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The Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer #1
The Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer, Vol. 1
The best-selling classic of erotic comics that made the bridge from the undergrounds to today is back in a complete reprint of the full extent of the spicy saga with an all-new final story in the making with script by James Vance which will be pre-serialized in Sizzle magazine. Omaha is remarkable in that it blends intelligent and captivating story with well-rounded funny animal¹ characters as well as totally guilt-free joyously rendered sex! This volume brings back the very first stories of the ground-breaking series. Look for a new volume every 3 months.
128 pages, Comic
First published January 1, 1987
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128 people want to read
About the author
Kate Worley
77 books1 followerKate Worley was the writer whose distinctive voice and natural storytelling skills made Omaha the Cat Dancer an international favorite and a landmark in the comics medium's coming of age in the late 20th century.
--from the author's website
--from the author's website
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 29, 2018
Okay. So … sex. If you’ve heard anything at all about this book, that fact is likely chief among them. I freely admit that it was largely that that attracted my attention back when the original Omaha comics were published. What can I say? I was young and horny, and the Web didn't really exist, and I certainly didn't look old enough (or at least I didn't think I did) to be casually buying the latest Penthouse or Playboy at the newsstand. Comics, those were accessible. Besides, Omaha was supposed to have an actual storyline and excellent art, so it's not like I was buying it just for the dirty pictures. Sure.
That said, when I decided to reread this book, I was all prepared to disparage the heck out of it, not to mention my younger, hornier self. But you know what? I can't. We all have a hornier self in our lives, be it past, present, or future. It goes with the territory of being human. And, honestly, the book holds up surprisingly well.
It helps that Reed Waller draws real purty. There's a grace and dignity to his figures. He has a knack for body language. In the introduction, he explains his choice of rendering the characters as “funny animals” (it's the Reed Waller version of “funny animals” obviously. They're not overtly funny, or at least no more so than people are.) I’ve actually seen Waller draw “real” people. There was a one-page strip that ran in the AIDS benefit book, Strip AIDS USA. They looked … odd.
As for the story, Omaha and her boyfriend, Chuck, live in Mipple City, Minnesota. She works as an exotic dancer, and he's a freelance artist, having recently quit a lucrative job at an ad agency for personal reasons. Local politicians are starting to crack down on adult entertainment, so Omaha and Chuck are desperately trying to find stable work. Omaha takes a job dancing at an underground--literally--club, but a near riot on opening night causes her and Chuck to flee for their lives. Reaching the street, Omaha’s best friend, Shelley, is gunned down before their eyes, and the two lovers are on the run …
Honestly, it's very much a soap opera, with frequent interruptions for sex. Waller--and Kate Worley, when she joined in on the writing--do their level best to keep the sex relevant to the story. They include character moments as much as possible. The scenes are explicit, positive, consensual, even hot, but they still coexist uneasily with the rest of the book. I don't remember how many issues of the Omaha comic book I bought, but I think it was at least the first seven or eight, plus the two appearances in Bizarre Sex. And I remember the sex scenes becoming less frequent with each issue. Because, unless your story is about sex, there's really no incentive to depict it in graphic detail. You can try, sure, but at some point you have to decide if you're telling a story, or providing masturbation fodder (nothing wrong with that, BTW, but it's a very different type of storytelling. )
In summary: excellent art, average story, graphic sex. Worth reading, but definitely not to everyone's taste. With all that in mind, recommended!
That said, when I decided to reread this book, I was all prepared to disparage the heck out of it, not to mention my younger, hornier self. But you know what? I can't. We all have a hornier self in our lives, be it past, present, or future. It goes with the territory of being human. And, honestly, the book holds up surprisingly well.
It helps that Reed Waller draws real purty. There's a grace and dignity to his figures. He has a knack for body language. In the introduction, he explains his choice of rendering the characters as “funny animals” (it's the Reed Waller version of “funny animals” obviously. They're not overtly funny, or at least no more so than people are.) I’ve actually seen Waller draw “real” people. There was a one-page strip that ran in the AIDS benefit book, Strip AIDS USA. They looked … odd.
As for the story, Omaha and her boyfriend, Chuck, live in Mipple City, Minnesota. She works as an exotic dancer, and he's a freelance artist, having recently quit a lucrative job at an ad agency for personal reasons. Local politicians are starting to crack down on adult entertainment, so Omaha and Chuck are desperately trying to find stable work. Omaha takes a job dancing at an underground--literally--club, but a near riot on opening night causes her and Chuck to flee for their lives. Reaching the street, Omaha’s best friend, Shelley, is gunned down before their eyes, and the two lovers are on the run …
Honestly, it's very much a soap opera, with frequent interruptions for sex. Waller--and Kate Worley, when she joined in on the writing--do their level best to keep the sex relevant to the story. They include character moments as much as possible. The scenes are explicit, positive, consensual, even hot, but they still coexist uneasily with the rest of the book. I don't remember how many issues of the Omaha comic book I bought, but I think it was at least the first seven or eight, plus the two appearances in Bizarre Sex. And I remember the sex scenes becoming less frequent with each issue. Because, unless your story is about sex, there's really no incentive to depict it in graphic detail. You can try, sure, but at some point you have to decide if you're telling a story, or providing masturbation fodder (nothing wrong with that, BTW, but it's a very different type of storytelling. )
In summary: excellent art, average story, graphic sex. Worth reading, but definitely not to everyone's taste. With all that in mind, recommended!
