Kate Worley, Mistress of Kitty Porn

Over the weekend, a great American passed away, one who raised the spirits of so many, a great communicator with a daring message of hopefulness for us all. I'm speaking not of Ronald Reagan, but of Kate Worley.

Worley was half of the creative team behind Omaha the Cat Dancer, probably the most notorious comicbook series of the 1980's and early 1990's. It was about an exotic dancer named Omaha and her circle of friends (and not-so-friends). Worley wrote the stories, which were illustrated by her then-husband Reed Waller. The stories were frequently sexually explicit, and unapologetically erotic, but they were more than just porn. Thanks to Worley, they were actual stories, about characters that - despite having the heads, fur, and tails of cats, dogs, and assorted other animals - were more human than Bruce Wayne, Jean Grey, Archie Andrews, or most of the other characters that we think of when someone mentions "comics". They were not only "adult", they were adult.

There's actually a whole subgenre of funny-animal-porn comics, but Worley and Waller were the lions of it. By their example, they raised the bar not only for the quality of comics writing, but for the freedom of expression of the medium, and by extension our sexual freedom in society at large. Worley and Waller both came out as bisexual in the late 1980's, making them among the first publically openly queer creators in comics. (Other gay-identified creators before them had usually used pen-names.) Although both creators seem to be closer to the low end of hte Kinsey scale, Omaha included characters of assorted orientations, and the couple proudly contributed a 5-page story and the cover for the "funny animals" issue of Gay Comics. And above all, they celebrated sex as the potentially joyful, perfectly natural, part of everyday life it is.

Omaha came to a rather abrupt end when Worley and Waller broke up, an acrimonious split that seemed completely irreconcilable. She later remarried, to cartoonist Jim Vance (best known for the excellent graphic novel Kings In Disguise) and had two children. Part of the sad irony of Worley's death at this particular time is the fact that the wounds between her and Waller had finally healed enough that they had recently begun work on new Omaha material, to finish a planned reprint of the series. Unfortunately, her cancer returned at the same time, and she only got a little bit written before she was overtaken by it. Waller has said that he and Vance intend to finish the project in her memory, based on her notes and what they both know of her plans for the story.

I hope they do, and that they can bring some closure to the story of Omaha and her friends. It would also be a fine example of how mature adults can cope with the obviously awkward relationship between these two survivors. But even if the cruel hand of Fate intervenes again, or if Vance and Waller just can't make it work, I'm grateful for what Kate Worley accomplished before the break-up. Not just the 24 issues of comics, but for what it did for the industry and society. That mind- and door-opening work will always remain unfinished, but in such matters the beginning is so much more important than the finishing.