Number 269

Oona Goosepimple and the Yo-Yo Mirrors

Somebody should reprint the John Stanley issues of Dell Comics' Nancy, done in the late 1950s and early '60s. The Little Lulu reprints seem to be doing well, and no reason why the same people buying them wouldn't want Stanley's Nancy. Like Lulu--created by Marge Buell--Stanley took Nancy--created by Ernie Bushmiller--and turned her into his own character. Stanley was a writer whose signature style was so clear you can always tell one of his stories, if only by looking for panels of someone yelling "YOW!" or "OW!" in large letters.

Oona Goosepimple was a character most likely inspired by Charles Addams. I own four issues of Nancy and Sluggo with these stories and they follow a pattern: Nancy is invited to Oona's, does not want to go, through some mysterious force ends up there anyway, then has an adventure from which she barely escapes. In this hilarious story from Nancy and Sluggo #175, March-April 1960, she encounters the Yo-Yo funhouse mirrors. Stanley was at his most creative when it came to these strange and bizarre, funny little stories.