ACK! Cathy, the comic: Defend the Absolutely, Totally, Indefensible!

I mean, I was only published in my college newspaper, but at least my characters had NOSES for chrissake.

http://www.dragonswest.com/bill.jpg

That was funny.

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), September 1st, 2004 8:58 PM. (Ned) (later)

hahaha that's really funny!

Come to think of it, I knew Mort Walker too. Still have a couple beetle and sarge drawings he gave me somewhere.

( i sound like a king features groupie or something. But really it's nothing like that.)

Who is this Cathy, who everyone hates? I can't see jeremy's picture.

http://members.tripod.com/snickers99/comics/cathy1-9.gif

Peanuts
Doonesbury
If....
Calvin & Hobbes
Dilbert

PROVE ME WRONG!

I have to say though, I never understood why anyone liked peanuts. Is it supposed to be funny? what is the appeal?

so true.

Does not compute. DOES NOT COMPUTE. *smoke pours out of ears*

Gasoline Alley is around in a sad form, just the dailies, but it deserves credit for having the characters still growing in real-time from the first day Frank King created it. The baby that was the center of the original strips is now a grandfather.

but to each their own.

Scott, your relationship to comic strips is obviously FAR from the standard. Look around and ask yourself how many people have actually seen a Krazy Kat or Little Nemo sunday page.

It's the only "popular" comic strip set in Canada, for what I know.

How about a CATHY vs ZIGGY FITE!!!! thread? Nah, I didn't think so either.

i would except chris ware but, i dunno, he sort of sucks too now.

NA, you are lusting after cartoon Canadians. Why not the real thing, like Crudderz?

Mr. Boffo is a reliable one, yes.

I opened that page, saw the last panel in the middle row, and thought "Ew! Bukkake!"

and god wept.

And Cathy is still unfunny. I am guessing at this because I simply don't even look at it.

jim it's kind of hard to miss them, scrolling down the thread!! or are you purposely avoiding them like i am?

Well Scott Seward you amaze me. Mort Walker is cool. Did anybody ever read old Beetle Bailey cartoons? That strip had quite a long lasting good period. I had a phase where I loved that comic & sought out a lot of the 70s ones. Example of why I like it- the drawings of Sergeant Snorkel stomping Beetle Bailey into a little pile with arms sticking out. They were over the top. Many of them had this subliminally wierd relationship where Beetle would kind of enjoy being stomped on, or the Sergeant would get so accustomed to stomping him he would have to take a smoke break, or just start stomping him in his sleep or something. Lots of old comics with Sergeant Snorkel's dog were funny. The black jive character was also good, he was the nonconformist character. There was one where he ordered a disco suit in the mail. Then it shows a clown opening his mail, while he's opening a package with a mistakenly delivered clown suit. Neither one notices, and then, they are walking around wearing each other's suit and everyone is impressed. It sounds corny but it really is funny.

Oh yes and defending Cathy? ummmmm well.... I can say, i think the blobby drawings ARE fun to look at because they are so doodly and there are no noses. They are lame but at least they are cartoony. Compare it to that spider-man strip where they try to squish an "action sequence" into 3 panels, with the realistic style of detailed human characters from marvel comics, and it's sooo not suited for a comic strip.

dilbert is terrible, geek humor/culture is prob the worst thing that came out of the 90s (no shortage of candidates!) and from what i gather he just writes up reader suggestions at this point

foxtrot has always been really bad, poorly drawn sitcom humor, people just didnt notice because they identify with jason or something, i honestly prefer the family circus

the frequent listing of these three strips as "greats" up there with the genius-squared likes of peanuts, far side, calvin and hobbes, doonesbury etc has long baffled me

I loved that strip when I was in fifth grade. It also took me ten years to stop writing strips like him, too. I think the world of Breathed, but he drew those strips on board the airplane taking the originals to the publisher and it shows.

