People are suddenly screaming at each other about 80-year-old comic strip character Nancy

[DrFunk]

In the slow world of newspaper comic strips, controversy has erupted because the 80 year old comic Nancy has changed and boy howdy are people upset about it:

But also, Jaimes has spent the last week adding things like "smartphones" and "video games" to the Nancy world, all of which are changes, and nothing riles up a comic page audience like the dreaded specter of change. Thus, the first week of Jaimes' tenure on the strip has seen its GoComics comments pages erupt into flames, with the various verbal fighters more pissed off about the art changes on a Nancy comic strip than most of us get when someone drives over our mom. "You make me feel like dropping this comic strip because it ain't even close to funny," one writes, while another notes, "I just can not get into the new Nancy..just not what I enjoy reading with my breakfast. Bye, I will unfollow this comic." "Guy Gilcrest(sic), where are you?" a third demands, beseeching the comic strip gods for the return of the comic's previous artist.

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This is what's new:

The strip has, suddenly, gained a sense of humor. Imo, Nancy sucked, but I find it interesting that people are screaming at each other about an 80 yr old comic. Change is bad I guess.

https://news.avclub.com/its-2018-and-people-are-suddenly-screaming-at-each-oth-1825376287

 

[capitalCORN]

Okay, those are great.

 

[Deleted member 42]

On one hand, implementing radical changes like that in such an old comic almost immediately is kinda weird so that reaction is expected, considering the target demo

On the other hand, lol wtf she's just winging it

 

[Zeno]

It's really weird seeing that character design talking about stuff like the internet.

 

[Poppy]

i kind of love these new strips, never heard of this comic before

your loss, old people

 

[Deleted member 24907]

Even in its attempt to modernize this feels outdated.

The second strip posted is mostly a "the Internet" (pronounced with a hard T) joke you'd see on the early 00s.

 

[collige]

That Snapchat filter comic is fucking great.

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

Does anyone look at newspaper comic strips other than Garfield? I guess there is Marmaduke, but how many times can you make the joke That dog is big?

 

[Quixzlizx]

Even in its attempt to modernize this feels outdated.

The second strip posted is mostly a "the Internet" (pronounced with a hard T) joke you'd see on the early 00s.

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The second strip is a reference to Twitter bot networks.

 

[Deleted member 4367]

Even in its attempt to modernize this feels outdated.

The second strip posted is mostly a "the Internet" (pronounced with a hard T) joke you'd see on the early 00s.

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Ahh yes, that classic early 00s conversation about bots on the internet...

 

[Deleted member 24118]

Part of me says that 99% of newspaper comics readers are old people who don't get the jokes.

On the other, I unironically follow Dick Tracy and read Funky Winkerbean (for snarking purposes) and Comics Curmudgeon every day. So.

 

[Deleted member 6949]

I heard that Beetle Bailey killed 2 civilians in a drone strike and orphaned a little girl.

 

[Poppy]

cathy is yelling because she is having trouble checking her email

 

[Creatchee]

On one hand, implementing radical changes like that in such an old comic almost immediately is kinda weird so that reaction is expected, considering the target demo

On the other hand, lol wtf she's just winging it

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I've always wondered who the target audience was for Nancy. Also, The Family Circus.

 

[Deleted member 12224]

I love the facial expression this Nancy character has in the third panel of the Bots comic.

Like, holy shit. What a perfect I hate you so much right now look.

 

[Einchy]

Olivia Jaimes ruined my childhood.

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

Those strips actually got a grin out of me. Too bad only retirees read comic pages these days.

 

[BriGuy]

I had no idea Nancy still existed. The new strips aren't half bad. Is Wizard of Id still kicking around?

 

[Anoregon]

I've always wondered who the target audience was for Nancy. Also, The Family Circus.

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People who are literally a million years old

 

[Reversed]

Is it out of character or has the comic always made witty remarks towards "those newfangled things"?

