Talking about manga, the Nancy mines, and general nonsense with Philly's own on West 18th in NYC.
With that said, I'll give some context to this trip, and what happened prior before I jump into the main event.
As some of you have been aware, I'd been having a really weird first few months of the year, with two relatives passing away in less than a month, me losing my job the day after my cousin died, and the anniversary of my friend's passing happening within the week of the 23rd. I am, as it stands, unsure if I'll be able to look back on the months of February and March the same into my future. But, I am happy regardless, as the opportunities I might have after the suffering will be greater than the pain I have endured. Case in point, MoCCA '26.
I was planning on going by myself here, and, with the approval of my professor, I was looking into flights and a room in a hostel. However, my mother expressed interest in visiting, with her worries of me in the city alone cause for concern. I didn't quite understand why she wanted to come, maybe she needed a break. I did appreciate her being there, and telling me about the many things she'd seen in her previous trips with my sister. Her patience was very much needed, as none of what I was interested in appealed to her..."I'm happy that she's happy" sensibility in play.
After arriving to our hotel after the flight and dropping off our bags, we had several morning hours to kill to see what we wanted on lost sleep. Junior's, the NYPL and its extensive collection of artistic materials, and the Kinokuniya in back of it. We then headed over to Rockefeller to NBC Studios, of which Fallon was taping when we came in. A little too late for tickets, but at least the downstairs shops were nice. After that, a death march down 8th, and a stop at the hotel where I spent the rest of the night sleeping off what I'd lost. We had a pizza and soda, and...
March 28th. MoCCA day one, but the only day I'd be able to go. We were worried on TSA being backed up, but we had no problem, seemingly.
That's about it for backstory. From here, each of the four installments to follow will be prose stories involving me talking with some big comics guys, not using the format of my talk with Hallgren. This feels more natural to the events of the show, as each of these incidents happened one after the other, so I hope you can get a good scope on how I went about the event.
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| Cash talks comics, to her left is Lubchansky. |
Her passion for the strip showed, as just half an hour before was a panel hosted by her, Mattie Lubchanksy (former editior on Cash's contemporary satire alma mater The Nib as well as mastermind behind the webstrip Simplicity), and Brad Neely (creator of Adult Swim's China, IL and Brad Neely's Harg Nallin' Sclopio Peepio as well as long-time single-panel cartoonist). The three discussed their different philosophies when it came to making what they were known for: Cash described the change in pace from occasional indie comedy books and slower-paced works to a daily strip, Lubchansky focused on the consistency of "viral" strips and the looming specter of relatability in Instagram/socially-distributed works, while Neely looked introspectively into simply just getting down whatever was funniest in a given moment and hopefully finding a way to have the strips seen online, published, or in ways beyond comics such as screenwriting (his full-time job).
Cash explained the philosophy of working for Andrews McMeal on a daily like this, paraphrased: "find comedy wherever you go".
And there is comedy in school settings, of my personal favorite "kid-strips" with school plots are Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, and the many, many Beano brat serials. But, prior to 2018, Nancy wasn't entirely a school-focused strip. That changed when Cash's predecessor, the anonymous Olivia Jaimes, took over.
As far as I know, the shift in Jaimes' Nancy was a reinvention of the titular little girl's problem-solving and opportunistic traits into a more productive manner: Nancy was a part of a STEM robotics team who was constantly up against "the magnet school" and their sharp-tongued students of considerable wealth, yet lacking social skills. She would face off against them every so often, with one such arc involving a basketball game lasting over a month. School had come to stay in Nancy, and, according to Cash, Jaimes' take is looking to last.
"Olivia Jaimes, who did it before me, came up with all of these really fun new characters for the strip," Cash waxes, "I think they're great. I'm going to bring them back once they go to school."
"I think that's a good way of honoring that." I commented.
"Yeah, totally. I like a lot of the one-off gag characters that Bushmiller came up with. So I'm trying to reintroduce them."
Working on the strip is nothing short of a dream job, so it got me to thinking on the characters that I'd like to see revisited in the comic that Jaimes wasn't exactly able to get to. "The really verbose guy who has three different names."
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| Detail from Cash's Nancy, dated 4/1/26 |
"Really?" I guess I didn't read it yet, but sure enough, he was back.