(Wow. Having to have an airplane ship your originals to the publisher. How times have changed.)

i dunno, i don't like any of the "funnies" anymore. i can't even look at my old calvin & hobbes books (well, only to admire the illustration and panel design). at this point i appreciate stuff like "spider-man" and "brenda starr" more than any of the funnies.

sorry about the lyric misquote

xpost

So I don't think it's good, exactly, but I do think it's interesting. And therefore defensible.

This is a pretty good argument for condemning the whole thing to a pit of eternal hellfire, really.

I like Boondocks okay. even if it seems as if he has lost a lot of steam. I used to like Mother Groose & Grimm too. (talking about recent comics.)

Oh, and I do kinda like Nancy too, but only for Aunt Fritzi and her Country & Western t-shirts and winking pictures of Suzy Boguss on the wall.

Am I wrong in seeing a thread of heavily Simpsons-inspired, dialogue-based humor in newer comic strips, which translates very poorly to the comic strip medium? I guess the move from "funny drawings" to an emphasis on simple drawings + more verbal humor is inevitable due to shrinking panel size.

I rather like Get Fuzzy but I haven't been reading it lately. Bucky can be pretty entertaining but I think it helps if you're already a cat owner.

There was a strip called Sherman's Lagoon (?) That runs in the Tribune when other strips go on vacation. I liked it but then again I see it in small doses and I like sharks anyway.

I didn't know For Better or For Worse is Canadian until the day April (?) said something about "eh?" to her Grandpa and there was this big fuss about "eh" being reclaimed by Canadians or something. It was really strange. It's like the strip came out or something.

Muttsh ish cute.

Snoopy pretending to be a vulture reigns. It doesn't just rule, it reigns.

cathy guisewhite was pretty cute at 37:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Cathy_Guisewite_%281987%29.jpg/250px-Cathy_Guisewite_%281987%29.jpg

(thanks to chris onstad for making me look up cathy today because I had no idea she ever got married)

i wonder if cathy says ack in bed with irv

Cathy (comic character) got married only a few years ago, after ~30 years of the strip. I'm reckoning Guisewhite got married before her noseless self-named character, though wouldn't it be fantastic if "Cathy" was strictly autobiographical? I would also like if Lynn Johnston's children were exact patterns for her "For Better or for Worse" characters (I am imagining Michael's recently published book would be called My Lord, Mom, Do I Really Look Like THAT Big of a Douche?.)

http://joshreads.com/images/07/04/i070408cathy.jpg

!!!!

WTF @ Cathy's young relatives:

http://joshreads.com/images/0502/i050202cathy.gif

Is Male Flower Teen wearing a vest or a sleeveless tux?

noseless self-named character

lol

http://www.joshreads.com/images/0501/2005incomics.gif

The comment on Mutts OTM

She seems to make an appearance in any documentary that I've seen about Charles Schultz. They were pretty good friends?

If I'm not mistaken, I think that FBofW is in fact thinly-veiled autobiography, even if only of the wish-fulfillment variety. I think there is a part in the recent Schultz bio where he calls LJ up and yells at her for having the audacity to portray key characters getting married or having a baby or some such. I think he subsequently threatens her with the reprisal of killing off Snoopy.

LJ said when Schulz switched from 4 to 3-panel comics, he gave her a bunch of his old Peanuts drawn on the 4-panel size, which was the size she used. So for a long time she was drawing For Better on the back of Peanuts originals!

That's pretty crazy! Some would say, sacrilegious. Future e-Bay people, just doubly happy.

speaking of, remember when Bloom County was ending and they all got jobs in other strips, and Steve showed up on Cathy saying "I brought my own toothbrush"?

That was funny.

-- Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, September 1, 2004 7:28 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

man BC was the best.

The comment on Mutts OTM

how so?

