Summary

The comic stripNancyhas changed through its almost ninety-year run, but it has always been funny. When cartoonist Ernie Bushmiller took overFritzi Ritz, a comic about a pretty flapper trying to make it in Hollywood, he thought it would be a fun gag to have a rowdy niece come visit her. That niece was Nancy, and she stole both America’s hearts, and the comic.

Bushmiller took the comic strip medium to new levels, breaking the fourth wall, playing with panels, and sometimes inserting himself into the comic. His work onNancywas a groundbreaking inspiration, and his compositions are still studied academically. So there’s no better time to enjoysome of the funniestNancycomic strips across its entire history.

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15The Local Bank is a Circus

By Ernie Bushmiller, June 10, 2025

ThisNancycomic has become iconic online, with sometimes just the final panel being cut out andused on its own as a meme. The idea that a child would ask for a bank loan for a very small amount of money is funny, and then made funnier by the sight of a rich, fancy banker attending the circus and enjoying himself like a little kid. In some ways, it’s a smart move for the banker: it’s unlikely Nancy would ever pay back her small two-dollar loan, and he got to enjoy a trip to the circus while it’s in town.

According to Bill Griffith’s graphic novel biography of Ernie Bushmiller,Three Rocks, the comic artist often got the idea for a gag first, and then worked backwards to figure out how his characters could get there.

Nancy asks the bank for a loan because the circus is in town. The bank manager, surprised, goes with her, and they both get ice cream.

14Nancy vs. Tetherball

By Jerry Scott, July 21, 2025

Though Nancy sometimes wants nothing more than to be lazy and eat snacks, she and Sluggo are actually very active, outdoorsy kids. This Sunday strip from the 1990s shows Nancy being defeated by a common sight in the playground - the tetherball. Though this comic isn’t written by Bushmiller, artist Jerry Scott takes inspiration from his playful style, putting the final panel sideways to fit both Nancy on the tall tetherball pole and Sluggo on the ground within the frame. For the reader, they get a fun gag,but also the fun of rotating the comic page to get the punchline.

Jerry Scott may be more well-known for his other comics than his time onNancy: Baby Blues(with Rick Kirkman) andZits(with Jim Borgman). While he started off by keeping Bushmiller’s character designs, he slowly tried to make the kids look a little more modern.

A Sunday color strip from Nancy in the 1990s. Sluggo is playing baseball when he hears Nancy call for help. He tries to remind her of all the sports she’s good at, even though she’s really bad at tetherball.

13Nancy and Sluggo See the Signs

By Ernie Bushmiller, July 19, 2025

Nancy and Sluggo are unapologetic in their search for fun and joy in life, eventwisting words from other adults so that they always get what they want. Here, as the two play ball on a grassy area with signs explicitly asking that they neither play ball nor stand on the grass, a cop tries to stop them. However, when he calls out the signs, the kids don’t stop what they’re doing, they simply uproot the signs to use them as paddles for their game. After all, the officer didn’t say, “Stop,” he told them about the signs, which make great rackets.

12Nancy Loves The Whole Food Pyramid

By Olivia Jaimes, August 09, 2025

Under the previous artist, Guy Gilchrist, Nancy lost some of her bite, becoming a nice girl who listened to classic rock and donated to charity. When Olivia Jaimes took over in 2018,this first strip established the new tone which she would apply to the modern comic. An adult comments that Nancy is a “sweet girl,” but she’s talking about all the treats Nancy keeps ordering for herself. Cutting away to just the adult at the end, the visuals for the punchline, “She is going IN on that cornbread,” are left to the reader’s imagination.Naughty Nancy is back, a kid who hungers for excitement.

After Ernie Bushmiller’s death in 1982, a series of artists took overNancy.Mark Lasky took over daily strips until his own untimely death in 1983. Al Plastino covered the Sunday strips until 1985, when Jerry Scott, who was already drawing the dailies, took the reins. Guy Gilchrist started his 23-year run in 1995, ending in 2018 when Olivia Jaimes got the job.

A two-panel comic of Nancy. She and Sluggo are playing catch on the grass, behind two signs that say “Keep off grass,” and “No ball playing.” The two pick up the signs and use them as paddles.