Cash pulled out a box of cigarettes, and asked if I had a lighter, to which I didn't. My bags were being held back at the Metropolitan, where I did have one on me: a marijuana-leaf patterned click-button I picked up in Toronto when I was visiting for TIFF. It wouldn't have been possible for me to bring my prerolls with me on a flight since we'd be crossing state lines while way up there, but getting my lighter past security was surprising. Neely ended up footing the cig bill.
"But there's so many. There's so much I want to do." Cash continued. Being a big fan of the legacy comic you're drawing is a perk, and being both a fan of and friends with the artist you took over for is pretty nuts too.
"I think I started really getting into the strip when Jaimes took over. Her stuff was very, very fun." I mentioned.
"She's so smart. And she's so funny. And she's just a text away. I'll be like, 'what's Nancy's birthday?'" This connection would eventually turn into a small series of strips involving Cash's self-insert going to a caricatured Jaimes for advice and knowledge on what Nancy and her ilk should and shouldn't be written as, to which she receives both lore and two points of advice: "just be funny", and "don't read the comments".
On their end, they were probably used to the Gilchrist take on the strip, which I thought was, at the very least, over and done with, not to mention stuck with an aging audience. To see Nancy "going in on that cornbread" was like going to the store and seeing the new packaging for Doritos or Mountain Dew, or, I guess in a more sentimental vein, watching the new movie in a favorite franchise be directed by someone other than the mainstay. It's new, it's different, and I was all for it.
"It got me thinking to the year before, there was a huge lineup of people who took over the strip for about a month or so. Those were tryouts, weren't they?" I asked.
"No, that was a planned sabbatical. Olivia planned it for a while, She was like, 'okay, I want two months off. I want to do something, and I want to get in these cartoonists I like.'" Cash explained. "It wasn't a tryout at all, though I guess it ended up being that for me," she clarified, laughing, "But it wasn't. I don't have a whole message, but it make sense why people thought it was. She just wanted to go on vacation."
That was my running theory, a series of tryouts. I was surprised at the variety of artists who came in to do a week or so of strips each, one of whom was Cash. I'd brought up my conversation with Hallgren last year, and how he talked about his adventure in Nancy tryouts back in 1994-95 (not long after perhaps my favorite of his works, Mort the Dead Teenager, finished up its four-issue publication). "He felt kinda bad about the whole thing of not being chosen because he got taken over by the Gilchrists. I mean, I've got my reservations with them. But, you know, that's a different story."
"I mean, you know, I--" Cash began.
"Well, you're in the newspaper." I reminded.
"Yeah, I guess I do work in the newspaper now. The newspaper factory," she chuckled, "I work in the Nancy mines."
Back on the topic of the guest weeks, "I was on vacation when I was reading those strips and I was thinking to myself, 'did they change artists?'" I explained, as sometimes when a new artist comes in for a strip, GoComics doesn't usually make quick motions to get the name changed on their pages.
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| Detail from Leigh Luna's Nancy guest spot, dated 7/2/24 |
"And then she stopped." I joked.
"Well, another year and a half." Cash laughed.
Past 6th, we drunk in the sights of the Manhattanites. Babies in expensive-looking strollers and furry jackets with bear ears, overly-cute toy dogs with names like Yeobo or Jag-eun, and businesses of all sorts, including department chains and mom-and-pop bodegas. Steam shot from the sewer covers, but no smell was noticable.
"I gotta respect, you know, taking over a lofty thing like Nancy." I complimented.
"Yeah, I mean, it's my favorite comic, so it still doesn't really look quite real, but..."
"I think about that drawing you did of the bathroom. The Nancy tattoo. I believe it was in PeePee PooPoo..." which is a phenomenal little series. It is an Eisner-winning book, so do check it out.
"Probably, that sounds right."
"Point is, I think that a lot of cartoonists who take influence from older works and creators are needed very much these days," I continued, "a lot of new-gen artists will take influence from newer creators and not give much time to 'the masters', I suppose. They're all doing their own things, which is good and all, y'know?"
"It's part of the history of...okay, this is sudden," she laughed, "it's part of the history of comics, right? To rip off other comics that came before...I know I learned a lot."
"On that topic, the strip where Nancy and Sluggo go to the library and read manga...that was cute."
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| Detail from Cash's Nancy, dated 3/15/26 |
"Very, very beautifully." I added.
"She has to slay, y'know? My goal for drawing her is...I really want to do her justice. I really want gay guys to see her and say, 'what a diva', y'know?"
