The Nancy Book.

Mitzel, John

by Joe Brainard

Siglio Press. 144 pages, $39.50

Always a fan, I have come to appreciate the work of the late Joe Brainard even more over the years. This latest collection of his work is The Nancy Book, a variety of pictorial meditations on the cartoon character Nancy. It's too bad that Brainard, in the last fifteen years of his life (1942-1994), turned down all invitations to show his work or to publish. Anyway, his riffs on Nancy are whimsical and, most of them, amusing, even the pornographic ones--though the designation "pornographic" may not be appropriate when referring to the depictions of a cartoon character; perhaps instead Nancy is exploring aspects of her sexuality. Brainard's take on the Nancy brand has the feel of an ironic comment on a national icon, sort of like what Bill Griffith does with his "Zippy" strip--if, in fact, Nancy and Sluggo weren't already some sort of ironic comment in their original incarnation. These things can be hard to classify. The Nancy Book, which is mostly comprised of Brainard's illustrations, also includes commentary by Ann Lauterbach and Ron Padgett.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]