‘Good Eggs’ by Hurricane Nancy. Color by Henry Chamberlain.
Nancy Burton (1941-2025) was a great joy to work with here at Comics Grinder and, with great humility, I share some thoughts on her passing. Alex Dueben, who collaborated with Nancy on a collection of her work in book form, has just posted a wonderful tribute to her at The Comics Journal and I encourage you to read it. For some years, she would submit her artwork and I would post it with some accompanying text. Later on, I would add color to some of her pieces, just for fun. I asked permission and she was delighted. So, this went on for years, my accepting work from a legendary underground comics artist to appear here on my blog. It never occurred to me to ask Nancy if she ever wanted any further help in mounting art shows or creating a book. She submitted work. I posted. It was a fun and organic fit. She’s one of those special people who has entered my life who did not think twice about giving out a compliment, providing recognition. It is because of people like Nancy, one artist genuinely supporting another artist, that I have the inner strength to clearly see my worth as well as sincerely and constructively evaluate the work of my fellow artists.
So, what was it like to have a big name artist sending her work to appear on my blog? I grooved to her style right away. This was a very spirited and uninhibited style, which I love. It’s simply a person being honest and free but that can often be a very difficult, or complicated, thing for people. Nancy’s work invites you to enter her world as well as encourages you to create your own.
Nancy Burton began her career in art in New York City on the Lower East Side, in the 1960s. Talk about being in the right place and at the right time. As she related to me, it was a one-step-at-a-time process. You really had nothing to lose and you were encouraged to be as uninhibited as you wanted to be. Nancy’s work began to regularly appear in the underground magazines of the era: The East Village Other, Gothic Blimp Works, and It Ain’t Me, Babe. Over time, as she continued to explore and experiment, with gaps in between, she developed her distinctive work which included various anthropomorphic characters in a surreal landscape.
Give Peace a Chance!
Nancy’s work is very pure coming from a very primal place: a desire to express one’s self without getting caught up in editing the work before it has even had a chance to land on the page. That’s essential. There’s a magic and power to following one’s instincts, to letting your senses take over, to giving yourself over, mind, body and soul, to automatic drawing and then moving in step with the creative process wherever it may take you.
Art by Hurricane Nancy. Color by Henry Chamberlain.
Nancy’s art has a special language all its own. Within these images, there are pleas for common understanding as well as a rallying cry in support of individual freedom. Characters are lost in all manner of activity. You are left to do as you please with what is on view: speculate and/or embrace what you see.
Occasionally, Nancy would add a note or two, some comment to the art she submitted to me, and I’d reply personally to her and then perhaps some bit of it would appear within my description of the art I was posting. Maybe, at some point, I sensed she really needed to collect her art into a book. Then, it turned out, there was a book in the works. The first monograph of her work would be coming out, to be published by Fantagraphics. Well, we both shared in the anticipation.
When the time finally arrived, I wrote a review of it here and we accompanied that with an interview.
Some more time passed. And then I realized it had been a while since I’d heard from her. And then I received news of her passing away from her book’s collaborator, Alex Dueben. The news was provided to me. I processed it. I waited. At some point, I would share my thoughts and so I am doing that now.
To have a celebrated artist of the caliber of Nancy Burton be part of what I do here on this blog is a gift I will cherish for the rest of my life. If I thought I knew my way around, had already seen it all, her art, and most importantly, her friendship, are among those special things in my life that gently remind me there is always something new to discover for those who find a way to balance being humble with being bold. Nancy always believed in me.