"She's bisexual, too. Hit both sides."
"Well, I'm moreso hinting at that right now, I'll definitely touch on that later...but for the time, I wanna have 'em be like...'that's mother'."
Cash, noting her fandom for the comic, brought the cards out to play in the aforementioned group panel. On being asked the origins of Nancy the character, an "erm, ackshully" moment was in effect, but, as typical, in a super chill and thoroughly-explained way, where she pin-pointed the origins of Fritzi as a character in the comic Fritzi Ritz, created by Larry Whittington as a "good-girl" strip prior to the switch-over by Ernie Bushmiller in the mid-20s, transitioning the setting to Hollywood (in relation to Bushmiller's work as a gag man for the incomparable "third genius of the silents" Harold Lloyd), leading to a slew of Cousin Oliver-types in the early 30s before Nancy took off as the resident brat.
And, if anything, to know all that prior history and have fun with it like playing dolls in your Very Real And Official Take, I'm nothing short of impressed and proud. We crossed to West 18th, in front of the Metropolitan Pavillion, and pretty much stayed there the rest of the time.
"Speaking of, what's your favorite manga?" I noticed how that could be a loaded question. "Just one of your favorites." I backpedaled.
"There's so many good ones, I mostly read manga, to be honest." My face lit up when she said this.
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| Detail from Cash's Nancy, dated 3/5/26 |
"Those were huge." I said.
"Really formative, and I still think they did an amazing job. Oh, and ONE PIECE." A Shelby Cobra blasted up the street, and we both turned in shock.
"It's supposed to be ending soon, from what I've heard." I continued, surprisingly calm after the blaring engine of the muscle car had passed by.
"It's gonna be ending soon, but..."
"Oda's said that twice before," I joked.
"I think he means it this time," Cash continued. "We're in the final saga, and I'm really excited to see how people--well, they're upset about it ending--but I'm excited to see what the One Piece is."
"Didn't he--did you see the video of him writing down on a piece of paper what the One Piece was and then dropping it down in the ocean inside a treasure chest?"
"Good luck. ONE PIECE fans are gonna find that." We laughed.
"People were already coming with theories and using location to find the coordinates of where they were in the video. And, of course, they're trying to find it!"
"Totally, I think somebody might. ONE PIECE fans are, again, very dedicated, I'd say."
I thought I was comfortable enough to do what we in the talking-to-people-industry call "the sneak". And here it is.
"I mean, personally, I enjoy a lot of older stuff...I like Fujio Akatsuka, he's great."
"Oh, god, yeah." Cash's eyes widened.
"To know the person I'm talking to draws Nancy and likes Fujio Akatsuka, that's...that's gonna be going to the grave." I laughed.
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| Detail from Jaimes' Nancy, dated 9/28/23 |
"She does?" It's very difficult to write the amount of shock I had.
"Shit...actually, she's a woman of mystery. I can't give away too much. She likes manga too, she likes sports manga."
"At the Kinokuniya in back of the NYPL, if you go upstairs to the manga section, on the walls are some murals that [Takehiko] Inoue did from when they first opened, I believe...of Musashi and the rest from Vagabond. They're really cool."
"Oh, I like Chainsaw Man too. Fire Punch even more than that one."
"I heard that just ended. Did you see it yet? What'd you think?"
"I think it's cool. I dunno."
"You're in the minority there, wow." Knowing the reception of how hated the ending was, it was cool to hear that she shared the same opinion as me. "[Fujimoto] said he wanted it to feel like The Big Lebowski where, y'know, it just ends. It leaves you feeling unfulfilled. Said it a year or so ago. It got people thinking, 'oh this can't be true!' Then it was. And now everybody's mad because they lost at chess to a dog."
"It was the most classic and new of his stuff ever," Cash replied, "whether losing at chess to a dog or just misunderstanding what he means. I'm happy he pulled out when it was at its peak."
"There's a fundamental struggle to the general vibe he puts out...it's very nihilistic but also somewhat optimistic at the same time. Plays both sides. I don't usually read a lot of serialized stuff, I'd mentioned I love Akatsuka whose shit just starts and ends. Every chapter its own episodic story. It's just 12 to 15 pages of garbage and then, 'alright, here we are. Here's the next joke. Here's our whole plot'."
Cash followed up with one name: "Toriyama."
"He was very influenced by Akatsuka, talking about another master. It obviously shows through."
