Haverhill Public Library

How to read Nancy, the elements of comics in three easy panels, Paul Karasik, Mark Newgarden

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-270)

illustrationsmaps

no index present

non fiction

How to read Nancy

bibliography

1006755873

Paul Karasik, Mark Newgarden

the elements of comics in three easy panels

"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."--Amazon.com

Epigraph -- Acknowledgments -- Author's note -- Foreword / Jerry Lewis -- An introduction / James Elkins -- Preamble -- "How to read Nancy?" -- The strip. August 8, 1959 -- The script. The gag; The last panel; Dialogue; Balloon placement -- The cast. Sluggo; Nancy; The extras; Nancy AND Sluggo; Ernie Bushmiller -- Props & Special effects. The water gun; The pistol-grip nozzle; The leaky spigot; The hose -- Costumes. Strip uniforms; The cowboy outfit -- Production design. The horizon line; Background; The fence; The house; Forces of nature -- Staging. Action; Nancy and the fence; Second-panel shifts -- Performance. Character design; Gesture; Facial expression; Lines of vision -- The cartoonist's eye. Composition; Spotting blacks; Negative space; Rhythm -- The cartoonist's hand. The inked line; Lettering; Balloon design; The modified silhouette; Motion lines -- Details, details, details. Surface pattern; Punctuation; Type -- The reader. The panel gutters; Panel size; The fourth panel -- The strip (again). August 8, 1959: Drawing some conclusions -- Appendices. Inspiration; Further contexts; Single-panel gag; "Too many words"; Enger Sluggo; "Hey! Where have I seen that gag before?"; Architecture; Tableaux vivants; Aunt Fritzi's other relatives; Luncheon on the Boating Party; Sunday strategies; Black ink; Degeneration gap; Unfinished business; Assistants; Ben day and Ben-day; How they read Nancy; How to/how not to; Do it yourself!