Lucy and Danae: Something Silly This Way Comes

by Wiley Miller

It is a rare cartoonist who can introduce new characters into a successful strip without upsetting readers. But since Wiley introduced Lucy, the lovable Pygmy-Clydesdale-with-an-attitude as the companion to Danae, Non Sequitur's cynical anti-heroine, fans have been clamoring for more of the pair. Now readers can enjoy the adventures of Lucy and Danae in the Non Sequitur collection dedicated to their exploits, Lucy and Something Silly This Way Comes .

Lucy's lovable equine goofiness tempers Danae's overdeveloped cynicism as Danae struggles with school, her father, and her sunny little sister, Kate. World-weary beyond her years, Danae sports a skull-in-heart T-shirt and perpetual scowl, while Lucy embodies unbridled optimism with her horsey grin. From their first meeting at summer camp, to Danae's "sneaky yet noble" plot to train Lucy as a guide horse for the blind (they do exist!), to an unplanned expedition to Santa's Workshop (in Maine, not the North Pole), Danae and Lucy turn the cliche of a sentimental girl and her horse upside down and inside out. With Lucy and Danae, Wiley Miller has found a winning combination that readers can't resist.

Genres: Humor, Comics, Cartoon, Comic Strips, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

I began my career in art illustrating educational films. But my interest was always in print and cartooning, so in 1977 I moved from film in Southern California to work as a staff artist and editorial cartoonist for the Greensboro Daily News and the Greensboro Record (they were the morning and evening papers at the time and have since merged into one).

In 1979 I moved on to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Ca.), as doing the staff art for one paper instead of two gave me more time to do editorial cartoons.

My editorial cartoons then went into syndication with Copley News Service in 1980.

Unfortunately, I was laid off in the recession of 1981, which, fortunately, led me to create my first comic strip, "Fenton", which was syndicated by Field Syndicate. It had moderate success, but my love was still with editorial cartooning.

When the position came open at the San Francisco Examiner in 1984, I went for it and somehow got it. I enjoyed a good run there until the recession of 1991 hit in the wake of the Gulf War.

Learning from my previous experience with recessions and the lack of job security for anyone in art, I decided to make my way out before the ax fell and created Non Sequitur, which went into syndication with the Washington Post Writers Group in 1992. It was met with immediate success, but it's growth with a small syndicate was limited.

When I reached that limit, I moved over to Universal Press Syndicate in 2000, where the strip now appears in 800 papers world wide.

Now, of course, I taken a new turn in my career, taking a story I did in the Sunday editions in 2005 called "Ordinary Basil" and made it into my first children's book with Blue Sky Press (a Scholastic imprint).

The second book in the series, "Attack of the Volcano Monkeys", came out a year later, with a third book now in the works.

Reviews

[Peter Barr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danae is a young girl and Lucy is her pony. Both have their own vision of the world and try it out with varying degrees of success. Danae lives with her father and sister in Los Angeles at the beginning of the story but a move is in the works. Occasionally, after Danae has pulled something, Dad is found drinking in a bar next to some guy that looks vaguely like Richard Nixon. I have always loved this comic and this is a nice book.

[Harold Citron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, but after reading the whole book, there was something missing or off with the characters in this book. While I liked Danae as a character in the original strip, this felt like a similar version to Calvin and Hobbes, but a bit forced.

Still a nice read, but not as good as the single strip books.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun as usual

Great fun as usual. Life wouldn’t be as interesting without Lucy and Danae. It is better to laugh at life as it is than to cry or get mad.

[Roberta Maas · Rating 4 out of 5]

makes my day

Wiley Miller creates fabulous illustrations with snarky wit that makes my days well worth living through. Ta da!! And yahoo!!!

[Danae · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom came across this book somewhere and bought it because it has my name on it. :) It has a character who shares my name, my favorite animal as a sidekick and according to Wikipedia, this comic strip began six days after I was born. Quelle coïncidence !

Anyway, it's not my favorite comic strip in the world, but it was fun and enjoyable and I'm glad I have it. :)

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Non Sequitur has become my favorite "edgy" comic. Wiley has a real finger on the pulse of the nation and has no qualms about saying what he (hem, his characters) thinks. My favorite character, and probably about everyone else's, is Danae because of her nihilistic attitude towards everything. This book is the only one that features just her and Lucy, her horse. The two make the best comedy team since Rowan and Martin, since Martin and Lewis, since Abbot and Costello, well, you get my point.

If you have a strong feeling that America is really too funny to be serious about, read on.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rarity in Wiley Miller's work, since one of the joys of his comic is the change from day to day, as reflected by the Non Sequitur title. But this collection is devoted to the story of Lucy, a lovable if improbable horse, and the girl she meets at camp, Danae, who is skeptical, worldly-wise, and anything but lovable. Danae arranges for Lucy to come back from camp with her--nobody else wants a horse like Lucy--and they eventually convince Danae's father to move to Maine, which is a bit more flexible about horse ownership than suburban California.

[Carla Girtman]

Fun read!

Pithy writing from Wiley Miller who has an in depth view on humanity's interaction with politics and life in general. Lucy and Danae have always been my favorites (as well as his bears).