 

[Enduin]

Weird, never in my life have I heard of this comic. I use to read the comics from multiple papers every night before bed from the time I was like 4 or 5 to like 16 or 17.

No issue with these new ones, looking at the older stuff doesn't seem that out of line, just more topical and politically biting.

 

[makonero]

I read these yesterday and I love them

It feels like a webcomic died and it's spirit took over the shambling corpse of a newspaper comic

 

[Cuburger]

The bots strip feels pretty topical and funny.

I approve.

I read these yesterday and I love them


It feels like a webcomic died and it's spirit took over the shambling corpse of a newspaper comic

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I thought the same thing and it made me think of other old strips handing the reigns over to web comic artists and what fresh ideas they could come up with. I know fans would feel it's blasphemous, but cartoons that are decades old have handed over characters to fresh new creators to do something different and it can work with great results.

 

[Beartruck]

Fuck em. Newspaper comics(and well, newspapers)are dead because editors spent all their time listening to 89 year old blowhards from Omaha instead of adapting with the times.

 

[kristoffer]

Nice, it's now a comic about online-centric people who are lazy and have other poor personality traits! "Ha ha, I do that!" Really needed one more of these.

 

[DrFunk]

 

[Tesseract]

haha, stupid nancy

 

[badcrumble]

these are really great and do a good job of keeping the sort of dry/cute sense of humor of the originals while also clearly being self-aware about the cult of surrealist nancy fanart stuff that sprang up with zine and early internet culture in the '90s/'00s

nancy's very different from what you'd consider the top-tier classic comic strips of the twentieth century (peanuts, calvin & hobbes, the far side) in that instead of being fairly timeless it's *incredibly* dated so you might as well be aware of that fact and play with it and turn that self-awareness into an asset

 

[Sanjuro]

Woken Jim Davis

 

[Einchy]

The doctor has spoken.

 

[Bandage]

These are great.

 

[Deleted member 279]

This is so fucking funny

 

[Landy828]

The teacher one and the snapchat one are actually well played.

 

[Karsticles]

I've never heard of the strip until now, but I found those funny.

 

[CaptNink]

Damn - those are funny!

 

[corn_fest]

pretty much sums it up, I think

 

[Beartruck]

Woken Jim Davis

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Davis has been woke for a while. Dude wrote the forward to the Garfield minus Garfield book, he absolutely loved it.

 

[Deleted member 19218]

To be honest I never found these comics funny back then nor now. I just can't get newspaper comic humour, what is wrong with me?

 

[Sou Da]

People are also mostly mad because the new artist hasn't put in Nancy's busty caretaker.

 

[Doof]

I heard that Beetle Bailey killed 2 civilians in a drone strike and orphaned a little girl.

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Nah, that's Funky Winkerbean.

 

[jph139]

The fact it's in that same dry, retro style really gives it a unique flavor.

I approve. More new Nancy.

 

[adrem007]

These are terrible, but people here will eat it up because fuck them old farts am I right

 

[Elegant Weapon]

These are dope lol

 

[Kain-Nosgoth]

these are funny, not the greatest but i don't see the problem really

 

[Einchy]

My new hobby is reading the comment section on Nancy comic strips.

 

[Westbahnhof]

Even in its attempt to modernize this feels outdated.

The second strip posted is mostly a "the Internet" (pronounced with a hard T) joke you'd see on the early 00s.

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Wait. How are you supposed to pronounce internet?

 

[Sanjuro]

Davis has been woke for a while. Dude wrote the forward to the Garfield minus Garfield book, he absolutely loved it.

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I'll only consider him woke if he watched this entire video.

 

[Enduin]

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This one is pure gold.

 

[shnurgleton]

Holy crap these are fantastic

 

[Doof]

To be honest I never found these comics funny back then nor now. I just can't get newspaper comic humour, what is wrong with me?

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There are very few current newspaper comics worth a damn. Check out Calvin and Hobbes, Krazy Kat, Pogo, and Peanuts if you want some of the best the art form has to offer.