Cathy (comic strip)
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- For other uses, see Cathy (disambiguation).
Cathy is a daily comic strip drawn by Cathy Guisewite. Featuring a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life—food, love, mom, and work—the strip gently pokes fun at the foibles of modern women's lives. Cathy's characteristics and issues both make fun of and sometimes feed into negative sterotypes about women. The strip debuted in November 1976, and currently appears in over 1,400 newspapers. The strips have been collected into more than 20 books. Guisewite received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 1993 for the strip.
Initially, the strip was based largely on Guisewite's own life as a single woman. However, Guisewite had Cathy's longtime boyfriend Irving propose marriage on Valentine's Day 2004, a move that many readers felt breathed new life into Guisewite's work, as the strip had up until that point become repetitive, with plot lines often indistinguishable from previous strips. The two characters married in the February 5, 2005 strip.
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[edit] Main characters
- Cathy — the protagonist of the strip and the only one not shown with a nose (although a small one has occasionally been seen in side views).
- Andrea — initially Cathy's ultra-feminist foil and best friend, Andrea's role has been reduced in recent years. Andrea is married to Luke and has two teens, Zenith and Gus. (Zenith and Gus growing from infants to teens illustrates that the characters do age, albeit very slowly.)
- Electra — Cathy's dog
- Mom — just as likely to provide frustration as inspiration
- Dad — helpless bystander to Mom
- Charlene — one of Cathy's best friends, receptionist at her office
- Simon — Charlene's husband who formerly dated Cathy
- Irving — on-again-off-again love interest, now her husband as of February 5, 2005
- Mr. Pinkley — Cathy's boss, who often manages to make what little control he actually has of his work environment go a very long way
- Many, many men that Cathy dated briefly[1]
[edit] The four basic guilt groups
Defined by Cathy Guisewite, the four basic guilt groups are four types of temptation that the character Cathy faces in her daily life.
[edit] Food
Cathy has a love/hate affair with food (especially carbohydrates). She loves it, but hates what it does to her thighs. She is often shown in a department store fitting room trying to stuff herself into a bathing suit. She is constantly on a diet, weighs herself maniacally and many mornings fears to get up, believing that she has ballooned overnight. Cathy is particularly fond of chocolate.
[edit] Love
Cathy has dated extensively, but was unable to find "Mr. Right". Although a number of love interests have come and gone over the years, none has come back like Irving, who is now her husband.
[edit] Mom
Although well-meaning, Mom's advice often frustrates Cathy, especially when Mom is right. Cathy and her mother are from two different generations, of course. Cathy grew up in the era of feminism, women's rights and the sexual revolution. Mom is from an earlier, simpler time. Although an equal in her marriage to Cathy's Dad, Mom holds many old-fashioned ideas.
[edit] Work
Cathy has to juggle many tasks at Product Testing, Inc. Her boss, Mr. Pinkley, often asks the impossible, and Cathy always seems to pull through in the end and give him and the client exactly what they want, albeit with quite a bit of drama.
[edit] Books
Following are books featuring Cathy, illustrated by Ms. Guisewite. The chronological strips and special collections lists are believed to be complete; the other sections are not.
Note: capitalization appears according to the copyright page of the book.
[edit] Chronological strips
The following books are collections of strips in the order they were published.
- Cathy Chronicles (1979)
- "What do you mean, I still don't have equal rights??!" (1980)
- What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing With a Double Bed (March 1981, ISBN 0553013165)
- I think I'm having a Relationship with a Blueberry Pie! (1981, ISBN 0553013378)
- Another Saturday Night of Wild and Reckless Abandon (September 1982, ISBN 0-8362-1201-0)
- A Mouthful of Breath Mints and No One to Kiss (August 1983, ISBN 0-8362-1120-0)
- Men should come with instruction booklets (August 1984, ISBN 0-8362-2055-0)
- Wake me up when I'm a size 5 (July 1985, ISBN 0-8362-2069-2)
- Thin thighs in thirty years (July 1986, ISBN 0-8362-2081-1)
- A hand to hold, an opinion to reject (August 1987, ISBN 0-8362-2092-7)
- Why do the right words always come out of the wrong mouth? (August 1988, ISBN 0-8362-1808-6)
- My Granddaughter Has Fleas! (August 1989, ISBN 0-0362-1855-8)
- $14 in the Bank and a $200 Face in My Purse (August 1990, ISBN 0-8362-1820-5)
- Only Love Can Break a Heart, But a Shoe Sale Can Come Close (August 1992, ISBN 0-8362-1893-0)
- Revelations From a 45-Pound Purse (August 1993, ISBN 0-8362-1722-5)
- The Child Within Has Been Awakened But the Old Lady on the Outside Just Collapsed (September 1994, ISBN 0-8362-1761-6)
- Understanding the "Why" Chromosome (August 1995, ISBN 0-8362-0423-9)
- Abs of Steel, Buns of Cinnamon (August 1997, ISBN 0-8362-3683-1)
- I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore (August 1998, ISBN 0-8362-6821-0)
- I'd Scream Except I Look So Fabulous (August 1999, ISBN 0-7407-0006-5)
- Shoes: Chocolate for the Feet (August 2000, ISBN 0-7407-0555-5)
[edit] Special collections
The following books include strips already published in earlier books.
- Reflections: A Fifteenth Anniversary Collection (January 1991, ISBN 0-8362-1877-9)
- Cathy Twentieth Anniversary Collection (September 1996, ISBN 0-8362-2523-6)
- Food (December 2001, ISBN 0-7407-2112-7)
- Love (December 2001, ISBN 0-7407-2061-9)
- Mom (December 2001, ISBN 0-7407-2060-0)
- Work (December 2001, ISBN 0-7407-2062-7)
- The Wedding of Cathy and Irving : A Cathy Collection (July 2005, ISBN 0-7407-2668-4)
[edit] Gift books
The following books are smaller than the works above. They may have a short storyline and are intended as gifts.
[edit] Hardback
- Commiserations (September 1993, ISBN 0-8362-3048-5)
- Like Mother, Like Daughter (September 1993, ISBN 0-8362-3049-3)
- Confessions to My Mother (March 1999, ISBN 0-8362-8788-6)
- Affirmations (May 1996, ISBN 0-8362-1058-1)
- Shop till you drop, then sit down and buy shoes (May 1996, ISBN 0-8362-1068-9)
[edit] Paperback
Paperback gift books.
- How to Get Rich, Fall in Love, Lose Weight, and Solve All Your Problems by Saying "No" (1983, ISBN 0836219864)
- Eat Your Way to a Better Relationship (1983, ISBN 0836219872)
[edit] Other books
The following books feature Cathy illustrations by Guisewite, but are not authored by her.
- Dancing Through Life in a Pair of Broken Heels, written by Mickey Guisewite, Cathy Guisewite's sister (April 1994, ISBN 0-553-37377-3)
- Lifestyles of the Trim & Healthy, written by Matthew Bennett (June 1994, ISBN 0-9629502-9-7)
- Girl Food written by Barbara Albright & Cathy Guisewite (1997, ISBN 0836231732)
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ In the now-discontinued Bloom County comic, one of the characters – Steve Dallas – is shown as being in a Cathy strip, after (along with all of the other characters) being "fired" from Bloom County. While that strip only appears within the Bloom County world, Steve is shown as being one of the many men Cathy would consider dating ("ack!" she is seen exclaiming).
