Reflections: Fifteenth Anniversary : A Cathy Collection

Since Cathy's debut in 1976, she has become the symbol of single womanhood in all its glory--she's not just getting older, she's getting better.

Dating dilemmas, diet disasters, and dressing room traumas. Cathy, America's favorite comic strip woman-on-the-go, has suffered them all--and endeared herself to readers in the process.

Cathy's cartoon life has hilariously mirrored the path of women everywhere. In fact, Cathy book titles provide an uncanny overview of the feminine perspective: A Mouthful of Breath Mints and No One to Kiss, Wake Me Up When I'm Size 5, and $14 in the Bank and $200 Face in My Purse.

Cathy continues to entertain millions of readers daily as she shares her personal and professional struggles highlighted by her on-again, off-again romance with Irving, the hysterical give and take with her overprotective and obsessive mother, and, of course, her battle against the bulge.

Among the highlights of this cartoon collection, Cathy, "careening toward bankruptcy" as she puts it, cuts up her credit cards and joins Shoppers Anonymous. She then discovers Irving is dating an environmental activist and she herself becomes environmentally conscious...for three hours. Intermixed with the subplots are Cathy's wardrobe traumas ranging from swimsuit try-ons to the time she makes the fatal mistake of removing her "big, swinging coat" while wearing only a skin-tight unitard underneath.

Cathy Guisewite is the creator of the “Cathy” comic strip which ran daily in nearly 1,400 newspapers from 1976 to 2010. Launched when there were almost no female voices on the comic pages, the strip became a deeply personal touchstone for women wrestling with a changing world. The strip earned Guisewite the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 1992, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy in 1987, and the high honor of having her work displayed on the fronts of refrigerators across the land, right next to the food.