How to Read Nancy - The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels

The authors use a single three-panel Nancy strip to explain how the medium of comics works.

Everything that you need to know about reading, making, and understanding comics can be found in a single Nancy strip by Ernie Bushmiller from August 8, 1959. Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden’s groundbreaking work How to Read Nancy ingeniously isolates the separate building blocks of the language of comics through the deconstruction of a single strip. No other book on comics has taken such a simple yet methodical approach to laying bare how the comics medium really works. No other book of any kind has taken a single work by any artist and minutely (and entertainingly) pulled it apart like this. How to Read Nancy is a completely new approach towards deep-reading art. In addition, How to Read Nancy is a thoroughly researched history of how comics are made, from their creation at the drawing board to their ultimate destination at the bookstore. Textbook, art book, monogram, dissection, How to Read Nancy is a game changer in understanding how the “simplest” drawings grab us and never leave. Perfect for students, academics, scholars, and casual fans. Black-and-white Nancy cartoons throughout

Paperback: 276 pages

Publisher: Fantagraphics; 1st edition (November 14, 2014)

Language: English

Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 0.8 x 12.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 3 pounds

Reviews

"Three rocks. Three points to make about this magnificent work:

1) It’s a magnificent work! It’s a must for anyone who loves comics, whether you’re a fan, a practitioner of the art, or both.

2) James Joyce said, «I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.» In a similar fashion, authors Karasik and Newgarden devote 88 pages of this book (in 44 lessons) to one single Nancy daily strip, painstakingly and entertainingly getting to the heart of it and thence to the heart of basic, universal comics form. Having read heaps of scholarly books and articles about comics for the past 45 years, I don’t believe I ever came across such a wise, well wrought and witty dissertation on the subject until now.

3) However, those 44 lessons on the one strip merely constitute the meat in this tasty sandwich, or should I say smorgasbord. You also get a fascinating introduction about the life and times of Ernie Bushmiller, giving the reader a thorough history lesson of the technicalities and politics of the comic strip in the 20th century, as well as several rich appendixes of Nancy strips to restate all the «morals» of the lessons, as well as providing laffs galore. (For all their intellectual heavyweight, the authors never forget to keep it Plonsky.)

One to keep and to reread and reread."

- U. Waldemar

"This is an extraordinary, ground-breaking analysis on how to read a comic. It's also extraordinarily fun to behold. The authors bring smarts and passion to every page, and it's not only for comics fans. Rather, it's for anyone who would like to be able to more closely look at a "simple" image or ponder a "simple" idea and consider its greater and more complex meanings. Most highly recommended."

- M. Tisserand

"This book amazed me in so many ways. I'm not a comics fanatic, but I used to read them every single day as a kid. And the first one I always read was Nancy. She just jumped off the page at you and invited you to read her with big block letters. And Karasik and Newgarden's fabulous book taught me that Bushmiller intended that. He wanted his to be the first strip you read, and the graphic design and clean, simple layout of the strip drew your eye to it and made that happen.

This is just one of a zillion facts about Nancy, Sluggo and Ernie that will fascinate and draw you into this dense, incredibly well-researched work. The dozens of Nancy and Fritzi Ritz strips included will keep you laughing as you learn and marvel about their production. Highly, highly recommended for even the casual fan of Nancy and the funnies, or for anyone who appreciates great craftsmanship. This book both explains and follows Bushmiller's example."

- Rick U.

"As a kid, Nancy helped me learn to read, but she also helped me learn to think and see more clearly. Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik enhance thinking, seeing, understanding to a sublime degree in this important new book. Taking three panels of one strip, they lay bare the genius of the comic strip, as exemplified by Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy. The book is a delight to read, beginning with the most detailed, authoritative and pleasure-to-read biography of Bushmiller, to the deconstruction of the comic strip, breaking down the three panels and studying each element, providing a Context, Text and Moral for each. The Appendix is rich and enormous, and could be a text unto itself, it's so good. This volume is hard to describe here with any kind of concise eloquence, but trust me, it is irresistible and important. This is a brilliant, clever, funny, and inspirational text, and will give you a much deeper understanding of visual humor - what works and why. To say nothing of a whole lot of Nancy! Highly recommended."

- Zigzag

About the Author

Paul Karasik is the co-author (along with David Mazzucchelli) of the perennial graphic novel classic City of Glass, adapted from Paul Auster’s novel. He lives in Martha’s Vineyard.^Mark Newgarden is an acclaimed cartoonist and creator of the book We All Die Alone, the co-author (with Paul Karasik) of How to Read Nancy, and the co-author (along with his partner, Megan Montague Cash) of Houghton Mifflin’s bestselling Bow Wow series of children’s books. He lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.