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Darrin Bell to run week long Cathy tribute

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Candorville creator Darrin Bell has created a weekly long tribute series premiering today to honor Cathy Guisewhite who announced she is ending her comic strip, Cathy after 34 years. Darrin, on why he’s decided to do the tribute series says, “I have no idea whether MY readership is familiar at all with Cathy, but I don’t care. A giant is retiring and walking off the stage gracefully – opening up a lot of space for a new generation of (hopefully) women cartoonists. That’s a pretty cool thing to do.”

You can follow the series on Darrin’s website.

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Comments 28

  1. Ordinarily, I think it’s lazy when other cartoonists use other comic strips as fodder for their own strip – it’s just easy gag writing. (PBS seems to lean on it too much) But, in this instance, there’s a valid reason and it looks like the start of a nice tribute. Good work, Darrin.

  2. I think I’d appreciate this tribute more if it didn’t start off with another “Cathy’s neurotic about being fat” joke. The world needs another one of those like we need another reality show.

  3. the world doesn’t need another “Cathy’s neurotic about being fat” joke. Which is why it’s good she’s retiring. Cause it’s all Cathy was capable of producing.

  4. I think it’s a thoughtful idea and gesture. Keep it going.

  6. I think Candorville is one of the best comics out there. I can see a bit of similarity in the writing style between early Cathy strips and Candorville. Very nice.

  7. Hey Jan – nice to see your name popping up in the forum. I really enjoy your work with Stone Soup.

  8. Would it be wrong to say “ACK!”?

  10. I have to agree with Scott on this one.

  11. Hey Scott & Mike: Cathy was Sex And The City before Sex And The City was cool. Waaaaait a minute.

  12. Actually, Darrin pretty much addresses the naysayers in today’s strip:
    http://comics.com/candorville/2010-08-24/

    Cathy was a trailblazer. Perhaps she out-stayed her moment a bit, but, man, I don’t want to hear what you guys have to say when Morrie Turner hangs’em up.

  13. The idea of Morrie Turner retiring is inconceivable. I’m expecting Wee Pals to run another 75 years, minimum.

  14. I said it once, I’ll say it again: trailblazing mediocrity is still mediocrity.
    Crappy drawings, lame jokes.
    Bye Cathy. Don’t let the door it you in the ass.

  15. Stay classy, John. I’ll tell my daughter to put down Cathy and watch Shrek 8, or whatever the hell you’re working on. So glad I got out of Los Angeles.

    Bob Winquist liked Cathy. Tell that to your class.

    Alan, this is a wonderful site, but I can’t read professionals acting like fifth graders anymore. I can’t read the newspaper online anymore, because the comments under the articles remind me of what mouthy idiots live in my city.

    Publications need editors.

    Why would I ever want to watch anything Dreamworks produces when nasty people like John Sanford are making comments like this about a retiring 60 year old woman who did something meaningful for a lot of people he will never, ever be able to relate to? Is he making something I want my kids to watch? I don’t care. I don’t want jerks making movies for my kids.

    I know this is an “industry website”, but anybody can read this. No wonder Wiley Miller doesn’t post here anymore. He’s too intelligent.

    What kills me, John, is that you don’t come off this nasty on podcasts. Neither does Scott. You come off as normal, passionate human beings who are excited about what you are doing. Here, both of you like to slap around ladies and call out work as crap without putting your own work in front of you to be equally criticized.

    You also come across as older guys without kids who never grew up. Perfect for animation and comics about childless kids, but bad for general interaction with the public.

    It’s unprofessional, it’s unnecessarily vindictive and it’s just plain mean. I never know which article I’ll be reading where sudden hostility like this will pop up, so I’m going to stick to reading Daily Cartoonist on my phone and keep the comments off.

    Sorry to go on but there’s only so much I can take.

  16. Everybody hates something.

    That is true.

    But to proclaim that hate on a web page that discusses a TRIBUTE to the object you HATE, that’s pretty much like running into a church and screaming, “I hate GOD! Nya nya nya!”

