26-506: Cathy is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life: food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes fun at the lives and foibles of modern women. The strip's debut was on November 22, 1976, and it appeared in over 1,400 newspapers at its peak. The strips have been compiled into more than 20 books. Three television specials were also created. Guisewite received
52-507: A floating timeline and keep characters the same age for prolonged periods of time, the characters in Luann have aged over time, albeit not in real time. From 1985 to 1999, Luann was vaguely in the eighth grade. According to Evans' blog, Luann was 13 in 1999. This younger era of Luann focused on topics among children in junior high school and within Luann's family at home. Since 1999 Luann has been slowly aging from 15 to 16 years old at perhaps
78-411: A child. Although well-meaning, Mom's advice often frustrates Cathy. Cathy is from the era of feminism , women's rights, and the sexual revolution. Mom is from the earlier, more conservative World War II —1950s era. Although presented as an equal in her marriage to Cathy's Dad, Mom holds many old-fashioned ideas. Prior to Cathy's marriage, she seems to have an obsession with seeing Cathy married, keeping
104-498: A current copy of Bride magazine in her purse and trying to send Christmas cards to Cathy's ex-boyfriends. Cathy has to juggle many tasks at Product Testing, Inc. Her boss, Mr. Pinkley, often asks the impossible. Cathy always seems to pull through in the end and gives him and the client exactly what they want, albeit with quite a bit of drama. Following are books featuring Cathy, illustrated by Guisewite. The chronological strips and special collections lists are believed to be complete;
130-446: A degree of notoriety for its mixing of real-life topics with the lightness of being a teen in high school. Evans has sprinkled in such topics as Luann's concerns about her first menstruation, Dirk's jealousy (which has led to emotional abuse of Toni and physical violence toward Brad), birth control, drunk driving, handicaps, and other social/policy issues that are of interest to young people. Evans drew praise and some criticism in 1998 for
156-428: A painting of Cathy is shown as part of a hall of famous female artists; in the painting, Cathy is shown in a two-piece swimsuit, saying "I'm finally able to fit into my bathing suit.... and it's September!". In a Simpsons comic strip, Comic Book Guy owns a rare Cathy cartoon - the only one that men find funny. In the 2022 Robot Chicken episode "May Cause Involuntary Political Discharge", Cathy falls in love with
182-486: A series of strips about Delta contracting Hodgkin lymphoma. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 , the character of Brad was inspired by the actions of the FDNY to become a firefighter, and there have been extended storylines following him. On November 14, 2001, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a story supposedly detailing Evans' struggle to address the events of 9/11 in his strip. While most comic strips use
208-876: A symbol of an earlier generation's sad, contemptuous view of single women. (Miranda: "I'm sitting home with my cat, ordering the same thing almost every night. The only thing sadder would be a Cathy comic pasted on my refrigerator door." Carrie: "Never say Cathy comic to me again"). On the series 30 Rock , Cathy has been referenced more than once. On the episode " Don Geiss, America and Hope ", Liz Lemon 's boyfriend Wesley compares her obsession with food to being like "a Cathy cartoon that just won't end". In another episode, Liz exclaims "Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, aack!", which had been exclaimed by Cathy herself in an earlier strip. On Saturday Night Live , Andy Samberg would portray Cathy as loud and obnoxious on Weekend Update (Season 34, Episode 17; aired March 7, 2009). In The Simpsons episode " Girls Just Wanna Have Sums ",
234-465: Is non-serial (gag-a-day) vs. serial strips . Compared to single-panel cartoons (" gag panels "), gag-a-day comic strips can deliver a better timing for the narrative of a joke. The distinction between continuity and gag-a-day strip may be blurred: a continuous story may still be delivered in the gag-a-day format. In fact, Lynn Johnston recommends it for story strips, to keep the readership and engage new audience which may be not very familiar with
260-468: Is attending college as of September 3, 2014. On September 28, 2014, Greg Evans and his daughter Karen made an appearance in the strip, wishing Luann a happy 18th birthday. On March 17, 2013, GoComics began republishing old strips under the title Luann Againn , starting with the first strip, dated March 17, 1985. In 2006, Evans—with the help of arranger/orchestrator Justin Gray—wrote a musical based on
286-448: Is overweight, but not obese, and has some success with weight loss over the course of the comic. Cathy is particularly fond of chocolate, pizza , and her mother's cooking. Cathy dates extensively, but is unable to find "Mr. Right." She has a number of love interests throughout the comic, though none more consistent than Irving. Later in the series, they marry. At the end of the comic series, Irving and Cathy find out that they are expecting
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#1732772284827312-500: The National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award in 1992 for the strip. Initially, the strip was based largely on Guisewite's own life as a single woman. "The syndicate felt it would make the strip more relatable if the character's name and my name were the same," Guisewite said in an interview. "They felt it would make it a more personal strip, and would help people know it was a real woman who
