Nancy is an American comic strip, originally written and drawn by Ernie Bushmiller and distributed by United Feature Syndicate and Andrews McMeel Syndication. Its origins lie in Fritzi Ritz, a strip Bushmiller inherited from its creator Larry Whittington in 1925. After Fritzi's niece Nancy was introduced in 1933, Fritzi Ritz evolved to focus more and more on Nancy instead of Fritzi. The new strip took the old one's daily slot, while Fritzi Ritz continued as a Sunday comic, with Nancy taking the Sunday slot previously filled by Bushmiller's Phil Fumble strip beginning on October 30, 1938.
History 1922 to 1925
The character of Nancy, a precocious eight-year-old, first appeared in the strip Fritzi Ritz, a comic about a professional actress and her family and friends.
Larry Whittington began Fritzi Ritz in 1922, but the character of Nancy did not appear until 1933"Fritzi Ritz Before Bushmiller: She's Come a Long Way, Baby!", Hogan's Alley No. 7 (1999),.
1925 to 1982
Fritzi Ritz was taken over by Bushmiller three years later in 1925, and on January 2, 1933, Bushmiller introduced Fritzi's niece, Nancy. In 1949, he was quoted as saying that he originally intended Nancy "just as an incidental character and I planned to keep her for about a week and then dump her ... But the little dickens was soon stealing the show and Bushmiller, the ingrate, was taking all the bows."Virginia Irwin, "Nancy: Ernie Bushmiller Rates High as Comic Artist, but He Wasn't Doing So Good Until Little Girl With Bangs Popped Out of an Ink Bottle", St Louis Post-Dispatch, February 13, 1949 p. 63
Nancy became the focus of the daily strip, which was renamed for her in 1938 after Lawrence W. Hager, the editor of the Owensboro, Kentucky Inquirer-Messenger (now the Messenger-Inquirer), lobbied for the change;"'Nancy' took Ernie Bushmiller into big time of comic strips" Owensboro, Kentucky Messenger-Inquirer, June 30, 1948 p. 3 Sluggo Smith, Nancy's friend from the "wrong side of the tracks" had been introduced earlier that year, and the strip's popularity rose. Comics historian Don Markstein ascribed the strip's success to Bushmiller's "bold, clear art style, combined with his ability to construct a type of gag that appealed to a very broad audience."
Fritzi Ritz became a secondary character, although her solo strip continued as a Sunday-only strip, where her relationship with Phil Fumble (who'd been featured in his own Sunday topper strip since 1932) was an ongoing presence until his departure in 1968. Fritzi Ritz continued as a Sunday feature (with Nancy as a topper) until that year when it too was replaced with Nancy permanently. At its peak in the 1970s, Nancy ran in more than 880 newspapers, before falling to 79 shortly before Guy Gilchrist's departure from the strip in 2018.Schmitt, Brad. "'Nancy' comic strip's Guy Gilchrist to step away after 22 years of Sluggo-ing it out," USA TODAY (January 2, 2018).
1982 to 1984 After Bushmiller's death in 1982, the strip was produced by different writers and artists. Bushmiller's editor Mark Lasky took over as the strip's artist and writer. He had previously worked on other comic strips, including Mell Lazarus's Miss Peach and Momma.Mark Lasky, 29, Dies; Did 'Nancy' Cartoons; at the New York Times; published August 2, 1983. Retrieved January 5, 2014. After less than a year, however, Lasky died of cancer; there was no gap in Nancy publication, as Lasky had prepared enough strips to run for two more months,Heart surgeon Barnard retires, in the Milwaukee Sentinel; part 1, page 3; published August 2, 1983. Retrieved January 5, 2014. during which publishers were able to arrange for Jerry Scott to succeed Lasky. Al Plastino worked on Sunday episodes of Nancy from 1982 to 1984 after Bushmiller died.
1983 to 1995 The daily strip was handed to Jerry Scott in 1983 and the Sunday in 1985. Scott gradually started to draw the strip in a much different, more modern style than other incarnations. In an interview in 2024, Scott said that he had never been an enthusiast of Nancy and only accepted the job as a way of breaking in to the newspaper strip industry, so after about a year he felt burnt out on imitating Bushmiller's style and wanted to try his own approach. Content at 1:19:39-1:23:07. In 1994, the syndicate sought a replacement for Scott; applicants included Ivan BrunettiI ALMOST DREW NANCY, by Ivan Brunetti; in Roctober magazine, No. 26 (1999/2000); archived online at MikeLynchCartoons.blogspot.com; retrieved October 25, 2016 and Gary Hallgren.garyhallgren.com gallery ; retrieved May 12, 2018
1995 to 2018 In 1995, Guy and Brad Gilchrist were given control of the strip; Guy Gilchrist subsequently became the sole writer and illustrator. Although Gilchrist said Bushmiller's work was "always my inspiration," the strip's tone changed again over time. Gilchrist, a born-again Christian, incorporated Christian messaging into Nancy and reintroduced Phil Fumble as a worker at a local interfaith mission.
After 22 years, Gilchrist's last Nancy strip came out on February 18, 2018, which involved the marriage between Fritzi Ritz and Phil Fumble.
2018 to 2025 The strip resumed on April 9 with a "21st-century female perspective" by Olivia Jaimes (a pen name), the strip's first female creator. At the time of the announcement, 75 newspapers still ran the strip. Jaimes said, "Nancy has been my favorite sassy grouch for a long time. I'm excited to be sassy and grouchy through her voice instead of just mine" and "the Nancy I know and love is a total jerk and also gluttonous and also has big feelings and voraciously consumes her world". Comics historian Tom Spurgeon described Jaimes as funny and talented, with an approach to the character that both breaks with and pays homage to Bushmiller's version.
