Cathy Guisewite, Creator of Cathy

Cartoonists are often asked how they came up with the idea for their strips and how they continue to find ideas. The answer was easy for Cathy Guisewite, creator of Cathy. She drew her life.

The cartoonist drew her personal foibles into panels, sketching her problems and successes with weight, the frustration of dating and a guilt-producing mother. (She had been 50 lbs overweight in college, but is now a svelt 5' 2" and 100 lbs.) Guisewite added her love of fashion and her career-woman life into the mix and Ta-Da: The comic strip Cathy was created. The popular cartoon hits a nerve with millions of readers, especially women.

Cathy Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio on September 5, 1950 to parents William Lee, now a retired president of an advertising agency, and Anne Guisewite, a retired advertising copywriter. She has two sisters, Mickey (Michelle) and Mary Ann. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1972. Cathy spent five years working as a writer with advertising agencies after graduation and left her position of Vice-President with W.B. Doner & Co. Advertising in 1977.

As Cathy drew her cartoons, "summing up my disasters of the day," she frequently showed them to her parents. Her mother insisted often that Cathy must send them into syndicates and researched the possibilities for her daughter at the library. Cathy finally gave in and said, "I sent the drawings just to get Mom off my back." She had a contract from Universal within a week's time. A rare opportunity for a new cartoonist.

The comic strip Cathy appeared in a few dozen newspapers under syndication with Universal Press on November 22, 1976. It was the first cartoon to portray the dilemmas and joys of a young and single working woman.

Cathy now is in print in almost 1500 newspapers world-wide with 70 million fans and translated into more than a dozen languages. There are more than 30 books and an array of licenced products that include watches, mugs sleep wear and panties, stationery, cake pans and much more.

Cathy Guisewite has several television specials. She won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 1987 for her first animated program. In 1993 she won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. She was only the second woman to win the award after Lynn Johnston (creator of For Better or For Worse).

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