November 3, 2013
I purchased this a long time ago. When you're a young adult, especially a guy, seeing anyone get laid (even a cat, even in comics) is interesting. And while I still love the art in this thing (and wish this artist did more work in comics), I just can't really justify filling brain cells with this lightweight story about a stripper cat and her 70s psychobabble or sleeping around like STDs don't exist. I wouldn't buy this today.
April 7, 2020
Back when I read comic books, I heard this particular one getting high praise. I bought a couple of issues and failed to see why, I liked the original melodramatic story, but once Kate Worley took over the writing everything went to pot.
First of all, the characters are barefoot cartoon animals. Yes, cartoon animals are commonly depicted barefoot, and the trope works when the characters have animal-like bodies with animal-like feet which are unsuited for footwear. But the characters are near-human and most aren't even covered with fur or feathers, but are humans with tacked-on snouts, ears, and tails. This makes the series fundamentally ridiculous, and would be perfectly suited for comedy or satire. But there is too little humor and no sense of irony, and it is clear that the use of a cartoon cat as a "cat dancer" is a gimmick, the way Usagi Yojimbo used the gimmick of a samurai rabbit. But that series actually worked with interesting stories and characters.
Omaha has no such virtues, and is contrived from beginning to end. Real striptease dancers do not have romances with the people who view them-they even mention that in pornographic magazines. And any law enforcement person can tell you that prostitutes have miserable lives and the "Happy hooker" is a wish-fulfillment myth. Also, there is unprotected sex but no venereal disease or pregnancy. Sorry, but suspension of disbelief can only go so far. Even worse, all the major females are bisexual, while genuine bisexual women are rare in real life, and few women would experiment with lesbianism.
This comic series purports to be feminist, but in reality it caters to male wish-fulfillment fantasy. It gives a completely unrealistic depiction of sexuality, and real striptease dancers, prostitutes, and feminists would laugh long and loud at this. It has been compared to Fritz the Cat, but Robert Crumb reportedly hates this series as well.
First of all, the characters are barefoot cartoon animals. Yes, cartoon animals are commonly depicted barefoot, and the trope works when the characters have animal-like bodies with animal-like feet which are unsuited for footwear. But the characters are near-human and most aren't even covered with fur or feathers, but are humans with tacked-on snouts, ears, and tails. This makes the series fundamentally ridiculous, and would be perfectly suited for comedy or satire. But there is too little humor and no sense of irony, and it is clear that the use of a cartoon cat as a "cat dancer" is a gimmick, the way Usagi Yojimbo used the gimmick of a samurai rabbit. But that series actually worked with interesting stories and characters.
Omaha has no such virtues, and is contrived from beginning to end. Real striptease dancers do not have romances with the people who view them-they even mention that in pornographic magazines. And any law enforcement person can tell you that prostitutes have miserable lives and the "Happy hooker" is a wish-fulfillment myth. Also, there is unprotected sex but no venereal disease or pregnancy. Sorry, but suspension of disbelief can only go so far. Even worse, all the major females are bisexual, while genuine bisexual women are rare in real life, and few women would experiment with lesbianism.
This comic series purports to be feminist, but in reality it caters to male wish-fulfillment fantasy. It gives a completely unrealistic depiction of sexuality, and real striptease dancers, prostitutes, and feminists would laugh long and loud at this. It has been compared to Fritz the Cat, but Robert Crumb reportedly hates this series as well.
April 26, 2024
This was unexpected! Explicit but not really pornographic, progressive but not preachy, soapy but not trite.
The first issue or two are more straightforwardly porn-y, but it very quickly develops into a soap opera that just also has a lot of explicit sex and nudity. The sexual content is very… wholesome? Like it’s written to be relatable rather than provocative, and succeeds at that. Overall, it’s a pleasant slice-of-life with occasional dramatic events. The plot, when there is one, isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s still a lot better than Mary Worth.
Given that it’s mostly from the 80s, it was cool to see how they handled sex workers, gay and bi characters, characters in open relationships, and wheelchair users, among other things. I know it was only a couple decades ago, not ancient history—but they pull it off better than plenty of more recent comics!
There are a handful of layout missteps—panels where you’re supposed to read the right balloon before the left, or that confusing three-panel layout where there are two square panels stacked on the left, next to one double-height panel on the right, so that you’re not sure which order to read in. But it’s not too often or too egregious.
My library didn’t have any issues or volumes of Omaha at all, and copies seem hard to even buy secondhand, but fortunately the first 6 collected volumes (apparently there are 8?) are on Internet Archive, so that’s where I read it.
