Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller: The Man Who Created Nancy

Bill Griffith—best known for his long-running strip Zippy the Pinhead—spent years crafting this singular 2023 graphic biography from Harry N. Abrams, a deep-dive into the life and work of Nancy creator Ernie Bushmiller. With Griffith both writing and drawing, the book explores Bushmiller's career from his early days as a newspaper cartoonist to the creation of the iconic comic strip that defined a century of humor. More than a straightforward biography, it's a personal meditation on the nature of cartooning itself, blending rigorous research with Griffith's own distinctive, surreal sensibility. For fans of comics history and the craft of the daily strip, it's an essential, lovingly obsessive portrait of an artist whose simple lines held complex depths.