Nard n' Pat

Black and white illustration of two characters with black text across the top

Nard n' Pat was an underground comic strip and the brainchild of comic artist Jay Lynch.  The strip was an early example of the underground "comix" movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Comix are small-run comic publications that address politically or socially relevant topics, and that often depict content considered inappropriate for mainstream publication.

Nard n' Pat was first published in 1967 in the underground newspaper Chicago Seed. It went on to appear regularly in Bijou Funnies, a nationwide underground comix magazine, of which Jay Lynch was the editor. A Nard n' Pat comic book ran for only two issues, one each in 1974 and 1981.

The strip's two characters were Nard, a politically conservative middle aged man, and Pat, his left-leaning anthropomorphic cat. The characters were originally based on two acquaintances of Lynch, but the artist reported that over time, Nard and Pat's interactions came to resemble those of himself and his wife.  Lynch later went on to illustrate other comic strips, contributed art to companies such as Topps trading card company and Mad magazine, and wrote two children's books.