Dispatches from NancyFest 2024
Ernie Bushmiller's iconic, sassy American comic character finally had her own festival this weekend at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum and Library, where we got a very special tour!
— Note —
I’m typing this up in the departure lounge on my way home, reeling from the tornado of cartoonery and buffoonery. This may be a bit scattered, but I’ll do my best; I have to keep popping my head up every time they push the departure time back “due to small tornadoes and lightning”.
May 26, 2024
Columbus, OH
“Stick to your inkpot, kid. Actors don’t eat!”
So said the legendary Billy Ireland to a young Milt Caniff when he was considering a career change. I was learning this from the Cartoon Curator, Jenny Robb on our private NCS Members-only tour of the cartoon library named after the aforementioned Mr. Ireland. This is my favourite place in all of America: a cartoonist’s equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
When I was here 6 months ago for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus —my first as a guest presenter— I got to see an extra special selection of art by my favourite cartoonist, Richard Thompson. Jenny had pulled them out, especially for me ahead of time.
When I eyeballed Richard’s original art for the first time I thought I was having heart palpitations. I pored over the Cul De Sac strips with a magnifying glass, forensically studying his line like Sherlock Holmes trying to solve A Scandal in Bohemia. I can’t quite describe how important it is for artists (especially younger artists) to see original art, up close: white-outs, pencil marks and all. I never attended art school, but I’ve learned more from mushing my eyeball against great art than from any drawing class I’ve ever tried.
Seeing the ones of Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson was just as thrilling. His Sunday strips are groundbreaking, but his watercolours are another story. The craftsmanship and attention to detail is overwhelming. There’s only so much one tiny idiot mind can take until something pops.
The NancyFest Announcement
That day in October, when I finally emerged from the annals of the library and into the welcome party, NancyFest was officially announced— with Caitlin McGurk’s husband sweating away in the giant Nancy costume, shaking hands and trying not to pass out.
Everybody was very excited.
But I digress…
Let’s start from the beginning:
I’m aware this Substack isn’t named “Columbus Cartoons” but hear me out…
This New York Cartoons substack sometimes veers off the sidewalk into other cities where cartooning takes me. Hopefully, those of you who signed up to read about New York will give me a hall pass to fly from New York to Ohio for this whirlwind festival.
The celebration was for the iconic comic strip character, Nancy. To a large degree, it was a celebration of her creator, Ernie Bushmiller, but also included the work of the artists who continued the legacy strip after his death.
The NancyFest programming spanned everything from a full-scale exhibition, a series of exclusive seminars and presentations from huge names in the comics world —including the current anonymous Nancy cartoonist— culminating in a one-hour stage play by Tom Gammill, followed by a blowout afterparty at an enormous old bank downtown, hosted by Ben Towle and Rebecca Perry.
Willy Wonka’s Cartoon Factory.
The home of the biggest and most impressive collection of cartoon art in America is housed at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & Library at Ohio State University. You don’t need me to go into the how and why: you can read all about its humble beginnings here and see a quick overview in the video below.
The National Cartoonists Society Private Tour
Jenny Robb took a small clump of NCS VIP member attendees on a special tour of the 300,000 original cartoons, 45,000 books, 67,000 serials and comic books, 6,300 boxes of archival materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings — and some special never-before-seen archival letters and photos from the early formation of the National Cartoonists Society from the mid-forties.
They even rolled out the entire membership page of self-portraits of all the members from 54 years ago, including the one* Aussie resident member, Jimmy Russell.
*Yes, Pat Oliphant and Paul Rigby were in the US, but I couldn’t see them on the page.
The tour took us through the temperature-controlled archives, stopping at flat files and tables stacked to the brim with the rarest of iconic cartoon and comic art from around the world. We passed a gigantic caricature in oils that Garry Trudeau had commissioned from Phillip Burke back in ‘91. Garry was downsizing his studio, so donated it to the library. It’s an incredible piece, showing just what the artist thought of each of the presidents…
We continued through the annals of cartooning history, seeing the first appearance of a lesbian in comics in a Terry & The Pirates strip. Caniff introduced Sanjak, the villainous villainess, and “coded” lesbian, in 1939.