In the process, Jaimes updated the content of the strip. The September 3, 2018, strip spawned an Internet meme, depicting Nancy riding a hoverboard using two phones, one of which was attached to a selfie stick, and proclaiming that "Sluggo is lit." Jaimes described her aim with that strip to "most upset the person who likes me the least ... somebody who's like, 'Nancy sucks now' ... what I imagine my greatest hater would despise most is Nancy interacting with every piece of technology using words you don't understand." Jaimes' art style was visually distinct from that of Gilchrist. In particular, Jaimes drew Aunt Fritzi less like her original pin-up-style design, instead depicting her in a style similar to the other characters in the strip. She also modernized the setting, with frequent references to current trends and technologies, such as smartphones, social media, ear buds, and a robotics club.
In May 2024 Jaimes announced that she would take 'a temporary break' from Nancy, and that a series of guest artists would take the strip on for limited periods.D. D. Degg, 'Olivia Jaimes to take a leave from Nancy' The Daily Cartoonist May 26, 2024 https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/05/26/olivia-jaimes-to-take-a-leave-from-nancy/ The first artist to do so was Leigh Luna, starting with a Sunday page on June 23, 2024. The second was Shaenon K. Garrity, starting with a strip on Monday, July 8, 2024. The third was Caroline Cash, starting with a strip on Monday, July 22, 2024. The fourth was Megan McKay, starting with a strip on Monday, August 12, 2024. Jaimes resumed working on Nancy on Monday, September 2, 2024.
On September 15, 2025, after a week of re-run strips created by Bushmiller, Jaimes announced that she was stepping down from writing and drawing Nancy, and that Caroline Cash would be taking over the strip on January 1, 2026. A farewell strip from Jaimes ran on December 31.
2026 to present Caroline Cash took over the strip from January 1, 2026. Writing for Prospect, Frank M Young describes Cash's first month on the strip as "vibrant, authentic, edgy" and that "her Nancy teeters between crowd-pleasing and shocking." In a June 2026 storyline, Fritzi says she is bisexual, and starts dating Phil Fumble's cousin Phylis Fumble.
Summary Daily credits: Larry Whittington: October 9, 1922 – May 1925 (as Fritzi Ritz) Ernie Bushmiller: May 14, 1925 – August 1982 (initially as Fritzi Ritz) Mark Lasky: August 29, 1982 – July 9, 1983 (Lasky's first signed strip appeared on October 11, 1982) Unknown artist: July 11, 1983 – October 8, 1983 Jerry Scott: October 10, 1983 – September 2, 1995 Guy (and Brad) Gilchrist: September 4, 1995 – February 17, 2018 Olivia Jaimes: April 9, 2018 – September 1, 2025 (Jaimes's last strip appeared on December 31, 2025) Guest artists: June 23, 2024 – August 31, 2024 (Leigh Luna, Shaenon K. Garrity, Caroline Cash, Megan McKay) Caroline Cash: January 1, 2026 – present
Sunday credits: Ernie Bushmiller: October 6, 1929 – August 1982 (initially as Fritzi Ritz) Al Plastino: November 21, 1982 – December 30, 1984 (Plastino's first signed strip appeared on November 28, 1982) Jerry Scott: January 6, 1985 – August 27, 1995 Guy (and Brad) Gilchrist: September 3, 1995 – February 18, 2018 Olivia Jaimes: May 6, 2018 – August 31, 2025 Guest artists: June 24, 2024 – September 1, 2024 (Leigh Luna, Shaenon K. Garrity, Caroline Cash, Megan McKay) Caroline Cash: January 4, 2026 – present
Art styles The artists who followed Bushmiller drew in a range of styles that deviated distinctly from his deceptively simple approach. Despite the changes in art style over the years, however, it is Bushmiller's work that is still most closely identified with the strip.
Bushmiller refined and simplified his drawing style over the years to create a uniquely stylized comic world. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language illustrates its entry on comic strip with a Nancy cartoon. Despite the small size of the reproduction, both the art and the gag are clear, and an eye-tracking survey once determined that Nancy was so conspicuous that it was the first strip most people viewed on a newspaper comics page.
In a 1988 essay, "How to Read Nancy", Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik offered a probing analysis of Bushmiller's strip:
Comics theorist Scott McCloud described the essence of Nancy:
Cartoonist Wally Wood described Nancys design more succinctly: "By the time you decided not to read it, you already had."
Characters Primary characters
Nancy Ritz, a typical and somewhat mischievous eight-year-old girl. She encourages her friend Sluggo to improve himself and is instantly jealous of any other girls who pay attention to him. During Gilchrist's run, she was portrayed as living in Three Rocks, Tennessee (a suburb of Nashville) although her home town was unspecified by other artists. Bushmiller located her home as 220 Oak Street next to Elm Avenue. She attends Central Elementary School in the Jaimes version. Aside from creating Nancy as Fritzi's niece, Bushmiller claimed to know nothing about her lineage, adding 'Very occasionally, I get curious kids asking me, but I don't know what to tell them.'Rod Mickleburgh, 'Carry On, Nancy' Vancouver Sun April 28, 1976 p. 4 Fritzi Ritz, Nancy's paternal aunt, with whom she lives. When Nancy initially appeared in the Fritzi Ritz comic strip, Fritzi was living with her father, George.Ernie Bushmiller, "Fritzi Ritz" Moline, Illinois Dispatch February 2, 1933, p. 14 She is a former movie actress. The Fritzi character was gradually phased out in the mid-1980s before being dropped entirely by the end of the decade but returned as a main character in 1995 when the strip was taken over by brothers Brad and Guy Gilchrist. In the current version of Nancy, Fritzi acts as Nancy's full-time carer.