Cash wanted me to cut this next part, but it was a funny exchange, so I thought it would be better to just describe it.
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| Detail from Cash's Nancy guest spot, dated 8/7/24 |
On her mention of Toriyama, she'd said that she dug Dragon Ball, to which I'd said my favorite of his was Dr. Slump. She'd last read Slump in junior high, she said, and that she really liked the chracter that wore the beanie. I didn't remember any Slump characters that wore a beanie, so I asked her to describe them. I didn't recognize the initial description, so we threw out a few guesses.
- Osamu Tezuka's self-insert(???), because I'd thought she'd meant a beret
- Senbei, because she'd mentioned "older"
- Obotchaman, but he doesn't wear a hat
- One of Toriyama's self-inserts, but none of them wore a beanie
It took a lot of standing around and grumbling but we'd reached the conclusion of Peasuke Soramame, Arale's little friend with the kitty-eared hat. I guess we were both conflating a beanie with a beret. "This is gonna get cut entirely when I put this together. Can we just completely throw this all in the garbage?"
"The guys in Garo."
"Oh, yeah!" I'm somewhat familiar with Garo. I know Mizuki and Hino, as well as the more diffcult artists like Maruo and Nekojiru. I did hear some news, "Yoshiharu Tsugue had just passed away. Was in Garo in the late 60s, 70s...talked about himself a lot. Great stories. Died at the beginning of the month, but it wasn't public until a few weeks later."
"I've heard..."
"Happens with a lot of artists and celebrities with some degree of relevancy, they do the funerals and give the family some time, then publicly announce they'd died. Happened with Toriyama."
"It's good to give people some privacy. It's important these days for everyone to have privacy."
"I'm happy these older guys get some level of it," a thought crossed my mind like a bolt of lightning, and I perked up a bit more. "oh, wait, shit! Monkey Punch."
"Totally cool."
"He's awesome. I got a lot of buddies who talk up his stuff. Big fan. They love Shin Lupin III, the late 70s Lupin series. It's categorized as Lupin, then New Adventures, then Shin. I love New Adventures. Was when Part 1 was airing."
"You ever seen Lupin Part 2? Crazy, crazy show. Every year around Christmas, someone's posting the screencaps from the episode about Jesus' twin vampire sister."
"I've watched a movie or two, but I'm outing myself as a casual," Cash laughs, "I'm a tourist, but it's a really great series."
"If you want crazy wacky bullshit, check out Part 2. You don't have to watch all of it, it's so long. Part 1 is the better show though, I really recommend that." I briefly thought about the 4chan /a/ post where someone asked if it was okay to watch all of Lupin Part 2, to which an anon commented "yeah, and also read mort the dead teenager while you're at it" as a dig at me. Which, unsurprisingly, the conversation took that route later on.
"You know what I'm watching right now? Case Closed."
"Oh, Conan. They're putting older episodes up on Netflix with a new dub, I've heard."
"I don't watch dubs, but that's good to know because I put it on before bed every night. It's a nice show."
"Viz is still doing simulpub of it. Not sure about the books, but it's up on their site. Still consistent, they have the old names. You've got Jimmy."
"Jimmy!?" Cash was utterly baffled.
"Jimmy Kudo. I hate it. That's the reason why I never really got into Conan because of Viz mucking up the names. Some 'eat your hamburgers, Apollo' stuff. But it's fun."
"Manga's great, you know, as a medium. I'm happy it's going mainstream now, because 20 years ago, it was 'weird people stuff'. And now those weird people are the nerds who run the world. You see how big the MCU's gotten?"
"I'm not that big of a Marvel fan."
An evil smile crossed my lips. "Oh, what I will say...what I will recommend you...I brought up Hallgren, right?"
I don't really think I need to transcribe this, I'm sure my regular readers will know the game.
"It's phenomenal. It's my favorite. It's four issues long." I proposed.
Off-mic, Cash had mentioned that, prior to her Nancy work being published, she, Hallgren, and his wife had met and had dinner together, discussing the strip and the underground scene. In a way, she's continuing that tradition, as are all the other indiepub and internet-focused creators who look to make transgressive yet personal pieces. I guess it's just a matter of time before someone else in a little corner of the world gets a big break, which I'm sure is happening every day.
In the second part...
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| Who's this bearded cartoonist that may or may not be a dad? |
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