We got to see Jeff Smith’s first Bone comic…
…as well as old Gun Control comics from 1881 (they were worried about the use of the revolver), and John Steinbeck’s letter to Milt Caniff. He was so struck with the Dragon Lady's beauty, that he told Caniff she had “warmed old bones and breathed on gray embers.” It’s a very nice Steinbeckian way of saying something a little less appropriate about her figure.
There was a gigantic old scrapbook of cartoons* from the 1800’s that had been brought over from England, with priceless historical records of everything from cartoons about Napoleon to political humour about the politics of the day. It’s sad that there aren’t more records of this outside of gigantic, ancient scrapbooks.
(*Back then they were just referred to as ‘caricatures’)
We got to see the very first appearance of the famous Yellow Kid and peer into a time when newspapers actually gave a shit about cartoons and comics. Entire full-page broadsheets were splashed from edge to edge with hand-drawn and painted comic art that captured the zeitgeist of the day.
On the same day as the tour, the New York Times released its readership/user figures, making it officially now a gaming company. In an attempt to survive in the attention economy, newspapers have gone from being a Journal of Record to a cheap, shallow race to the bottom of the brainstem. Tours like this are a sad reminder of the time before myopic editorial decisions turned cartoonists into an endangered species.
‘You know what grabs eyeballs, retains loyal subscribers, and holds attention? Cartoons.
But I digress…
The tour continued into The Billy’s seemingly endless volume of Japanese comic art. Manga* is such a massive culture that I feel like I’ve only ever nicked the surface of it. Seeing the ancient use of comic illustration long before America was even a country was eye-opening.
(*Japanese word for Comic)
They used to have comics on scrolls (hey, they were ahead of their time; We’re back to scrolling today!) as well as these story-frames that itinerant performers used to use when they went from town to town showing illustrative aids to their stories.
I’m going to Japan for my 40th for a few weeks in September. I’ll be diving headfirst into a lot of Japanese art. (Hit me in the comments if you have any recommendations!)
The letter below from Rube Goldberg details the first meeting of the inaugural committee in New York to discuss the name, dues, elect officers, and “other such nonsense” with Russell Patterson. Rube would go on to be the inaugural president, and the namesake for our highest award: The Reuben.
I know I’ve said it before, but to be included on the roster of Presidents of this organization is a profound, surreal privilege. The NCS means a great deal to me, so seeing these nascent documents was very special. It was generous of Jenny and the team to bring them out of storage for us to see.
This was sitting next to the Membership & Dues Record that the inaugural Treasurer —the abovementioned Milton Caniff— had manually marked off. It’s a veritable Who’s Who of Cartooning in 1946.
Here’s an epic panorama of the luncheon arranged to celebrate Rube’s 80th Birthday at the Waldorf Astoria in 1963…
The Nancy Show!
The exhibition itself was fantastic. They masterfully put together a great collection of art and memorabilia from decades of the strip, and detailed backgrounds on the different artists that have drawn the strip over the years.
Here are some photos from the exhibition, curated by Brian Walker. The Nancy Show - Bushmiller and Beyond is divided into two sections:
The Robinson Gallery focuses on Ernie Bushmiller’s life and work, and the Friends of the Library Gallery highlights various artists inspired by Nancy, and the cartoonists who continued it after his passing.
In recent years, cartoon historians and aficionados have lauded Nancy for its zen-like qualities and have studied Bushmiller's craft in detail. For over fifty years, Bushmiller continued his single-minded pursuit of the Perfect Gag.
"I never quite seem to find it," he admitted. But he sure came close.
The Nancy Summit
Or “The First Official Meeting of the Ernie Bushmiller Society”
On Saturday morning, we crammed ourselves full of donuts and hot coffee before squeezing into a full auditorium of Nancy scholars and devotées.
Denis Kitchen, esteemed publisher and cartoonist called to order the first official meeting of the Ernie Bushmiller Society. We heard from curator and cartoonist Brian Walker, Gary Hallgren (Air Pirates, MAD, Hagar the Horrible), Kaz (Underworld), and publisher Pete Maresca on their relationship with the Nancy comic strip.
