‘Cathy’ comic strip focused on ‘4 guilt groups’

When legendary cartoonist Lynn Johnston, creator of the popular “For Better or For Worse” comic strip was interviewed several years ago by Tom Heintjes of Hogan’s Alley, a magazine of the cartoon arts, he asked: “Whose work do you currently enjoy?” 

Johnston was quick to zero in on Cathy Guisewite, creator of “Cathy.” Johnston replied: “I admire Cathy Guisewite’s writing ability. I read the work very closely for her innovative punchline ability. She has a skill for writing that not many other people have.” 

Johnston and Guisewite are the only two women cartoonists who have been awarded “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” by members of the National Cartoonists Society. 

Words always came easily to Cathy Lee Guisewite. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1950, she grew up in Midland, Mich. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972 with a major in English literature.

“I grew up with Betty Crocker as my model,” Guisewite said. “And then there was Betty Friedan with ‘The Feminine Mystique,’ which opened up this universe!” 

She said she ate an entire Betty C’s triple-fudge layer cake while trying to digest Betty F’s women’s liberation manifesto. 

After college, Guisewite became a talented advertising copywriter and was promoted to agency vice president in 1976. However, she “hated her thighs” and had an empty personal life by age 26. 

Although art was not a strong suit for her, Guisewite, a southpaw sketcher, started doodling cartoon images of herself, as a form of therapy for her anxiety. 

Her mother, Ann Guisewite, thought the sketches had the makings of a comic strip. She did some research and sent her daughter a list of comic strip syndicates and an ultimatum: “You submit your drawings or I will.” 

“Just to get my mom off my back, I sent a package of my drawings” to Universal Press Syndicate, Guisewite said. She was signed immediately; her first strip appeared in late 1976. 

“I love writing about the small things in life that cripple us,” Guisewite once told a reporter. “Like 500,000 brands of cereals.” 

Humor, according to Guisewite is “an important emotional equalizer that bonds people, especially women, together. The ability to have a sense of humor about the little things is what gives everyone the strength to take on the big things,” she said.

 “Cathy” ran in America’s newspapers for 34 years. It focused on the life and times of Cathy Andrews, a career woman facing the issues and challenges of food, work, love and having a mother – the “four basic guilt groups.” 

Referring to her generation of women, Guisewite said: “Some of us marched in the street, others of us marched to the refrigerator. We survived decades of subtle and not so subtle pressures to be all things to everyone.” 

“We fought with boyfriends, bosses, mothers, bank accounts and will power. We tip-toed on the fine line between soaring confidence and secret self-doubt. We gave in, gave up, regrouped, rallied and started all over a zillion times. We wept on the floors of the swimwear dressing rooms….”

 

“I loved doing the comic strip, but there was only so much I could say in those four little boxes,” Guisewite said. “My voice was never going to change the world,” she commented. “My voice helped women get through their next five minutes, and I’m fine with that.” 

“Cathy” was required reading for men as well, in their ongoing search to gain clues about the female psyche.