Ernie Bushmiller

Ernest Paul Bushmiller Jr. was born on August 23, 1905, and spent the better part of six decades shaping one of American newspaper comics' most recognizable strips. A New York-born cartoonist, he broke into the profession in the late 1920s, with his catalog credits stretching back to 1929 across titles including Comics on Parade, Sparkler Comics, Tip Top Comics, and Tip Topper Comics — an output spanning 259 issues as artist, writer, inker, colorist, and letterer.

He is best remembered for developing Nancy, the round-faced, frizzy-haired girl who became a fixture of newspaper funny pages beginning in 1933. The strip's genius lies in its radical visual economy: Bushmiller stripped each panel down to only what the joke required, producing compositions that cartoonists and critics still study for their structural clarity. That deceptive simplicity — occasionally mistaken for laziness — was in fact a disciplined craft honed over decades.

The National Cartoonists Society recognized his contribution with the Reuben Award in 1976, the field's highest honor. Bushmiller continued working on Nancy until shortly before his death on August 15, 1982. The strip he shaped has now run for over ninety years, a testament to how durable a truly well-designed comic can be.