I love that R. Crumb hates it, too. His “Wichita the Rat Dancer” is pretty funny, but says more about him than about Omaha, IMO.
The first issue or two are more straightforwardly porn-y, but it very quickly develops into a soap opera that just also has a lot of explicit sex and nudity. The sexual content is very… wholesome? Like it’s written to be relatable rather than provocative, and succeeds at that. Overall, it’s a pleasant slice-of-life with occasional dramatic events. The plot, when there is one, isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s still a lot better than Mary Worth.
Given that it’s mostly from the 80s, it was cool to see how they handled sex workers, gay and bi characters, characters in open relationships, and wheelchair users, among other things. I know it was only a couple decades ago, not ancient history—but they pull it off better than plenty of more recent comics!
There are a handful of layout missteps—panels where you’re supposed to read the right balloon before the left, or that confusing three-panel layout where there are two square panels stacked on the left, next to one double-height panel on the right, so that you’re not sure which order to read in. But it’s not too often or too egregious.
My library didn’t have any issues or volumes of Omaha at all, and copies seem hard to even buy secondhand, but fortunately the first 6 collected volumes (apparently there are 8?) are on Internet Archive, so that’s where I read it.
I love that R. Crumb hates it, too. His “Wichita the Rat Dancer” is pretty funny, but says more about him than about Omaha, IMO.
March 11, 2019
It's as good as advertised:
Great dialogue, dynamic characters, gripping action, constant subterfuge, surprises, controversial and topical issues peppering the plot with a sexiness that's not animal-gross!
It would have gotten ***** if there wasn't at least two plot points that he forgot about somehow which had me audibly angry for long stretches of the otherwise great book! For instance, the guy says to Omaha that he saw an old friend that told him to come out to San Francisco to see him and that they should start over there yet in upon arrival he's distraught that he knows nobody.
BUT the author/artist was Reed for most of this until he serendipitously met (and eventually married) the woman who he needed to write his female going forward. Reed set it up well and even had it running smoothly for awhile but, as he says himself, Kate taking over as author was what made Omaha a juggernaut through its long run.
I have volumes 1-4 so more will be elaborated on in following reviews...
Great dialogue, dynamic characters, gripping action, constant subterfuge, surprises, controversial and topical issues peppering the plot with a sexiness that's not animal-gross!
It would have gotten ***** if there wasn't at least two plot points that he forgot about somehow which had me audibly angry for long stretches of the otherwise great book! For instance, the guy says to Omaha that he saw an old friend that told him to come out to San Francisco to see him and that they should start over there yet in upon arrival he's distraught that he knows nobody.
BUT the author/artist was Reed for most of this until he serendipitously met (and eventually married) the woman who he needed to write his female going forward. Reed set it up well and even had it running smoothly for awhile but, as he says himself, Kate taking over as author was what made Omaha a juggernaut through its long run.
I have volumes 1-4 so more will be elaborated on in following reviews...
March 31, 2024
Comic books have historically been an emotionally and sexually stunted medium, so it’s interesting to see a dead-serious attempt at adult drama with Funny Animal characters. It’s not wholly successful because it’s mostly the kind of melodramatic plotting that countless comics have fallen prey to in various forms, but it’s still an interesting attempt. Still, it’s rare to see anything in the ballpark of mature (let alone sex positive) addressing sexual relationships in American media so it gets extra points for that.
September 7, 2010
Okay, I can admit it: when I bought this book nearly 20 years ago, I bought it for the sex. However, even then it was clearly SO much more than just another porn comic. It's as though Carl Barks did a soap opera, and didn't just suggest sex but got right down and DID the damn thing!
All the characters are anthropomorphic animals, it's true, but there's nothing 'funny animal' about this book. It deals with genuine relationship issues, life or death situations, and the simple ridiculousness of everyday life.
Looking at the series in long retrospect, I can see that -- though the sex probably started selling the story -- the unflinching depiction of intimate relations probably ended up a hindrance to this book's success. Without the sex, it's just an utterly engaging read with wonderful, detailed, quirky black & white art, and might just have continued past it's too-short (but not chronologically brief) run.
All the characters are anthropomorphic animals, it's true, but there's nothing 'funny animal' about this book. It deals with genuine relationship issues, life or death situations, and the simple ridiculousness of everyday life.
Looking at the series in long retrospect, I can see that -- though the sex probably started selling the story -- the unflinching depiction of intimate relations probably ended up a hindrance to this book's success. Without the sex, it's just an utterly engaging read with wonderful, detailed, quirky black & white art, and might just have continued past it's too-short (but not chronologically brief) run.
July 3, 2009
been several years since i read this series, Adult, Omaha is a stripper and no arms or leaves or other things artists draw/put in to cover her and the other characters figures. my only knock is that omaha is a cat. for a complete, honest, non fiction look at a strippers life see Melody.
worley and waller were an incredible team
worley and waller were an incredible team
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews