The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 8

by Kate Worely, James Vance, & Reed Waller  

Publisher: Eurotica (September 1, 2013)

Softcover, 160 pages

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This was the finish to Omaha the Cat Dancer that wasn’t supposed to be. Fifteen (or so) years after a romantic falling out between the artist and writer, they decided to let bygones be bygones and wrapped up their most famous creation. It’s rare that a comic, the field most littered with unfinished tales, to come back later and finish. Like Alan Moore’s Lost Girls, it’s a hell of a treat.

And I must say there are no loose ends. Everyone’s relationships are finalized, one way or another, and the mysteries are all revealed. Unlike the previous volumes, the authors knew they exact amount of space they had to finish their vision, so events are much faster moving with an extra amount of action.

We see Omaha finally get the divorce from her first husband; the wrap up between Shelly and Kurt’s romance; the completion of what would happen to the strip clubs on “A” block; the wrap up on who killed Senator Bonner and its fallout on the political bigwigs in Mipple City; plus the ultimate answer as to what will happen between Omaha and Chuck. I won’t tell you, but I’m sure you can guess.

It’s a good ending for the series. If the art style hadn’t taken a major shift, you would never know about the gap in time. The story picks right up and carries the ball into the end zone. If you’re looking for something other than the happy ending wrap up, then you will be disappointed.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 7

by Reed Waller, Kate Worley, & James Vance, with an introduction by Dennis Kitchen

Publisher: NBM Publishing (March 1, 2008)

Softcover, 96 pages.

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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. 

 

The investigation into Senator Bonner’s death heats up and seems to implicate Chuck as a potential culprit, thought we all know this isn’t true. Omaha and Chuck finally get back together and reunite in a gang bang, two guy and one girl, three way. However, Shelly and former nurse, Kurt, break up after he can’t handle her sleeping around. Joanne is then employed by Chuck’s maternal grandfather as his companion as his health worsens.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer: Volume 6

by Reed Waller, Kate Worley, & James Vance

Publisher: NBM Publishing (April 1, 2007)

Softcover, 112 pages

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“Krazy Kat was not simply a strip about talking critters and Omaha the Cat Dancer is not simply a comic about a sexy cat. Like the great comic strip, it is a story about life and love that resonates with the truth, and for that reason, Reed, Kate, and Jim, have made a place for themselves in that elite group of creators...the group people will always know about, always read, always discuss and ponder, from here to eternity.”

                    -Terry Moore (from his introduction)

Once more we have a collection of one of the most controversial and debated comics ever produced. Controversial because of the graphic sex displayed in every issue. Debated because, if one bothered to read the material, it is obvious that the book was more about sex. It was simply one part of the character’s very busy lives. In fact, it seems at times as if the writer would’ve liked to leave the sexual material in the past, but it was too established as being part of the series to completely abandon.

This is the penultimate volume before the original run of the comic ends, and we come to the final book completed in the early 2000s, which takes up volume 8. This volume collects issues 18, 19, & 20, plus four shorter pieces done for other comics featuring the world of Omaha.

 

The first is a five pager where Omaha is accidentally sucked into the Cynosphere. For those who don’t know, the Cynosphere is a place where all dimensions meet and all worlds exist simultaneously and is the setting for the comic Grimjack- of which I never cared for. It’s a fun story, but not part of the whole of Omaha cannon- if you care about that sort of stuff. It was originally published in Munden’s Bar Annual #2. The next two, one is untitled and the other called “Waking Up Under a Tent”, were created for the book The Erotic Art of Reed Waller, while the last “Rob Steps Out” was drawn for Gay Comics #22 and features Omaha’s resident gay character Rob in San Francisco. 

