Wayback Whensday: The Censored Nancy Reproduced
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Over at The Library of American Comics Newspaper Strip Appreciation Facebook Group David Brown noted that the recent Nancy For All Seasons was missing some strips from the otherwise complete 1951-1952 run.
I got this Fantagraphics collection of Nancy daily strips the other day … there were several strips missing: from looking through I think Mar 3, Jun 20, Jul 10, 27, Sep 1, Nov 8, 23 1951, and Feb 5, Mar 4, 31, Nov 20 1952 were missing. I asked Fantagraphics about the missing strips and they told me that their current series of Nancy strips is not presented as a comprehensive archive of every Nancy strip but a curated selection. That is correct, but it seems strange curation to miss only 11 strips from a 2 year period, when with only 4 more pages, or by reducing the number of strips that are printed full page, it could have been comprehensive, which would have been much my preference. Does anyone have any thoughts on these Nancy collections, and on what the reasons for the approach might be?
Kurtis Findley, a comic book collection publisher, commented that the missing strips “contain blackface gags, cultural stereotypes, references to ‘Indians’, unsavory references to unhoused people being ‘tramps’ or ‘bums’ and gender stereotypes.” Kurtis also mentioned that the IP copyright holder (UFS) may have had a say in the matter.
The expurgating of objectionable material is not new to books or sites running decades old comic strips. Comics Kingdom and GoComics both pass over certain strips with unsuitable content. Disney famously refused to allow some early Mickey Mouse strips, and the Calvin and Hobbes washing machine strip is still not reprinted in books or rerun on GoComics.
With all that said, and with an eye toward comic strip history, here are the Nancy comic strips by Ernie Bushmiller deemed inappropriate. And we include a warning that they very well may be objectionable.
Note: Our feature image for this post comes from a Nancy strip reproduced in the book. Deemed acceptable as it doesn’t degrade the homeless and shows charity toward those less fortunate.
Also: Does that September 1, 1951 strip show a prototype of Phylis Fumble?
Nancy was and remains © UFS
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