The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer, Vol. 7

The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer #7

by Reed Waller, Kate Worley, James Vance

Omaha and Chuck have been reunited, but an ongoing murder investigation and a battle brewing over the fate of their beloved “A” Block ensures that the lives of the Mipple City gang remain as complicated as ever. This volume contains the final four episodes in the series’ classic original run, in which sexual jealousy takes its toll on one relationship while the beautiful cat dancer gets a steamy New Year’s Eve surprise she’ll never forget. Concludes the material up to the new final story pre-serializing in Sizzle, collecting issues 21-24.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Artist, writer, musician, computer whiz and a pretty good short-order cook in days gone by, Reed is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking comics series Omaha the Cat Dancer in the late 1970s.
--from the Omaha the Cat Dancer website

Reviews

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

The issues here are listed as numbers 21 through 24, but originally they were listed as Omaha volume 2, numbers 1-4. This was because the creators had decided to shift publishers and moved the series from Kitchen Sink to Fantagraphics. There also seemed to be a strain between writer and artist, as the quality of the art declines noticeably (not that much, but still perceptible). Not knowing the full details, I hesitate to comment, but Dennis Kitchen in his introduction states that there was a serious physical altercation between the two, which resulted in this being the end of Omaha, until the early 2000s when the pair, both now cancer survivors, reunited to finish their only memorable story Omaha the Cat Dancer.

The comic has been legitimately called soap opera-ish, and I cannot disagree, but it also suffers from a drag that is endemic to soap operas as well. Multiple story lines intertwine, but each only moves a small increment during each issue, giving it all a feeling that the story is dragging its feet- just like the real soap operas do. I find that I didn’t mind it so much when I collected individual issues, the comic being so different from what I was used to, but when collected together, I’m pushing myself through, waiting for the good stuff to happen.