As for the regular series, the investigation of the senator’s assassination has moved on from Omaha to the mysterious Mr. Lopez, who has taken up with the prostitute Joanne. We learn the story behind Maria’s, Chuck’s mother, disappearance all those years ago (and it’s a little unconvincing). Chuck then has a nervous breakdown, or his bipolar disorder flares up- it hasn’t been revealed yet. While Omaha returns to Mipple City to see him.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

The Complete Omaha the Cat Dancer Volume 5

by Reed Waller & Kate Worley 

Publisher: NBM Publishing

Softcover, 112 pages

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“Omaha the Cat Dancer is a soap opera, but it's a drama, not a melodrama; it’s a funny animal comic, but the funny animals are real people; and its neither erotica nor pornography - simply a story in which the virtual cameras continue to roll while people take their clothes off and make love (just as they do in the world you and I inhabit) - delineated with an unblinking charm which has the odd effect (for me at least) of making one wonder where all the sex has gone in the other fictions one reads or hears or sees…”

-From the introduction by Neil Giaman

Here we are back again with volume five of The Complete Omaha, the most controversial comic of the 1990s (and possibly beyond- thought most comic “fans” don’t seem to have heard of it. In fact they never seem to have heard of anything that isn’t shit out by Marvel or DC. Is that really a comics fan? Or is it just a fanatic for those two companies? Lady and the Tiger- the choice is yours). This book collects issues 14 through 17 of the series.

For a series where one of the main selling points was graphically portrayed sex, I will say that it never became repetitive. The author and artist was always trying new things. Here we have the first lesbian sex scene amidst a host of other titillating scenes, averaging about one per issues- so four!

The soap opera continues. The investigation into Senator Bonner assassination moves away from the prostitute Joanne and starts to focus on Omaha after the police discover that she, coincidentally, moved out of town the same day the senator was killed. Omaha begins her new life as a stripper and meets a new guy, while her old guy becomes ground further and further down into the much of the world. Both Omaha and Chuck find solace in other lovers, while political forces maneuver to complete the corrupt A-block renovation.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

 

The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer Volume 4

by Reed Waller & Kate Worely   

Publisher: NBM Publishing (July 1, 2006)

Softcover, 128 pages

Amazon Listing

Here we continue on with the erotic graphic novel soap opera that was Omaha the Cat Dancer. This particular series (not this book, but this reprint series) is significant because the writer and artist came back together to finish the story of Omaha and Chuck in the celebrated (sort of) eighth volume in this series. It should also be noted that the artist here, Reed Waller, is also the artist for another great series from the 90s, Kings in Disguise. If you haven’t read it, I recommend you do so. Copies are going cheap on Amazon. 

Volume four collects issues 10 through 13 of the 80s comic series. And the drama continues full steam ahead. The pot against the morality crusading senator comes to a full halt when he is assassinated in Joanne’s bedroom just as she is getting blackmail photos on him. Omaha stars in a music video. Chuck and his mother begin to reconcile for abandoning him. Kurt becomes nurse to a Mr. Lopez who may be involved in organized crime. While Chuck discovers that Omaha had been married before and had never bothered to get a divorce. This leads to a big fight and Omaha storms out to another city, where she struggles to find a place to live and a job. 

The art as always is crisp and clean, done in a sparing comic realism style. While the characters are anthropomorphized animals the rest of the art is straight realism. Granted, similar to most soap operas, many of the scenes involve two characters sitting around in a restaurant, at a bar, in an office, or on a couch talking to each other. Not wildly action orientated stuff, but still fun. 

One of the only distracting things in this story is the male characters facial hair. When this comic was first published it was still cool for men to have big bushy mustaches, so many of them are drawn with them. Nowadays they look like gay porn stars (it’s then ironic that the only gay character doesn’t have one), so when they talk about a character like that being a manly-man, I can’t help but laugh.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer Volume 3

by Reed Waller, Kate Worley, & James Vance  

Publisher: Eurotica (April 1, 2009)

Softcover, 126 pages

Amazon Listing 

Volume 3 collects issues 6-9 of the indie 80s comic. In this book the formula, tone, and most of the main characters of the series are set. The visual style is cemented and we are treated to an on-going soap opera of scandal, shadowy figures, relationships, mysterious reveals, and of course sex. Issue 7 should be suitably famous as it is probably the first instance of a male homosexual sex scene ever drawn for the comics.

The characters all real from the supposed suicide of Chuck’s father. Several people gain much from his will and it is revealed that Chuck’s mother was alive the whole time, but hid that from her son. Thugs are still looking for the missing negatives of the Underground nightclub debacle, which would prove embarrassing to many important politicians in Mipple City. All of this surrounds a new “purity” drive in the city, which will tear down various bars and strip clubs and renovate a large area- lots of money is at stake. So, Joanne the prostitute begins to see one of the drivers of this purity push in order to gain blackmail on him.

