Daily Breakdowns 024 - Nancy With The Laughing Face

The John Stanley Library: Nancy
Writing and Layouts by John Stanley
Art by Dan Gormley
Published by Drawn and Quarterly. $24.99 USD

I remember when this book was announced, and some respected blogger types started going on about it, and saying, "Jesus, now I gotta like John Stanley?" The more you get into comics, the further there is to go, and it's often exciting and revelatory to be introduced to another old master, but now and then it feels like a chore as well. What I mean is, anyone interested in reading Stanley's work should start with Little Lulu, available in a series of cheap paperbacks from Dark Horse. There is no really compelling reason for Drawn and Quarterly to publish something called, "The John Stanley Library," and focus entirely on Stanley's late career work for Dell Comics other than the fact that they couldn't get the rights to the earlier stuff, and almost certainly D&Q cartoonist Seth, a Stanley fan who has designed the covers for the series, holds great affection for this period of Stanley. It actually feels like Seth wants the reader to experience this early '60s work--intended to be disposable humor fare suitable for a rainy day or long drive--the way he did, in its crappy original presentation inside, but he can't help gussying up the package with his distinctive font, bold colors and embossing promising a rich, Sethlike experience with previously unheralded work.

It's a nice design (aside from the back cover sticker, which doesn't want to adhere to the raised cloth binding), but a bit overpowering, especially when the contents are kept with their dull, original four color printing and faux-newsprint backing. Whether this is the right presentation for these comics is a subjective argument akin to Beatles fans preferring the original mono or new stereo mixes. On the one hand, readers of a certain age who have fond associations with reading old newsprint comic books will probably enjoy this facsimile, while prospective new young readers may be confused or at least faced with a mild barrier towards engagement with the work.

In addition to being overpowering, Seth's cover with the abstract, almost inhuman white face of Nancy against the dynamic field of orange suggests that this will be the definitive Nancy work. There is no information in the book itself about Nancy being a creation of Ernie Bushmiller, or appearing in newspapers for almost 30 years before this comic book spin-off in which he had no involvement. The book's design is at cross purposes, its lavishness demanding consideration as a major work but with no essay to support this or give the strip any grounding in the context of Stanley's career or how it compares to Bushmiller's Nancy. The half page Stanley bio at the end is all the reader gets, the conclusion about Stanley leaving comics bitterly left unexplored, a tease.

If this all sounds negative, well, no. Seth is a huge talent, and it may be a case where his enthusiasm gets the better of him here; like a hotshot superhero artist, he's calling attention to himself rather than serving the stories. But it beats a brown paper wrapper. Perhaps we should at long last get to the comics themselves.

Stanley is considered one of the most consistently funny comics writers of all time, and here he offers several stories for each of the five issues collected. from one to eleven pages. I don't know Bushmiller's Nancy that well, but Stanley seems to stick to the basic model of Nancy being an irrepressible but basically decent smartass and troublemaker, with Sluggo her dupe, pal and soulmate in equal measure, and with a fair amount of moxie of his own. However, Stanley does introduce a new character, Oona Goosepimple, a nice but spooky-looking, cat-eyed girl with Addams Family-style relations. She appears in a couple stories, but other than that, it's standard, non-mystical hijinks for Nancy and Sluggo.

The artist, Dan Gormley, is a bit of a mystery, but was a frequent artist for Dell and did other work with Stanley. Although he reportedly had a style distinctive enough to be recognized as his own in earlier years, for licensed work like this, he subsumes it, so the results are successful but workmanlike. Perhaps only with Oona, where he was creating a character from scratch, is there a flash of originality, but it's not like those stories indicate a significantly higher level of engagment. He's fine, but seems to be under no illusion that the work he was doing was intended to be disposable kids' entertainment. Probably his greatest accomplishment here is the boyish joy he captures in Sluggo's face, quite a contrast from the frequent blankness of Nancy.

The real reason to get the book, and presumably future volumes, is that Stanley is funny. Stories involving Nancy trying to cover up the damage she thinks her new dog is making, or sight gags involving Sluggo wearing a tortoise costume, work like a charm, and the story of Sluggo seemingly making a rapid career ascent to bank president is well constructed. Stanley knows his business, and his hit ratio for gags is high. Although not quite an essential work, there are plenty of laughs to be had.

Damn, I guess I like John Stanley now.