Nancy (comic Strip) - Cultural References

Cultural References

Bushmiller's art work has inspired other artists:

Comics

• Cartoonist Bill Griffith has used the characters and emulated Bushmiller's style frequently in his Zippy the Pinhead.
• Cartoonist Scott McCloud developed a card game, 5-card Nancy, in which players use random panels of Nancy to create their own stories. McCloud also included a Nancy cameo in his book, Understanding Comics. When describing the "non-sequitur" transition type, several unrelated images appear between panels. One is an upside-down picture of Nancy being struck by lightning with the caption "Danger".
• Cartoonist Mark Newgarden has included Nancy in his work.
• Pearls Before Swine cartoonist Stephan Pastis (known for using other comic characters in his strip) portrayed Nancy and Sluggo as extras to replace Rat and Goat during the 2002 "Pearls Labor Dispute".
• Mad has run several parodies, including “Nansy”, in which Nancy is transformed into the main character of several other comic strips, including Donald Duck, Dick Tracy and Li'l Abner, all with that same hyphen-nose and frizzy hairdo. Also in Mad, Bushmiller gets the hardboiled treatment: If Mickey Spillane Wrote Nancy.
• Quino's Mafalda bears a strong resemblance to the earlier Nancy, which Quino mocks in one strip.
• Cartoonist Max Cannon often includes Stubbo, a boy drawn in Bushmiller's style, in his Red Meat strip.

Other media

• Nancy was the subject of Andy Warhol's 1961 painting, Nancy.
• Nancy was the subject of several pop art works by Joe Brainard, collected in The Nancy Book (2008), Siglio Press. They include:
  • If Nancy Was an Ashtray, 1972
  • If Nancy Was a Boy, 1972
  • If Nancy Was a da Vinci Sketch, 1972
  • Nancy Diptych, 1974
  • If Nancy Was a Painting by de Kooning, 1975
• Famous Mexican actress Sherlyn became famous after imitating Nancy (known in Mexico as Periquita) in a TV contest for a socks company that features Nancy drawn into their logo.
• Taxi character Elaine O'Connor Nardo (played by Marilu Henner) laments during an episode: "Why can't love be like it is in literature? And I don't even need Cathy and Heathcliff. I'd settle for Nancy and Sluggo!"