Profile 5: Nancy

 Welcome to our fifth character profile, focusing on the young terror of the supernatural underworld: Nancy!

Name: Nancy Winterbone

Age: 10

Favorite Food: Chicken Nuggets

Theme Song: You Don't Mess Around with Jim by Jim Croce

Abilities: Stab-Bat

History: Nancy has never been the average kid at school. She always liked to stand out. When she was five she'd often take finger paints and give herself an elaborate scary face. When she was 7 she took the role as a background ghost in a play too seriously and really hammed it up. Nancy has never just gone with what people expect of her, always trying to go a little further in life.

This has lead to a bit of a schism between her and her parents. Themselves not really feeling equipped to deal with her rebellious nature. So they tend to leave her with her grandfather a lot. Her grandpa, Basil Winterbone, is a former horror author who for a short time was quite popular. Though he suddenly stopped writing at the height of his popularity and slunk away to Serling to live the rest of his days.

Nancy loves her grandfather and has gotten along very well with him. She enjoys helping him around the house and feels she really gets to be of use there. It's during one of her many trips to visit her grandfather she meets Billy for the first time. Billy is her grandpa's neighbor and he comes to visit often and hear stories from him.

At first she wasn't too friendly with Billy. She didn't get along with most kids her age and she wasn't sure of his intentions hanging around her grandfather. Worried he may try to steal from the elderly man. Only to get to know him and the two became best friends. Bonding over their love of horror movies and classic horror books.

Nancy found herself involved in Billy's supernatural world and when her grandfather realized this, he gave her his old weapon from his youth. The Stab-Bat, her most cherished possession and righteous weapon of her fury. 

Unlike Billy, a pacifist, Nancy's not afraid to get her hands dirty. She doesn't mind smacking around some undead to keep her and her friends safe. Billy often defers to her to keep the baddies at bay. She doesn't entirely understand his stance, but she respects it and does her best to not push him on it. Though she does eventually convince him to at least learn to defend himself.

Her leather jacket has a story tell, but one she's not ready to tell yet. She doesn't conform to a lot of her gender stereotypes. She enjoys things considered by society as for boys and for girls. She enjoys tea parties but also likes scary movies. Not really worried what the world thinks about her. That's how she's always been and it's how she's always be. 

Creator Notes: I think of all the characters who changed through the years, I am happiest with where Nancy ended up from her original idea. Nancy was a later addition around 2011-2012 I want to say. My idea was for her to be Billy's love interest. A half-demon girl named Mindy who had a father that didn't approve of her being with a young hero.

Pretty boring, honestly.

I was never entirely satisfied with her character. I never could think of much for her to do other than random team ups with Billy. She didn't have much personality at the time and I wasn't able to really put together an interesting idea for her. She kinda hovered in between the state of existing and not-existing in the comic. 

Eventually I decided I didn't really want Billy to have a love interest. Not that this is an entire romance-less comic. Rather, Billy is a character I don't see as very interested in that kind of thing where he's at in his life. Maybe if I told a story of an older Billy, in his teens, sure, but this version of Billy feels like he'd rather focus on being a kid still and not really worry about more serious romantic relationships.

So with that, she was cut. I didn't plan to bring her back, I just ditched the character altogether. Like several other characters such as Oltan's predecessor or the Hydro-Powered Frankenstein. 

It was during the 2018 revival that I considered Mindy again and giving her a new role. Slowly this evolved into her being Billy's best human friend and the one regular person on the cast. Even Zindy, normal as she looks, is a witch. So that was an important role to fill. I also wanted to give her a design that stood out from everyone else. 

The idea of a tough girl wearing a leather jacket is nothing new. Yet I could never get it out of my head when imagining her. I always had her wearing this heavy jacket in my head. I decided that rather than make her look like a total Terminator rip-off, she does wear a regular skirt still. Kind of showing she isn't one way or the other, she's just Nancy. How well I convey this duality is hard to say.

Her introduction was something I struggled with for a little while but when I settled on the name the idea of a Nightmare on Elm St parody came easily. It was also an excellent way to introduce her signature weapon.

Nancy's got a lot more adventuring to do and I'm excited to share them all with you!