 

However, the weakest link in my opinion is the titular character of Omaha. She is a bit of a dunce. She’s a very nice person, smoking hot, but her only true genius is to get guys worked up at strip clubs. Otherwise, she just a pawn of villains, or a sex object for their henchmen. If she was supposed to be a liberated feminist icon, not ashamed of her body, they fell short. Apart from having a righteous pair of knockers and an over-active libido, there isn’t much there. A device to pass from plot point to plot point.  

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

 

The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer: Volume 2

by Reed Waller, Kate Worely, & James M. Vance

Publisher: NBM Publishing (January 1, 2006).

Softcover, 128 pages

Amazon Listing  


Volume two the “most controversial series in comics”. Included in this book are issues 2 through 5, an introduction from the main writer who passed away in 2005, and a parody of the Twinkies ads that used to run in comics back in the 1970s and early 80s- only those who remember them would see the humor in it, otherwise it’s just bizarre.

As Kate Worley takes over most of the writing duties the Omaha world begins to take shape. One-dimensional characters begin to be fleshed out and a racy storyline unfolds. The sex scenes, while still at least one per issue, take a back seat to the drama. Unlike previous issues, and similar types of books, the characters are not just about sex- it is simply one normal aspect of their everyday lives.

 

The soap opera ramps up. Charlie’s death by apparent manic-induced suicide catches his son and Omaha off guard. Suddenly their future plans fall through and the pair begin to drift through life. Charlie discovers that there is no death certificate recording his mother’s demise and a mysterious possible half-sibling emerges to challenge her brother over Charlie’s estate. Plus everyone gets laid- even the paraplegic girl.

The artist had now refined his style. Gone is the bigfoot line and splashy ink, now it’s all crisp clean lines well ordered. The style is a sort of comic realism in a similar vein to Milt Caniff’s style- the characters are done in an exaggerated style, anthropomorphized funny animal, but everything else is drawn straight and serious and with deliberate realism.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst. 

 

The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer: Volume 1

by Reed Waller, Kate Worely, & James M. Vance

Publisher: NBM Publishing (October 1, 2005).

Softcover, 128 pages

Amazon Listing 

During its time, Omaha was the most controversial comic of its day. Not for its frank depiction of sex- of which there is plenty- but because the sex is a by-product of the story. Thus, the literary merits of the comic was always under debate. Before that there had been plenty of sex comics put out by underground commix publishers, but these had been almost exclusively juvenile in nature (despite being an adult topic), lots of sex coming out of nowhere, rape fantasies, with the coherence of a porno. Done more to shock than titillate, with definitely no narrative. Most come across like a child being able to swear for the first time and trying to shock mommy and daddy.

While Omaha seemed to start out this way, it quickly took a steep narrative turn. There is a solid story here. The art is great. The characters grow and develop, with arcs that flush out even the minor ones. Then they throw sex in between two loving characters, or characters that are horny, or drunk and make a mistake. However you spin it, sexual imagery aside, there is more to this story than a porno comic. Whether Omaha crossed the line is what caused so much debate in the years it was published.

 

This collected Omaha is being published in chronological order as it occurred in the comic’s timeline. Several of the short stories in the beginning were written years later, so there is a very noticeable jump in the quality of art between some stories and in the quality of writing. At first it was all written by artist Reed Waller, but eventually Kate Worely took over the writing duties. We only see her hand in a few short stories, but the difference is noticeable. Aside from many short pieces, Omaha the Cat Dancer issues 0 and 1 are also included in this book.

Here we see the origins of the cat dancer. As you can see from the illustrations the characters are anthropomorphized animals, but that is the only connection to the animal kingdom. They act like regular people otherwise. Omaha becomes a famous stripper and rises to become Pet of the Year in some Hustler equivalent. Then her life is threatened when the mayor goes on a morality crusade and shuts down all the strip joints in the city. From there she and her boyfriend Chuck become involved in an underground club run for rich people, in which a riot breaks out. We have murder, violence, blackmail, and a mysterious figure behind it all. It only gets better from there.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.