer/artist. Scott completely revamped the strip, giving it both a more modern look and a sassier brand of humor. This seems not to have been very popular with the readers. When he left in 1995 to concentrate on Baby Blues (which he does with Rick Kirkman) and Zits (which he does with Jim Borgman), the new team, Guy and Brad Gilchrist, drew their inspiration straight from Bushmiller — even to the point of re-using many of the earlier cartoonist's gags.
Although a few modern cartoonists, such as Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), cite Bushmiller's iconic style and communicative abilities as an inspiration — and although he did win the 1976 Reuben Award — Nancy's creator has enjoyed very little critical acclaim. But his work has always been immensely popular with the general public.
Copied and used with specific permission from GiGi Dane, the widow of the late Don Markstein. Please visit their site: http://www.toonopedia.com/articles/susie-q.htmhttp://www.toonopedia.com/articles/nancy.htm
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