snar 12 Nancies

#12 Raising Nancies

Kitchen Sink June 1989
#12 kicks off with a pseudo-autobiographical three-pager by Howard Cruse that depicts him as a little boy who bred a batch of tiny comic-strip Nancies as family pets. Wayne Honath (aka Wayno) makes his first appearance in Snarf long before he even changed his nom de plume to Wayno. Honath gets a couple one pagers. P.S. Mueller’s four-pager features a sadistic clown.

Foolbert Sturgeon does a six-pager. Foolbert Sturgeon is the legendary pen name of underground legend Frank Stack who revives his classic Jesus character for his first appearance in Snarf. The story is called “At Home with Jesus”. “At Home with Jesus” is a whimsical take on Jesus as a middle-aged husband stuck in the rat race with too many bills and too little luck. Thank God he can always talk to “the old man” and see his fortunes turn. Steve Toornman, who had his debut in the previous issue, returns with a couple of one-pagers, “Art School in the Seventies” and “Mile!”

Mark Landman also returns for another computer-generated comic story called “Man with the Autonomous Tongue”.

Jim Siergey also debuts in this issue with his one-page “Waiting For Gummo” comic, which had been previously published as an eight-page minicomic in 1985. The story is loosely based on Samuel Beckett’s absurdist 1953 play Waiting for Godot, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly for the arrival of someone named Godot.

Joe Matt comes up with four more pages of his intensely autobiographical comics. Harvey Pekar gets three pages of his own intensely autobiographical comics illustrated by the immensely capable Gary Dumm, with a guest appearance by Robert Crumb, “What Superman Means to Me”.

Sharon Clayman and Al Via collaborate on a one-and-a-half-pager about a woman who gets her high heel stuck in an elevator shaft, much to the inconvenience of everyone who works in the 10-story building. Snarf #12 closes with its first-ever fan letter page, which is dominated by a letter from an atheist who hated Dennis Worden’s “Fundamentalism” and must rant about it endlessly. Fortunately, Kitchen Sink gives Worden a chance to respond to the letter with his own rant (touché Mr. Worden).