(i don't read newspaper comics these days, but i remember that one not being as terrible as most)

LJ said when Schulz switched from 4 to 3-panel comics, he gave her a bunch of his old Peanuts drawn on the 4-panel size, which was the size she used. So for a long time she was drawing For Better on the back of Peanuts originals!

how beautiful/sad is it that the best cartoonist in the world would just give away his old originals to other cartoonists to reuse? there's something so perfectly schulzian about that.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/celebrities-tv/cathy-comic-strip-ending-590186.html?printArticle=y

'Cathy' comic strip ending after 34 years

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER

The Associated Press
8:55 p.m. Wednesday, August 11, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The comic strip "Cathy," which has chronicled the life, frustrations and swimsuit season meltdowns of its namesake for more than 30 years, is coming to an end.

Cathy Guisewite, the strip's creator, said Wednesday that deciding to end the comic strip was "excruciating." The comic has won several awards, including a 1992 National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1987, and at its height appeared in 1,400 papers.

"It's just been really unbelievably agonizing to make the decision," Guisewite said in a telephone interview from her home in the Los Angeles area. "The strip has not only been the most astonishing form of therapy for 34 years, but doing a daily comic strip for the newspaper set a certain rhythm for my life."

The final "Cathy" strip, will run in newspapers on Sunday, Oct. 3.

Guisewite, 59, said she chose to end the largely autobiographical comic strip because she wanted more time with her 18-year-old daughter and her parents and because "other personal deadlines started becoming more pressing for me than the newspaper ones."

She said her "creative biological clock" was also urging her to try something else, although she isn't sure what that will be.

The best part about writing the comic, "besides the personal therapy," she said, was how she was able to connect with women.

"It was just such a privilege to be able to be that voice for women," she said.

The comic strip also provided her with a great vehicle to vent, she said.

"You can go bathing suit shopping and come home and ... get back at the swimwear industry," Guisewite said.

Guisewite, who started writing comic strips at the urging of her mother, was first published in 1976 by Kansas City-based Universal Press Syndicate, now Universal Uclick.

Lee Salem, president and editor of Universal Uclick, said in a news release that the same day Universal received its first "Cathy" submission, the company sent a contract back to Guisewite.

"Seven months later, the strip began in newspapers," Salem said. While "Cathy" wasn't an immediate hit, it gained popularity. It's currently carried in about 700 newspapers, according to Universal Uclick.

But Guisewite said it did hurt each time a newspaper dropped "Cathy."

"But I know that my strip has had just an astonishing run," she said. "I have worked really hard to try to earn my space because I know that it's extremely special to be able to own that little chunk of the newspaper."

This is the best birthday present I've received so far today.

Not that it personally affects me or anything because my paper (I don't think) even carries Cathy anymore, but still.

One of Guisewite's classmates at University of Michigan was Lawrence Kasdan. When Kasdan's movie The Big Chill opened, Guisewite devoted an entire week of Cathy strips to this movie, with her character Cathy and Cathy's co-workers all enthusing over the film and seeing it repeatedly.

Ends tomorrow. The tension builds with today's strip:

http://imgsrv.gocomics.com/dim/?fh=5cb466e17092afff2d7ac317768138d3

From the comments:

SueB1863 said, about 6 hours ago
This is the last daily strip. Tomorrow is the final strip, in which we’ll either learn that Cathy’s pregnant, adopting, or it’ll be a ‘thanks to the readers/ a look back’ sort of thing and what actually happens to Cathy is left up in the air for the readers to decide on their own.

Lewreader said, about 5 hours ago
How do you know that they are not going to say they lost their jobs, the house has been foreclosed, all Irvings electronics have been repossessed, mold and mildew ruined everything in Cathy’s closets, and they want to move in with the folk? At least only one dog is pregnant.

And from the 'about' thing on the page:

Newlyweds Cathy and Irving navigate the treacherous waters of couple-hood. From pampered pets to prying parents, they’ve got a lot to learn! Wedding or not, it’s still all about Cathy - she personifies the young career woman and her typical daily obstacles. Ice cream, panic attacks, stress and love are all in a day’s work. We read, we identify, we laugh. Who could ask for more?
Cathy is the Everywoman. She deals with diets, self-esteem, in-laws, and letting her husband know that she is the boss. Everyone can identify with her shopping, bills, taxes, planning for the future and coping with her husband’s incessant computer golf games. Whether you are a newlywed, single, or have been married for decades, all will enjoy the daily predicaments of Cathy and Irving.

