Ivan Brunetti almost became Nancy's artist

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Ernie Bushmiller, creator of the beloved Nancy comic strip, was a tough act to follow. The artists who took over the strip after Bushmiller died in 1982 couldn't come close to capturing the sweetly painful simplicity and self-contained absurdism that Bushmiller faithfully injected into every Nancy strip. Nancy had become unreadable.

Little did I know that in 1994, a cartoonist named Ivan Brunetti was trying out for the job of writing and drawing Nancy. This 13-page story from a 1999 issue of Roctober magazine has an article by Brunetti, called "I Almost Drew Nancy."

Brunetti did not get the job, which is a crying shame, because the many samples that ran with the article reveal Brunetti to be supremely fitted for the job. The art and stories are fantastic — I like them even better than Bushmiller's work!

Link

Previously on madprofessor.net:

• Misery Love Comedy, by Ivan Brunetti

Previously on Boing Boing:

• How To Read Nancy

• The greatest Nancy panel ever drawn

• Sexiest Nancy panel ever?

• Nancy was one of my favorite comic strips

• Animated version of the "Greatest Nancy Panel Ever Drawn"

• Excellent Nancy panels

• Nancy and Sluggo comic book scan