Art For Art’s Sake #219: Cat Dancing The Night Away

It’s Saturday and you know what that means? Yep, it’s another Art For Art’s Sake and this week we end with a highlight on Omaha The Cat Dancer…

Enki Bilal – Heavy Metal Magazine Vol. 10, No. 3 (1986)

Archie’s Gang – Rags Morales

Max Sarin – Giant Days

Lois Lane – Cliff Chiang

Batgirl, Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy – Rick Burchett

Babs Tarr – Batgirls…

Noir Burlesque by Enrico Marini 

Alan Davis – Kitty, Colossus, and Lockheed…

Witch Hat Atelier 1 – Kamome Shirahama

Ms. Tree Quarterly #1 – Mike Grell

Triggerman – cover by Fay Dalton

Joshua Middleton – Batgirl (2019)

Wonder Woman #750 (2020) 1950s variant cover by Jenny Frison

More Jenny Frison – Catwoman #29 (2021) variant cover

Catwoman #7 (2012) cover by Guillem March

Catwoman (2014) covers by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson

 

And finally, a collection of covers now from Omaha The Cat Dancer, created by artist Reed Waller and writer Kate Worley. The comic strip and comic book series featured anthropomorphic characters living their lives in soap opera fashion, all centering around Omaha, an exotic dancer, and her lover, Chuck.

It had been around in the late 70s and Reed Waller’s Vootie funny animal comic magazine and the strip appeared in various Underground Comix until the comic book series Omaha The Cat Dancer was published, initially by Steeldragon Press for issues 1 & 2, and then by Kitchen Sink Press from 1984 to 1993 – with Kate Worley joining as a writer very early on with the comic book series. The series continued with Fantagraphics until 1995 and Sizzle magazine finished the series from 2006.

What made Omaha so special was that it was the first in a high-profile wave of comics where sex played an increasingly large part. But the difference with Omaha was that it wasn’t including the explicit sex for shock value or titillation but as an integral part of the storyline. These were fully-formed characters whose entire lives, including their sex lives, we were welcomed to become involved in.