Omaha the Cat Dancer



A Petting Zoo People sexually explicit Soap Opera about a feline stripper and her friends told with a sex-positive feminist point of view. The series started in 1978. The artist throughout the series has been Reed Waller, with the writing handled for the most part by Kate Worley until her death in 2004.

The titular character is a Catgirl in her early 20s working as an ecdysiast... a nightclub dancer, in the fictional town of Mipple City. Her boyfriend Chuck works as an artist and nominally supports her dancing career. After posing for a men's magazine centerfold, Omaha gets invited to a shady dance performance that turns out to be  and   From there, Omaha and Chuck get dragged into a byzantine plot between various power brokers that includes Chuck's father Charles Tabey Sr. - one of the most wealthy and powerful men in the state. While dealing with the external political plots, the whole cast of characters also have to cope with complex emotional issues that can shatter their lives.

Tropes:

 * Author Existence Failure: The series stopped production at various points due to a car accident (Worley), colon cancer (Waller), and lung cancer (Worley) that claimed the writer in 2004. Worley's husband James Vance worked with her notes to write out the final chapters beginning in 2006.
 * Barefoot Cartoon Animals: The entire cast, most of the time. Interestingly, the characters' feet have an atypically human appearance for this trope.
 * Big Bad: Originally was media magnate Andre DeRoc. Later it was Senator Bonner.
 * Bi the Way: Some of the supporting cast, especially Omaha's best friend Shelley and Chuck's ex-girlfriend Jo, are bisexual.
 * Omaha herself can be Bi-Curious from time on time.
 * Blackmail: Senator Bonner threatens Omaha by mentioning "David".
 * Catgirl: also Dog Girl, Rabbit Girl, Bird Girl, Fox Girl...
 * Chessmaster: Charles Sr. is seen in the beginning playing with a chess board. He basically manipulates a lot of other characters - including his own son - like chess pieces.
 * Crossover: The "Images of Omaha" benefit series to pay for Reed Waller's medical bills featured pin-ups and artwork pairing Omaha with P'Gell from Will Eisner's The Spirit, Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot, Dave Sim's Cerebus, and the inhabitants of Larry Marder's Beanworld.
 * Didn't See That Coming: Multiple times.
 * Bonner, thinking he had just secured a humiliating victory over his enemy Chuck,
 * Disney Death
 * Driven to Suicide:
 * Dye or Die: Omaha dyes her hair blond when she argues with Chuck and leaves Mipple City, only to change it back to red when she reconciles with Chuck and returns.
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Omaha. Flashbacks suggest Shelley and Omaha were more than friends. During the Bonner storyline, Jo kisses Omaha, hinting that Jo's plot  is more for Omaha's sake than for Chuck.
 * Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Yes AND No. One issue would be couples hooking up, the next issue would focus on moving the plot forward with almost no sex at all.
 * Most of the major protagonists have had sex with one another at some point (except for the hetero guys, and with Rob who's gay).
 * Everyone Is a Suspect: Other than Jo and Rob, who the readers know were in another room,
 * Every One Remembers the Stripper: She's the main character. Duh.
 * Faking the Dead:
 * Foot Focus: For some reason, everyone walks barefoot.
 * Four Fingered Hands: The entire cast has them.
 * Furry Comic
 * Furry Fandom: Debuted in a Funny Animal Fanzine in the 1970s.
 * Gambit Pileup: During the week that
 * Girl On Girl Is Hot: Omaha and Jo, early on.
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Mostly. Good people at least try to have good sex, but the emotional consequences flare up in some unexpected ways. Played straight with the villains, especially Bonner, who prefer using sex simply to achieve their personal ambitions.
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: It's revealed that When Chuck finds out
 * Hide Your Gays: Averted. Rob, the major gay character, gets his fair share of sex just like the heteros. The main characters have friendly and open relations with the gay/lesbian community and are viewed as equals.
 * Hooker With a Heart of Gold: Jo.
 * It's Not Porn, It's Art: While very sexually explicit, critics who favorably reviewed the comic noted the high degree of storytelling and specified that Omaha is not a pornographic comic.
 * Some chapters have no sex.
 * The Lancer: Jerry, Chuck's friend and Charles' most competent underling.
 * Like Father Like Son: Charles Sr. and Chuck. They even look alike... naked.
 * They also share some unhealthy traits, like manic depression.
 * Turn Out Like His Father: What Chuck is terrified of doing
 * Mature Animal Story
 * My Girl Is Not a Slut: Chuck is well aware of Omaha's job as a stripper: it's how they met. He does think they are in a sexually monogamous relationship, except for when Jo offered a threesome.
 * Speaking of Jo, she and Chuck were dating before they broke up and Chuck met Omaha.
 * Petting Zoo People: The characters are just humans drawn with animal heads and tails. Their hands and feet are human, albeit with fewer digits.
 * Porn Name: Does she look like a "Susan" to you?
 * Pride Before a Fall: How Bonner thinks he can beat Chuck like he earlier defeated Charles Sr.: "His pride."
 * Rape As Drama:.
 * What Bonner does to women is evil. Even the hookers in town are terrified of him, and warn Jo not to mess with him. Jo, however, has a plan...
 * Shout Out: the comic began as a sexy animal parody of Charlies Angels (with Omaha, Jo and Shelly as the Angels). The parody aspect was quickly dropped for a Soap Opera storyline.
 * Slice of Life
 * Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Hoo boy, it would take a team of sociologists to measure this. The society in Omaha's world looks down on sex, and has men in powerful offices abusing women as sex toys. On the other hand, Omaha and her friends are open about their sexual choices, pursue relationships with nice guys like Chuck and Jerry who treat women with equal respect, and are willing to stand up publicly to defend themselves and their life choices.
 * When Omaha, she travels to a small town, dyes her hair and tries to find "respectable" work as an office secretary. She quickly discovers the pay is lousy compared to her job as a stripper, that the women are forced to do all the work, and that the men who "run" the office are sexist bastards. She quits before the day is even over and heads straight for the nearest strip club to get more honest work there.
 * What's sad is that Omaha is essentially our world, with Furry characters.
 * Three Way Sex: both girl/boy/girl and boy/girl/boy.
 * Underground Comics
 * Wham Episode: It's a Soap Opera, there's one about every three episodes.
 * "Everybody was busy that week... mostly plotting. None of us knew that something was about to happen that would make all plans pointless... Well, maybe one of us knew..."
 * World of Funny Animals
 * Underground Comics
 * Wham Episode: It's a Soap Opera, there's one about every three episodes.
 * "Everybody was busy that week... mostly plotting. None of us knew that something was about to happen that would make all plans pointless... Well, maybe one of us knew..."
 * World of Funny Animals
 * World of Funny Animals