Just thought you'd like to know!

The comic strip should have ended with Cathy rejecting the need for a man and committing herself to smashing the state.

personifies the young career woman and her typical daily obstacles

..circa the late 70s

Wikipedia has the final-strip spoiler if anyone wants it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_%28comic_strip%29

Cathy and Irving have the exact same body.

That's NOT the spoiler, just an observation, but it would be cool if the final Sunday was both of them removing a piece of clothing in each panel to reveal their matching dimple-kneed, genital free, sack of dough bodies look exactly the same, nude, in the final panel.

That would be ideal, yes.

Like a Pillsbury Mr & Mrs Potato head...

Joss Whedon should write the final strip...that way you're guaranteed that either Cathy or Irving dies

men will never catch up

Cathy's pregnant guys. I have only one guess why the comic was truncated before the baby arrives...

http://dearjesus.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/the-brood-7.jpg

If only.

So even the baby says 'aack.' Of course.

I thought after her mom's speech about breaking down barriers that being pregnant was a pretty stupid way to illustrate this, but OTOH Cathy's been an adult for 34 years. That's a long time ovulating to still have eggs left. Way to be fertile, Cathy.

For reasons I cannot entirely explain I laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes at that "Coming Year In Comics" strip upthread until mr spacecadet asked what was so funny, whereupon I showed him and he just looked sadly bemused

admittedly this is a nearly daily occurrence in the spacecadet household, but still

This comment on the Go Comics site is just killing me for some reason:

Harvey Smith said, about 6 hours ago

The shoes and the clothing and accessories. That part of the strip did not strike me as funny but I’m a guy. Maybe this was a chick strip, (not that kind of chick strip) but it was funnier for women. It’s always sad to see strips retire, Calvin and Hobbes comes to mind. Peanuts was another that retired. I wonder if the humor and jokes used in new strips will be difficult to understand for long time readers of comic strips. I mean the new cartoonists are of a different generation and have been brought up in a different social environment.
For better or for worse was restarted, would Cathy be able to be restarted too or would the jokes be out of date?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbCT5fXdhhc

ending with someone saying "iphone" -- comedy gold!

Friends, it is with deep sadness I see Cathy go - it has provided a certain therapy and "centering" for me for over 30 years. I can't write more as my lacrime falls unto the keypad. I may start a support group if anyone would join.

comics-related thing I learned today:

"Frodo" –- the alpha-male orangutan who attacked (and nearly paralyzed) Jane Goodall back in the '90s -- was the same orangutan who assaulted Gary Larson of "The Far Side" fame on a trip to the ape refuge in Uganda.

alas poor Frodo

frodo's the suzy of orangutans

have my retarded baby, cathy

I thought the Comics Curmudgeon had a good point about this ending:

But still, there is one thing we can really thank the strip for, and that is only revealing Cathy’s successful insemination in the final strip, rather than subjecting us to God knows how many months of strips about morning sickness. And maternity clothes! Good lord, can you imagine all the strips with Cathy trying on maternity clothes? Sparing all of us this was a true act of mercy.

AAACK!!!

From the wikipedia entry on "Cathy":

Cathy had a love/hate affair with food (especially carbs). She loved it, but hated what it did to her thighs.

Apparently Cathy's place of employment was "Product Testing, Inc." I dare anyone to think of a more generic fictional company name.

There's those fake names that MST3K would create. ConHugeCo., TekTon...

― cathy: ACK-er (s1ocki)

a dream made real (kinda):

http://kathyack.tumblr.com/

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/117/s_7eeacb82978b4a7294e86ab0b6526081.jpg

Jean Teasdale pwns Cathy!

