The magic in a little girl's smile

It's next to impossible not to the smile at Nancy's idiosyncratic ingenuity as depicted on the John Stanley-scripted, Dan Gormley-drawn (I think?) covers for Dell's 1960s Nancy comics, featured below. Even when the gag isn't obvious, or even much of a gag at all... I mean, dogs under an umbrella! ADORABLE!
These four issues of Nancy will be collected in Nancy Volume 2, part of D & Q's ongoing John Stanley Library series. Look for it in stores this summer!








Speaking of adorable, three of these issues feature inside cover ads for Kraft Fudgies illustrated by Whitney Darrow Jr children chomping on "life size — bite size" candies. I have always found Darrow's sideline as an illustrator for kid's books sort of ironic given the archly pessimistic and wink-winkingly prurient tone of his better-known New Yorker cartoons for grown-ups... a great number of which feature children exposing their elders' foibles and pretensions. But I'll be darned if they aren't cute!

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