Nancy Classics by Ernie Bushmiller for February 14, 2024

A rotary land-line! Just goes to show how old this strip is, LOL.

Here in the UK, “Dog and bone” is Cockney rhyming slang for “bone”. Those old telephone receivers – which I remember from the 1970s – are a possible explanation for why that rhyme was chosen.

I have seen even older telephones in black-and-white movies. They were shaped like candlesticks.

I think you mean the generic “we”, right, Nancy? Unless you helped Fritzi decide what color phone to get…

Give that doggie a real bone,Nancy! ☺️❤️

Chomp!

huh, never saw this one here.

I don’t think I ever saw a phone that wasn’t black until around 1966.

This phone has a leash but the doggy doesn’t

Bushmiller’s involvement with ‘prime’ numbers is well displayed in this strip.

In panel #1, Ernie used nine straight but diagonal lines above Nancy’s head, to express the degree to which Nancy is startled by what she is seeing to the right.

The panel also sets up and reinforces the linear, left to right movement of text, and comic strip panels.

In panel #2, seven short lines show the degree of focus that Nancy has on what her eyes are seeing. Those seven (dotted) lines typically occupy the degree to which a character, or Nancy, is startled.

Three sweat beads are common in Ernie’s repertoire with Nancy in a worried rush. And Ernie often paired patterns involving 3 and 7.

Panel #4, Ernie creates a nonverbal image to resonate with Nancy’s verbal “phone” and the Dog thinks the receiver is a bone – phone/bone rhyme.

In my experience, rhymes are not common to Ernie’s strips, and the panel invites me to be more observant of such optical puns.

For me, the semiotics of panel #4 are award winning.

Three short lines appear in panel #4 in relation to the telephone receiver.

However, there is an ambiguity about where that possible sound may be coming from.

Of note, the telephone dial has only seven holes for dialling, and Ernie paired patterns involving #3 and #7 with the three diagonal lines and the seven holes for the telephone dial.

Ernie latched onto prime numbers somewhere along the lines of his career. Those appear regularly in the strips that I am familiar with. I don’t know when those started to appear in his work.

Bottom line for me, the strip is another Bushmiller masterpiece.

Nancy your dog thinks the handle is a none bad color phone to buy

Bet it doesn’t taste like a bone.