Summer fun for November: from Four Color 1034, Nancy & Sluggo Summer Camp, 1959

I've been busy lately, and that means less posts on this blog. Got to keep the home fires burning. Thus, on this prematurely dark, chilly November early evening, here's a trio of stories from the tryout Four Color summer camp special for John Stanley's interpretation of Nancy and Sluggo.

I consider Stanley's brief run on Nancy among the highlights of his comix career. The writing is vivid and sharp throughout. Even though the characters are, as noted prior, highly similar to Little Lulu's cast, something about Planet Bushmiller stimulated John Stanley's creative side.

We start with a brief horror story that's more effective than anything Stanley attempted in his serious scary comics of the early 1960s. This shaggy dog anecdote seems vaguely familiar to me... perhaps Fredric Brown, or another short-short story writer, used this same basic concept.


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Now, here's another episode in the privileged life of Rollo Haveall, and his longsuffering manservant, Crumbly:




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In closing, Oona Goosepimple delivers another mind-fudge to poor Nancy. Not even the rustic pleasures of summer camp can buy Nancy freedom from these psychedelic living nightmares.
I particularly love the bewildering coda to this story. Of course, Nancy just has to rub salt in her psychic wounds by going and checking that damned board...
The Dell pledge to parents, in the last panel, does nothing to dilute the overall effect. In fact, it reinforces the creepy sensation...