CHESTER GOULD (1900-1985)
"Orphan Nancy!" Group of 10 daily comic strips from 1929. Pen and ink with blue pencil on Bristol board. 178x572 mm; 7x22½ inches. Each signed "Chester Gould" and with King Features Syndicate, Inc. pastedown label. Gould was most famous for his Dick Tracy comic strip, which he began only two years after this popular but short-lived strip about a feisty young lady. Left as a baby on the doorstep of three male artists Barclay, Kit, and Jimmy, and their housekeeper, Mother Gale, Nancy was adopted, raised, and adored by them. This group of strips focuses on Nancy's impending twelfth birthday and her growing curiosity about her birth parents. A tender and very gender-role bending strip from Gould's early days before he became known for his hard-edged detective hero.