Traverse City Record-Eagle

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September 30, 2010

‘Cathy’ to end, R-E to take comic poll

The comic strip “Cathy,” which has chronicled the life, frustrations and swimsuit season meltdowns of its namesake for more than 30 years, is coming to an end.

Cathy Guisewite, the strip’s creator, said that deciding to end the comic strip was “excruciating.” The comic has won several awards, including a 1992 National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 1987, and at its height appeared in 1,400 papers.

“It’s just been really unbelievably agonizing to make the decision,” Guisewite said in a telephone interview from her home in the Los Angeles area. “The strip has not only been the most astonishing form of therapy for 34 years, but doing a daily comic strip for the newspaper set a certain rhythm for my life.”

The final “Cathy” strip, will run in newspapers on Sunday, Oct. 3.

Guisewite, 59, said she chose to end the largely autobiographical comic strip because she wanted more time with her 18-year-old daughter and her parents and because “other personal deadlines started becoming more pressing for me than the newspaper ones.”

She said her “creative biological clock” was also urging her to try something else, although she isn’t sure what that will be.

Wondering what’s going to replace “Cathy” in the Record-Eagle? We’re letting our readers decide. Check Friday’s A&E section for details of the poll we’ll be taking.

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