  17. It certainly couldn’t hurt to simply say “congratulations on making a career out of cartooning for 34 years and being a trailblazer in your way” here, could it? I hate the Yankees, but I’ll be standing and applauding a great career when Jeter retires. I dislike Michael Bay’s movies with a passion, but I tip my hat to the man’s ability to blow things up and get box office receipts. Read Stephan Pastis’ blog on meeting Ms. Guisewite…I think it sums it up.

    http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/on-the-retirement-of-the-comic-strip-cathy/

  19. I never said I hate Cathy or Ms. Guisewhite. I’m not a fan of the strip, but it can’t be denied that Guisewhite was successful. Hell, I hope she enjoys her retirement but comes out enough to perhaps speak to or mentor other cartoonists. Perhaps I should have clarified this when I posted a day or so ago. I don’t have any anger or hatred towards Cathy. Its not impossible to respect an artist without particularly liking their work. (which is pretty much what Tom said above). I wasn’t a fan of the strip, but I understood that I wasn’t part of its target audience.

    One thing I’ve learned from Guisewhite’s retirement is a paraphrasing from Linus. “Never discuss religion, politics, the Great Pumpkin or Cathy.”.

  20. If after 30 years she is drawing original strips to the end and retiring it without trying to suck more money out of the comic by running reruns, (and allowing some new strips to get in), then I say BRAVO. Ms. Guisewhite!! Congrats on a great career.

  21. Oh and as a side note, I hope it is okay to depict Cathy leaving with her luggage in the first replacement strip of 2 Cows and a Chicken.

  22. Yeah move over Cathy .. make room for us abrasive message board crazies on the comics page.

    Yes, Cathy’s retirement will make room.. room for what I wonder. Pity us Cathy! pity us.

    Also I watched your interview on Johnny Carson. Pretty cool!

  23. Mike Wilson, first you say you agree with Kurtz that all Cathy was capable of was producing fat jokes. But, when you’re called on the carpet for being unprofessional and plain mean, you say you have no anger or hatred toward Ms. Guitewise, and you hope she “comes out enough to perhaps speak to or mentor other cartoonists.” Why would you want someone who’s only capable of fat jokes to advise other cartoonists? Perhaps you yourself should heed the advice of some of the other cartoonists posting on this thread, rather than jumping on the Kurtz bandwagon. Play nice.

  24. I look at “Cathy” as an inspiration to new cartoonists like
    me, who perhaps are not the world’s greatest fine artists,
    yet have something relevant and fun to say in a cartoon
    strip. “Cathy” reminds me that success is possible if
    you can truly connect with an audience in some unique
    way….writing that “says something” that at least some
    people will enjoy hearing is important; having the artistic
    skills of Rembrandt or Degas is NOT always the main thing.

    Thank you, Cathy Guisewhite. I think your work has
    been very cool, and I hope you enjoy your time off!

  25. I’ve gotten a few jokes at “Cathy’s” expense into my strip over the years, but I’ve always looked at it more as a strip that wasn’t aimed at me (having one too many Y chromosomes than the strip’s target audience) so I wasn’t going to appreciate all the jokes.

    Still, a run of 34 years is amazing. I doubt I ever would be able to produce a strip for that long. Especially because it would mean I would be in my mid 70’s when I stopped.

    Best of luck, Cathy, your achievement is worth appreciating even if I never appreciated the strip itself.

  26. Dude, I’m not about to argue with you on this thread. Is it inconcievable that while i don’t enjoy her work that she might have insights or advice for other cartoonists? I said I agree that retiring the strip is a decision I agree with, not that she should burn, or it sucks or whatever else. I’m not jumping on anyone’s bandwagon, so please don’t put words into my mouth, or use me as a proxy to disagree with Scott.

    Where did I say anything mean or unprofessional? I said I agree with Scott and then clarified what I meant. You can either believe what I wrote or not. It seems like you are just picking a fight over opinions, which happens way too much on internet forums. What next…the dissection of everything I said in order to paint me as a bandwagon riding jerk? (thats usually how internet disagreements go). Man, I’m done in this thread.

  27. I always thought that the perfect end to “Cathy” would be if she decided to marry “Ziggy” and then they adopted the children from “Family Circus”.

    Of course the parents in Family Circus would have to die in a car accident or something… Oooh, in a twist they could have the invisible gremlin “Not me” be behind the tragic car accident.

    If you ever wanna take your comic to a darker level Bil Keane, contact me. 🙂

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