338-472: The Martian leader from Mars Attacks over their shared love of the word "Ack!" In the 2010 The Big Bang Theory episode "The Wheaton Recurrence", Sheldon brings Penny ice cream, citing that he had been familiarizing himself with the comic strip Cathy and that when she is upset, she says "Ack!" and eats ice cream. In 2021, writer and comedian Jamie Loftus released Aack Cast, a podcast series tackling
364-489: The Year for his work on Luann. Miguel also saved Tiffany's life by performing CPR when she almost drowned in the pool. Tiffany took advantage of his kindness by using him to steal Gunther's test paper. When Tiffany got caught, she convinced Miguel to take the blame, claiming he did it willingly for her. Instead of betraying Tiffany, Miguel chose to accept the blame and decided to return to Spain. The strip has attained
390-428: The background of the story. This comics -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Luann (comic strip) Luann is a syndicated newspaper comic strip written and drawn by Greg Evans . It was launched by North America Syndicate on March 17, 1985. The strip is currently syndicated by Andrews McMeel Syndication . In 2012, Greg Evans' daughter Karen Evans began co-authoring
416-412: The final strip ran with the revelation that Cathy is pregnant with a girl. On June 1, 2020, Cathy Commiserations , a single-panel cartoon, began on GoComics . The earliest entry was dated March 20, 2018. The series paused May 9, 2021, but resumed on October 29, 2021. Three animated specials were made from the strip: Cathy , Cathy's Last Resort and Cathy's Valentine . All aired on CBS, and
442-412: The former won Guisewite an Emmy Award . Defined by Cathy Guisewite, the four basic guilt groups are four types of temptation that the character Cathy faces in her daily life. Cathy has a love/hate affair with food (especially carbs ). She loves food, but suffers from body dysmorphia from her weight. She is often shown in a department store fitting room trying to stuff herself into a bathing suit. She
468-469: The history, impact, and continuing relevance of the comic strip. Gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip is the style of writing comic cartoons such that every installment of a strip delivers a complete joke or some other kind of artistic statement. It is opposed to story or continuity strips, which rely on the development of a story line across a sequence of the installments. Most syndicated comics are of this type. Another term for this distinction
494-551: The newspapers from double running Cathy strips, Del ( Eric Lutes ) and Richard ( Malcolm Gets ) create one for Caroline. The strip is presented as being only funny to men. Upon seeing the strip, Caroline declares that: " Cathy is gonna have a field day with this". In Sex and the City season 3 , "Cock-a-doodle-doo", Miranda compares her lonely and repetitive take-out orders to a Cathy cartoon, and Carrie asks her never to refer to Cathy again, indicating Cathy's status by 2000 as
520-521: The other sections are not. Note: capitalization appears according to the copyright page of the book. The following books are collections of strips in the order they were published. The following books include strips already published in earlier books. The following books are smaller than the works above. They may have a short storyline and are intended as gifts. Paperback gift books. The following books feature Cathy illustrations by Guisewite, but are not authored by her. The June 18, 2017 strip of
546-400: The rate of one Luann month per one reader year, though this opposes what Evans has said on his blog. In the fall of 2013, it was made clear that Luann and her peers were seniors in high school, suggesting that the characters are around 17 years old and preparing for college. In June, 2014, Greg and Karen Evans ran a story arc in which the high school characters attended their graduation. Luann
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#1732772284827572-457: The relaunched Bloom County featured a dismayed Cathy awakening in bed alongside Steve Dallas . She also appeared in the strip the following day. The comic strip Luann featured Mabel (in the October 5, 2016 strip) as a worker of the 'Bridal Barn' wedding gown store where Toni Daytona went to purchase her wedding gown with the help of Nancy and Luann DeGroot. A live action Cathy sketch
598-635: The strip, titled Luann: Scenes in a Teen's Life , produced by Center ARTES and performed at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, California . It was performed by local drama students from Rancho Buena Vista High School . An original cast recording, titled Scenes in a Teen's Life , was made. In March 2008, Palomar College , in San Marcos, California performed this musical. It was
624-472: The strip. Luann takes place in an unnamed suburban setting, and primarily focuses on young adult Luann DeGroot dealing with school, her love interests, family, and friends. Some storylines center on other characters, including her older brother Brad. The strip is particularly notable in that the characters age over time, albeit not in real time. In 2003, Evans won the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of
650-471: Was going through these things. I hated the idea of calling it 'Cathy'. " Guisewite had Cathy's long-time boyfriend , Irving, propose on Valentine's Day 2004. The two characters married in the February 5, 2005 strip. That same year, Cathy appeared in the 75th anniversary party of Blondie and Dagwood . On August 11, 2010, Cathy Guisewite announced the decision to end the run of Cathy . On October 3, 2010,
676-463: Was included in the special Mother's Day Sunday Funnies broadcast May 8, 1983 on NBC . Caroline in the City features fictional cartoonist Caroline Duffy ( Lea Thompson ), who makes a rival strip. The feud between Caroline and Cathy is described as "oily rag, lit cigarette". In the season 1 episode "Caroline and the Bad Back", Caroline hurts her back and is unable to meet a deadline. To prevent
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