Olivia Jaimes’ Nancy is Funniest & more 2018 hits

D. D. Degg December 26, 2018 1 minute 6 comments

Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff says

A mysterious 20-something artist named Olivia Jaimes revived the legacy of a comic that had fallen on hard times – in hilarious fashion.

Nancy was running in just 79 newspapers (down from a height of 700 in the 1970s) when Guy Gilchrist signed off in February … Andrews McMeel, the company that distributes Nancy to newspapers, could have easily ended the strip and published reruns of Bushmiller’s work online as long as anybody wanted to read it.

Instead, the syndicate hired a young artist named Olivia Jaimes (a pseudonym) and gave her the freedom not just to update Nancy for 2018 but to figure out what Bushmiller’s playful style might look like if pulled forward into the present. It is, unexpectedly, the newspaper comic strip of the year, in an era when the idea of “newspaper comic strip of the year” has essentially ceased to hold meaning.

The article has high praise (“the most fun you’ll have”) for Nancy and Olivia Jaimes.

Further reassessment of Andrews McMeel/GoComics offerings come from Charlie Upchurch who
reviews the 12 new Web Comics that were began appearing on the GoComics site during 2018.

Maybe one of the above will win The Cartoonist Studio Prize.

The Slate Book Review and the Center for Cartoon Studies announce the 7th annual Cartoonist Studio Prize.

Each year the Cartoonist Studio Prize will be awarded to work that exemplifies excellence in cartooning. The creators of two exceptional comics will be awarded $1000 each. Winners will be selected by Slate’s Dan Kois, the faculty and students of The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS)

The two award categories for the Cartoonist Studio Prize are Print Comic of the Year and Web Comic of the Year.

Details (submissions deadline is January 31, 2019) are here.

Comments ⁶

Ignatz Mouse

I read quite a lot of Ms. Jaimes “Nancy” because I really wanted to give it a chance, and it is horribly drawn, and seldom even slightly humorous. I am befuddled by the high praise some people give the thing. It’s just bad.

TVC15

Could not disagree more @Mouse.

Bill Harris

I’m in agreement with Ignatz. I’m assuming it’s a generational thing, but the new Nancy leaves me cold.

Liam jones

It’s an ok comic, I’m still glad they revamped it

Kip Williams

I remember when the Gilchrists started, and the art and atmosphere were a welcome return to the Bushmiller style. It all turned to cloying, sentimental slop and three-rocks fetishism after a while.

Maybe Jaimes will get stale and I’ll regret the change. So far, though, the only problem I’ve had is an abundance of fourth-wall jokes, and that could be a fluke.

T.Y. SINGSONG

The early Gilchrist brothers stuff was an admirable effort/good try /you draw nice but can’t write ——-but this isn’t even close to Bushmiller. The late years of Guy Gilchrist solo was cloying, d-list celebrity, saccharine, pos, self-aggrandizing country music joke that no one laughed at.

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