Original artwork for Nancy Sunday comic strip, January 31, 1971 by Ernie Bushmiller (artist) - 1971

N.p.: N.p., 1971. Original eight-panel artwork by Ernie Bushmiller for the January 31, 1971 deluxe Sunday installment of his seminal comic strip Nancy. This strip features Nancy and her dog Poochie.

As with American cinema, it was the French who first championed the studied simplicity of Bushmiller's un-deconstructible combination of rigid artistic style and even more rigidly governed humor. In 2012, Fantagraphics Press took on the long overdue task of putting the complete series into book form, a project that will take years to complete.

In our estimation, Daniel Clowes put it best in his introduction to Fantagraphics' recently published first volume of Bushmiller's long run. Clowes astutely points out that the Nancy seems to come "from some primal Jungian dreamscape, miraculously transmitted into the morning paper." He goes on to say how he imagines Bushmiller at work, "carefully extracting every shred of irony from each frame."

17.25 x 24 inches. Black ink on heavy paper stock, with white-out, pasted-on paper additions, and brief pencil annotations as always found on original comic strip art. Sticker residue to some of the panels, with light toning and soil overall. With a rubber stamp reading "From the Collection of James T. Carlsson" on the verso. Very Good to Very Good plus overall.