From Wikipedia: "Marmaduke is a newspaper comic strip drawn by Brad Anderson from 1954 to the present day"

Anderson was 30 when it started. He is now 87 years old. I don't care that it's been awful every single day; that's pretty damn impressive.

cathy: ACK-er is possibly the greatest display name ever.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/2050574162_6333767400.jpg

Real Cathy by life-size cartoon Cathy is freaking me out!

ack!

Dog was just about to lift its leg...

I'm like a chocoholic, but for booze.

aack!!!!

andy samberg movie, who's with me

where's her fucking nose

As a real person she would be so terrifying.

Finding this thread has made my day. I love a conversation about the Cathy comic strip. As a child I really liked it-and the Family Circus! oh well, maybe children are the target audience.

I always hated Cathy so much - I always wanted her to be smashed by a dragon from Prince Valiant

can I post the totally NSFW R. Crumb/Bagge parody "Caffy" now

omg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THqA55_VzFI/AAAAAAAAHBI/5p_T2yF21A8/s640/CAFFY1.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THqAvucwgBI/AAAAAAAAHBA/EUdKEJr0rpc/s640/CAFFY2.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THqAlAMcM8I/AAAAAAAAHA4/WDN1wJhvZtE/s640/CAFFY3.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THqAaBPVWFI/AAAAAAAAHAw/vjLP-fnlggk/s640/CAFFY4.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THqAPg7ww-I/AAAAAAAAHAo/YtVxXJiHntE/s640/CAFFY5.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THqAEKckZOI/AAAAAAAAHAg/WLqXriRflpY/s640/CAFFY6.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8ie37mgxIXA/THp_3H9zDBI/AAAAAAAAHAY/VBg8wdVKaCY/s640/CAFFY7.jpg

http://www.againwiththecomics.com/2010/08/what-if-robert-crumb-took-over-cathy.html

"ow! Bit my tongue again"

hm, that site says bagge wrote it and crumb drew it -- surely it's the other way 'round?

To me it looks like they both could have drawn it.

figures look very crumb-esque to me, tbh.

esp the first 3 panels on page 3, those are stock crumb poses caffy is pulling

Yeah, I think the thicker Caffy looks more like Crumb, the bf looks more like Bagge.

Not that I know anything, really.

art mostly looks like crumb to me, tho in the cathy style. check the shoes when caffy's all gussied up, the not-irving boyfriend (could be a pal of mr. natural's), the "boing!" and "slurp!" panels on p. 3, and yeah, that azz consistently.

def drawn by crumb

in weirdo #24, crumb does a similar (though much less worksafe) takedown of reed waller's omaha. probably doesn't need to be posted here...

def drawn by crumb

^^

really people, you don't need to look any further than the lettering, it's not like either of them could be remotely mistaken for the other

Bagge coulda done wonders with Jon Arbuckle or the Funky Winkerbean cast though.

Ever notice how The Wizard of Id actually has almost no id in it?

http://thecathyckpage.tumblr.com/?og=1

I’m so into these old photos of Cathy Guisewite looking beautiful and posing with her Cathies pic.twitter.com/BFEn9QqlnX

— ORIN (@orinanne) November 9, 2018

the robert crumb version is very sexist

XP Would ACK With

the robert crumb version is very sexist

his drawing is inherently sexist?

EPISODE ONE IS OUT!

aackt one: cathy comics, revisited.
i guarantee that if you think you know what happens in this series; you’re wrong. cathy absolutely FUCKS. she punches a guy’s lights out. she’s fuckin cool.

stream here: https://t.co/yAWRKX84Uc pic.twitter.com/WhZqfEbaRB

— jamieloftus 🏂 (@jamieloftusHELP) June 28, 2021

Jamie Loftus (My Year in Mensa, Bechdel Cast, others) has debuted a weekly podcast that re-examines Cathy, titled the Aack Cast.

i love cathy

pure comfort food for me.

I’m finally getting around to Aack Cast and it’s brilliant