Dorothy Gambrell is a cartoonist who writes and draws the online

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

''Cat and Girl'' in addition to the blog ''very small array''. Her work has appeared in the literary journal ''Backwards City Review'' and the

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

anthology ''The Other Chekhov'', and had appeared regularly in the literary journal ''Grasslimb''. As of 2023, she is a contributing graphics editor for ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

''. Additionally, Dorothy played guitar in the self-styled "last uncool band in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

," The Vandervoorts. Following her move to Tucson, Gambrell became part of The Basement Apartments. She has also played in the band Jenny and the Holzers. She grew up on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, and attended

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

. She has lived

Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and in Brooklyn, New York.

''Cat and Girl''

In the second quarter of 1999, Gambrell started the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

''Cat and Girl''. The title characters are Cat, a giant

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

cat given to zany schemes and

indulgences In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission bef ...

(particularly eating

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

-based

paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...

), and Girl, a cynical girl with a philosophical bent and a penchant for

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

. Gambrell insists Girl is not modeled after herself, an assertion she backs up by occasionally inserting a character based on herself into the comic. ''Cat and Girl'' mixes usually dry humor with literary allusions. Gambrell described the subject of her webcomic as "a cat, a girl, and an experimental

meta-narrative In social theory, a metanarrative (also master narrative, or meta-narrative and grand narrative; or ) is an overarching narrative about smaller historical narratives, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as ...

." In ''Cat and Girl'', Gambrell frequently jokes about obscure subject matter, sometimes based on "cultural references that maybe twelve people will get." Gambrell alternates between more and less obscure jokes, not wanting to censor herself nor talking down to her readers. A recurring theme in ''Cat and Girl'' is

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...

, as Gambrell emphasizes the powerful ways in which people deceive themselves when reminiscing on the past. Gambrell also created the webcomic ''The New Adventures of Death'', which she published through

Modern Tales Modern Tales was a webcomics publisher active from 2002 to 2012, best known for being one of the first profitable subscription models for digital content. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster o ...

under a subscription fee. In 2005, ''Cat and Girl'' and ''The New Adventures of Death'' were together named among the best webcomics of the year by Joe Zabel. In 2019, ''Cat and Girl'' won a National Cartoonists Society Division Award in the "On-Line Comics – Short Form" category.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gambrell, Dorothy Living people American women bloggers American webcomic creators People from Greenpoint, Brooklyn Year of birth missing (living people) Williams College alumni Artists from Tucson, Arizona American female comics artists American female comics writers American women guitarists 21st-century American women

''Cat and Girl''

References

External links