O

“OMAHA” THE CAT DANCER. Th e creation of Minneapolis-based artist and writer

Reed Waller, Omaha fi rst appeared in the APA (Amateur Press Association) anthol-
ogy Vootie , whose stated mission was the promotion of funny animal comics , including
Disney and Warner Brothers characters, as well as original characters. Contributors
created and published original material, which was collated into anthologies and red-
istributed to contributing members.
Dan O’Neill’s Air Pirates Funnies was a 1971 underground anthology comic. Its central
story concerned the sex lives and drug use of Mickey Mouse and other Disney charac-
ters. Disney sued for copyright infringement, bringing national attention to the comic. In
1978, in part inspired by O’Neill’s work, Waller created his character Omaha in Vootie. As
extensions of the ideas in Air Pirates Funnies , Waller gave his story political overtones and
plausible continuity. Th e characters had active emotion-based sex lives. Waller made the
characters more human than animal, inspiring the term anthropomorphic, a term Waller
disliked, preferring funny animal. After reading issues of Vootie featuring Waller’s nascent
Omaha strips, Kitchen Sink Press publisher, Denis Kitchen, approached Waller about
the prospect of a book. A 36-page Omaha story debuted in Bizarre Sex #9 in 1981.
Bizarre Sex #9 sold very well, and Omaha #1 was published in 1982 by a small Min-
neapolis publisher. However, Waller had ceased working on Omaha during issue #1. A
variety of suggestions led to him off er the writing responsibility to his then-spouse Kate
Worley. After issue #2, the title moved back to Kitchen Sink. Working collaboratively,
Waller and Worley produced 20 issues of Omaha , as well as short Omaha stories for
several political and/or sexual anthologies, and other work.
In Worley’s writing, characters confronted disability issues, mental health con-
cerns, blue laws and sexuality. Th e latter two are especially signifi cant because Waller