Nancy by Olivia Jaimes for July 28, 2019

Clever last panel. I don’t remember seeing something like that before.

But what if you can read backwards without a mirror?

How does she do that?

Hmmm, the viewer would have to stand behind her, and place the mirror in front of her, in order to read the word balloon, AND Aunt Fritzi seems to be guilty of forced child labor, AND she’s looking hot!!

9

Hah!!! Wonderfully creative and also breaking (or mirroring) the 4th wall!

˙əʞoɾ poob ɐ sɐʍ ʇı ʇnq ’buoɹʍ sıɥʇ pıp ı ʞuıɥʇ ı

I think this might be a fourth wall joke.

Tough luck, Nancy; I can read backwards.

Nancy is so heartbroken in the second panel. :(

I like messing with people by reading upside down all the time.

Clever…

I often admire myself in the mirror. Naked. Blinds open.

Notice that each reflection is an accurate mirror of Nancy’s face, even down to her expression and the mirror angle relative to her position. That took a lot of work for a throwaway gag. OJ is definitely keeping the spirit of Ernie alive.

Looking at today’s Spanish language “Nancy” [aka “Perequita”] we find this in the final speech balloon…

OREP

APLUC IM SE ON

ANUGLA ROP IS

DADILAUSAC

NEIUGLA

NU ENEITSOS

ETNALED OJEPSE

.ARAC IM ED

So does this mean that mirrors in Spanish speaking environs reverse the order of letters in a word but not the right/left mirror image of each letter? Aretecte?

OЯƎꟼ

Aꟼ⅃UƆ IM ƧƎ OИ

AИUᎮ⅃A ЯOꟼ IƧ

ᗡAᗡI⅃AUƧAƆ

ИƎIUᎮ⅃A

ИU ƎИƎITƧOƧ

ƎTИA⅃Ǝᗡ OႱƎꟼƧƎ

.AЯAƆ IM Ǝᗡ

Or have I gotten my orientation downside-up and outside-in and reverso-change-o? And is there a random cosmic function that turns a G into a Ꭾ in some reversals?

Clever :)

Okay, Olivia, I was able to avoid leaving the couch to get a mirror. I just put my old iPhone by the image and got the reflection of Nancy’s so-Nancy comment. Are you on drugs, young lady? : )

Here’s the other thing I love most in today’s offering.

The cinematic nature of the strip. In panels one, three, and four, it’s as if the camera is pulling back to reveal slightly more information with each retreat. The other mirrors come into view.

And what weird places for the mirrors, especially the one on the floor.

And the close-ups of Nancy and Fritzi, presented as reaction shots.

And the line-of-sight dashes between Nancy and the various mirrors. [All without her head moving.] These were favorites of Bushmiller too.

The placement, the arrangement of objects and angles, especially in panel four.Cinematography, camera angles, framing shots, acting on the part of the characters, structured dialog, set decoration, continuity, special effects, and such… with a writer, director and all the other people who make a movie in the person of the comic writer/artist.

The great Italian film director Federico Fellini was much taken with comic books and in particular Stan Lee’s work at Marvel. The two became good friends and stayed in touch over the decades. Fellini called comics “slow movies” because he saw that everything he did on screen was being done on the comics page. And of course, so many film makers structure their films on story boards before shooting a single frame of film. The boards for “Star Wars” could easily constitute a comic book version of the film.

Anyhow. I have come to think of the “slow movie” notion when I am particularly taken with a piece of comic art.

Here’s a tiny bit about the Fellini/Lee relationship, if you are curious…..https://findery.com/californiawilliam/notes/federico-fellini-meets-stan-lee

!ɿoɿɿim ɒ ɈυoʜɈiw Ɉi bɒɘɿ I !ɒH