Kathleen Louise Worley (March 16, 1958 – June 6, 2004) was an American comic book writer, best known for her work on '' Omaha the Cat Dancer'', a sexually explicit

anthropomorphic animal 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 t ...

comic book series about a female

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...

. Worley was also a musician, and a writer and performer for the science fiction comedy radio program Shockwave Radio Theater.

Biography

Worley as born in Bellville, Illinois on March 16, 1958. After moving to Minneapolis, Minnesota in the 1970s, she became one of the early contributors the Shockwave Radio Theater there. While in the process of divorcing from her husband, she and

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

and musician

Reed Waller Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * ...

began a romantic and professional relationship. Moving in together, they wrote songs and performed, both as a duet and with local bands, as well as being popular figures at

Minicon Minicon is a science fiction and fantasy convention in Minneapolis usually held on Easter weekend. Started in 1968 and running approximately annually since then, it is one of the oldest science fiction conventions in the midwest United Stat ...

and other science fiction conventions. In the mid 1980s, Waller and Worley began collaborating on ''Omaha the Cat Dancer'', which had originated as a strip by Waller in the local fanzine ''Vootie'', before evolving into a nationally distributed comic book series published by Kitchen Sink Press. Four pages into issue #2, Waller suffered writer's block, and Worley offered "a few tentative suggestions about directions for the storyline, new characters, anything she could think of that might help...." At his invitation, she became the series' writer, enhancing its characterization and themes. In 1988, Waller identified them both as bisexual in the letters column of the series. ''Omaha'' went on hiatus when Worley and Waller were both injured in a car accident; this hiatus was greatly extended when they had an acrimonious parting, which made their attempts at working together difficult. During this time, Worley wrote comics for various publishers, including ''Mulkon Empire'' for Tekno Comix, '' The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest'' for

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

, ''Roger Rabbit'' for Disney, and a "Year One" annual issue of '' Wonder Woman''. She married comic book writer

Jim Vance James Howard Vance III (January 10, 1942 – July 22, 2017) was an American television news presenter in Washington, D.C. Early life Born on January 10, 1942,Heil, Emily, "5 minutes with Jim Vance", ''The Washington Post'', January 11, 2 ...

, with whom she moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and had a son and daughter. In 2002, she and Waller reached a deal with Fantagraphics to reprint ''Omaha,'' with an additional 100 pages. However, she was diagnosed with cancer, and she died in on June 6, 2004. Vance and Waller would later complete the ''Omaha'' series together, based on notes left by Worley.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worley, Kate 1958 births 2004 deaths American comics writers Deaths from cancer Female comics writers Science fiction fans LGBT comics creators Bisexual writers Bisexual women 20th-century LGBT people