People got to stand up and ask questions, make comments, and discuss the cultural impact of Bushmiller's (and his successors’) work on the strip.
The Olivia Jaimes Deleted Presentation
The attendees were then treated to a very special presentation that had been pre-recorded by the newest Nancy artist, the elusive ‘Olivia Jaimes’ (a pseudonym adopted to keep her true identity airtight). Shena Wolf helped put together the highly entertaining video “How to Write Nancy” (A parody of the popular book “How To Read Nancy”).
Out of respect for her wishes for the presentation to be deleted as soon as it concluded, I won’t relay any of the contents. They were intended only for those in attendance. But I will say (since it’s now public) that she announced she has selected a number of cartoonists to be guest artists on the strip while she takes a ‘mysterious break of undetermined length.’ The first of the guest artists is Eisner nominee Caroline Cash.
Watching ‘How To Read Nancy’
After lunch, we were treated to a presentation by Paul Karasik and Mark NewGarden, co-authors of How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels.
This may be one of the most esoteric deconstruction of comic strips in the history of comics, books, writing, or the use of paper. They used one single strip from August 8, 1959 to pull apart every element and analyze it beyond any realm of what you might think to be a reasonable level of detail. It’s an excellent read (and the presentation was hilarious.) When he asked audience members for suggestions of what they saw in the strip, it became a real Rorschach test for the audience members...
Bill Griffith’s 3 Rocks Talk
After that, we were treated to an inside look at award-winning cartoonist Bill Griffith’s best-selling new graphic novel 3 Rocks- The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, The Man Who Created Nancy. It took me a long time to finish the book, but it really is a good read. It’s a comic-format book about a cartoonist; what’s not to love?
Bill took the audience through an extensive look at Bushmiller’s life and career. From his early years in New York drawing burlesque dancers to his time in LA lunching with Groucho Marx, it’s an emotional rollercoaster that would make a really good biopic.
Bushmiller famously worked on 4 strips at a time, propped up on 4 separate drawing tables. I get the feeling if he were alive today he’d have a lot of tabs open on his browser.
As Bill wrapped up his talk, he gave some thoughts on the current Nancy artist and her presentation from earlier in the day, then walked us through his epilogue: A fantastical vision of Bill himself meeting Nancy in a retired comic strip characters’ home, and finding her to be an impatient, cantankerous crone.
Without spoiling it for anyone who wants to read it- It does, however, end in a very sweet way, with the longtime relationship with Sluggo being the fulcrum of the final storyline. It hit all kinds of heartbreaking notes, but it was better than ending the book with Ernie’s death.
The Big Show!
After that, it was time for the world premiere of the big stage show by acclaimed comedy writer Tom Gammill: A Morning with Ernie Bushmiller!
The year is 1976, and the audience watches a morning in Ernie Bushmiller’s life with some unexpected visitors, featuring Caitlin McGurk as every single unexpected visitor. Caitlin is a Curator of Comics and Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum & Associate Professor at The Ohio State University… and she is hilarious in this show!
Tom has been working on this for months, and I was lucky to get an early peek at some of it at the Reubens, and by doing some of the animation for the show— namely, the section where Ernie draws on four drawing boards at once.
The one-hour gag fest is one of the funniest things I’ve seen. Tom really knocked it out of the park— I counted about 6217 jokes in the first minute. That’s not including the hilarious jab from Tom’s old employer, SNL:
After the curtain call with none other than Jim Carlsson —Ernie’s great friend and right-hand man— we all adjourned to a big old party to close out the weekend’s celebrations at The Citizens Trust; an old bank building downtown.
It was a lot of Nancy. But still not enough.
I’m a Nancy fanatic— I didn’t know about this event but I’m glad you were on the case with this report!
I intend to visit the exhibit, but in the photo you were shown on your special tour showing the NCS luncheon in 1963 to honor Rube Goldberg on his 80th birthday, I immediately noticed actor Jack Gilford sitting at table 14. Now I'm intrigued to figure out the connection between the two.