Kate Worley (March 16, 1958 – June 6, 2004) was an American comic book writer best known for her work on Omaha the Cat Dancer. She was a writer and performer for the science fiction comedy radio program Shockwave Radio Theater.[1]
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After moving in the 1970s from her native Illinois to Minneapolis, Minnesota, Worley became one of the early contributors the Shockwave Radio Theater there.[1] Through fellow contributors, she met cartoonist and musician Reed Waller, with whom she became a romantic and professional relationship.[2] Moving in together, they wrote songs and performed as a duet and with local bands, as well as being popular figures at Minicon and other science fiction conventions.[1]
Created by Waller, Omaha the Cat Dancer, the story of an anthropomorphic female cat who worked as a stripper, originated as an "adult comic strip" in an "obscure local publication"[1] before evolving into a nationally distributing comic-book series. Four pages into issue #2, Waller suffered writer's block, and after some months, Worley offered "a few tentative suggestions about directions for the storyline, new characters, anything she could think of that might help...."[1] At Waller's invitation, Worley became the series' scripter.[1]
Omaha went on hiatus when Worley and Waller were both injured in a car accident; this hiatus was greatly extended when they had an acrimonious parting, after which they refused to work together.
Worley also wrote for the publisher Tekno Comix.
Worley was married to comic book writer Jim Vance.[1] In 2002, Worley was diagnosed with cancer; she and Waller reconciled enough to produce several more issues of Omaha before she succumbed in 2004.[1]