A review by uncleflannery
How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels by Paul Karasik, Mark Newgarden

4.0

This book is good but also kind of bullshit. Like a three panel Nancy comic can totally withstand 40-odd chapters of analysis, that's fine, also there's a lot of fun stuff and they take seriously the work that goes into a good gag. That's cool! But the introduction talks about how many "bad" comics there are out there and (while I agree) their definition of "bad" is like... sloppy linework or improvisation or whatever.... there's something kind of macho about qualitative judgments made within. But who's more like Nancy: Marlys or one of Chris Ware's weird masturbating guys? Obviously Marlys. Sometimes fun, sometimes maddening. Do these guys even like to laugh?