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11Nancy Thinks Graffiti Is Beautiful

By Mark Lasky, July 31, 2025

Nancy walks past a sign encouraging her to “beautify [her] city,” and takes the message to heart. Coming across an open manhole, she sees her chance - and draws a flower around the sewer. City, beautified. This is again an instance of Nancy seeing something and taking it as permission for what she already wants to do: it’s supposed to inspire her to clean up litter or plant a tree, andshe instead draws on public property.She’s a delinquent in the nicest, least aggressive way.She has beautified her city by drawing a flower, even though that’s not what was asked.

10Sluggo Knows He’s in a Comic

By Ernie Bushmiller, June 18, 2025

Ernie Bushmiller didn’t just write a comic about his child characters being a group of little rascals -he also liked playing around with the format of the comic strip.Here, Nancy needs a push in her toy car, but Sluggo says he’s feeling too lazy. When she starts crying, he gives in - and picks up the corner of the final panel, turning the ground downhill, so Nancy can ride. This winking acknowledgment that hischaracters know they’re in a comicwould pop up many times in Bushmiller’s run on the strip, like a Labor Day strip where Nancy “refuses” to work.

9Nancy Gets a Bigger Water Pistol

By Ernie Bushmiller, July 03, 2025

Sluggo gets a taste of his own medicine after terrorizing the neighborhood kids, and saving Nancy for last. Using only one line of dialogue repeatedly, andleaving the actual revenge up to readers' imagination, Bushmiller sets up a great, simple gag. Nancy sees Sluggo playing the bully, and prepares off-panel as the reader sees more of Sluggo’s reign of terror. When she returns, we see what Sluggo is about to find out - Nancy has turned on the spray hose, put it in her toy holster, and is ready to have a showdown with the real varmint in the neighborhood.

For readers interested in a very deep dive into Bushmiller’sNancystrips, the Fantagraphics book,How to Read Nancy, breaks this specific strip down into individual elements over 87 pages to explain its construction.

An adult remarks that Nancy is a sweet girl, and a salt girl, and a butter girl, and loves cornbread.

8After 90 Years, Nancy Gets a Female Best Friend

By Olivia Jaimes, August 14, 2025

Nancy and Sluggo aren’t the only neighborhood kids that appear inNancy, but they’re by far the most popular. There’s Rollo the rich kid, Nosey Rosie, and many more, all defined by a gimmick. Here, though, Nancy makes a friend who is exactly on her level - Esther. Also pushed to join the Robotics Club by her family,Esther is a perfect partner-in-crime for Nancy, equally grouchy and lazy at school. The two of them compete over who cares less about the club, before teaming up and admiring each other’s ingenuity at escaping having to do any work.

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7Ernie Joins the Club

By Ernie Bushmiller, June 04, 2025

Kids often try to invent excitement by developing secret codes that only they and their friends can understand. Nancy and Sluggo get in on the fun by declaring themselves “The Secret Two,” and deciding that they’ll write their names backwards wherever they cause chaos. Like many kids doing this, however, they don’t realize thatthere’s an adult “listening in” - their comic creator, Ernie Bushmiller, who signs the comic with his name written backwards. In a meta twist, readers find out that Nancy and Sluggo can see his signature, asking who he is to butt in on their secret.

6A Make-Up Gift Starts a New Fight

By Ernie Bushmiller, July 19, 2025

Sluggo is back on his water gun antics, spraying Nancy in the face when she isn’t fully prepared as she was above. This time, he does seem to feel guilty about it afterward. Trying to make it up to her, he buys her a fancy flower pot shaped like a cute elephant. Unfortunately, he didn’t foresee how this would hurt him - when Nancy fills up the water pot, the cute snout just splashes the water directly back in her face.She takes it as an insult and gets Sluggo back, though he is clueless as to what he’s done wrong.

Panels from Calvin and Hobbes: popcorn on the stove, superimposed over a image of Calvin sniffing a scent in the air.

Nancy sees a sign that says “Beautify your city.” She walks past an open manhole, and graffitis a flower around it. Beautified!

Nancy cries in her wagon until Sluggo gives her a push - by tilting the comic panel she’s in downhill.

Nancy watches Sluggo shoot unexpecting kids with a water pistol, saying “Draw, you varmint,” each time. When he approaches Nancy, she’s prepared with an active hose in her play gun holster.

Nancy is distraught at joining Robotics Club, almost as much as her new friend, Esther.