Nancy and Sluggo: How a Comic Strip Made a Difference

It’s funny how the blogosphere can take me to places I haven’t been in a long, long time. Places that are buried in the recesses of my mind, but once dug up, reveal important insights and clues as to who I am today.

Yesterday an “excavation” took place at the prompting of Jesse Petersen, who asked me what seemed to be a simple question – what is your favorite comic?

It was a question I initially thought I couldn’t answer – I haven’t read a comic book or a comic strip for over 30 years.

Then the mind shovel hit something – Nancy. Yep, Nancy and Sluggo.

I suddenly remembered how much I looked forward to reading that comic strip, starting when I was just 4 years old. I would anxiously wait every day for newspaper to be delivered, and the first thing I pulled out was the “funny papers”. I’d spread them out on the floor and dive in, and the first strip I looked at was always Nancy.

This comic was easy for a 4 year old to understand – Ernie Bushmiller, her creator, drew and voiced Nancy and her pal Sluggo in a simplistic, uncomplicated way, and the “gag” that always came was hard to miss (look at the picture I’ve included – that captures my point exactly). It almost always put a smile on my face – and a devilish one to boot.

In doing a bit of research for this post, I found a great “primer” on Nancy courtesy of the National Association of Comic Art Educators. They summed up the gags this way:

“The mortar that held these gag bricks tight were basic, iconic, coin-of-the-realm truisms: An ice-cream cone is a child’s best friend, school is a drag, bums are lazy, bullies are dumb, blondes are cute, salesmen travel door-to-door, little green men populate Mars and Modern Art is a madman’s hoax.”

My childhood fascination with this comic strip not only helped my sense of humor (which thankfully survives to this day), but helped jump start my love of reading – it didn’t take long for me to start reading all the other parts of the newspaper (once I could read a little more than “see spot run”, of course), particularly the sports page.

Eventually I outgrew little Nancy and Sluggo and started skipping the comics section, probably around the time I entered the 5th or 6th grade, going directly to sports (by then my focus was keenly on the Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks), and then on to the news and arts sections.

To this day I still have a child-like enthusiasm for going out to my driveway and picking up the weekend newspaper. I don’t spread it out on the floor any more, but the dining room table does get pretty covered with paper.

So this memory excavation revealed something truly special – one of the key elements to my enduring love of reading.

Thank you Jesse, thank you Nancy and Sluggo, and thank you to the late Ernie Bushmiller for creating something so accessible and enjoyable to a curious 4-year old.

I think I may start looking at those comics again -yes, Nancy still survives!

Happy 4th to everyone!

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