Copyright The HUMOR Project, Inc 1989 -- All rights reserved
This first appeared in Laughing Matters Volume 6, Number 2

Cathy Guisewite (along with her kindred spirit and namesake) enters the lives of millions of people each day through the very successful syndicated comic strip, CATHY. In addition to her daily appearance, Cathy has reached, touched, and tickled many lives through such wonderful books (published by Andrews and McMeel) as: The Cathy Chronicles... What's a Nice Single Girl Doing With a Double Bed??!!... Valentine's Day Survival Book: How to Live Through Another February 14th... How to Get Rich, Fall in Love, Lose Weight, and Solve All Your Problems By Saying "No"... Eat Your Way to a Better Relationship... I Think I'm Having a Relationship with a Blueberry Pie... A Mouthful of Breath Mints and No One to Kiss... Climb Every Mountain, Bounce Every Check... Men Should Come with Instruction Booklets... Thin Thighs in Thirty Years... Another Saturday Night of Wild and Reckless Abandon... A Hand to Hold, An Opinion to Reject... Why Do the Right Words Always Come Out of the Wrong Mouth?... My Granddaughter Has Fleas.

Who is this masked woman? In what ways is she like or unlike her cartoon counterpart? To give you a sneak preview... Cathy majored in grilled pecan rolls at the University of Michigan (and minored in English). Actually, she is bilingual-- she is quite fluent in cartoons. Her comic strip is very funny, especially since it focuses on things that go BUMP in the daily lives of millions. Cartoon Cathy would eat an entire cheesecake to deal with a problem; cartoonist Cathy would stop at maybe half a cheesecake.

Finding Cathy was not a piece of cake. As I wove and drove my way through the Hollywood Hills, I finally reached her home.... and found out that she would be moving shortly. I thought for sure this was a way she screened her dates-- if they could actually find her house, they passed the first test.

I'm delighted that I did find Cathy. She's a warm, optimistic, thought-full, down-to-earth, up-to-mirth person. And I'm delighted to let you eavesdrop in on our conversation.

(Thanks to Universal Press Syndicate for permission to reprint the CATHY cartoons. Copyright 1989 Universal Press Syndicate. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.)

JG: So, you're moving! Is this some sort of sunshine law that you impose on yourself? Do you do it just to get more material for the strip; is it worth that aggravation?

CG: About every four years, I just get too comfortable. I can't stand it. I need to really go through the process of shaking it up.

JG: When I was in graduate school the dean was an incredibly creative leader who required the faculty to change their offices every year. Of course, this created a big uproar, but it was a very interesting, cleansing creativity process that got kicked into motion as a result of this shake-up.

CG: My mother thinks I'm a lunatic. I pointed out to her that one of the chapters in her book is called "The Five Year Shake," in which she advocates every five years really taking your life and just shaking it up and doing something radically different.

JG: And what about your father?

CG: He worked his way through college as part of a comedy team. Eventually, they quit doing that and he went into the advertising business. He has a great sense of humor, not so much in the telling of jokes, but he has a real sense of humor about life. I remember one special family dinner when some important friends of theirs were over for dinner. Mom was really nervous about everything-- and everybody was nervous. I was a little girl, and I spilled a glass of milk on the table. It was going to be a disaster. Then my dad picked up the pitcher of milk and dumped the whole thing on the floor and said, "What the heck. It looked like fun!" It changed the whole situation. That's really his way of living, where he has always taken a bad situation and made it funny by making it worse or found some other way to look at it so that it's not so tragic. I owe him a lot for that.

I thank both my parents...I do the sort of writing that I do because of that attitude that both of them instilled in me, which is looking for the bright side of any disaster; finding a way to look at life that is optimistic, not pessimistic. That is, I will point out, a very annoying philosophy to grow up with. When you're a teenager and you just want to go and wallow in your misery, the last thing on earth you want to hear is, "Oh, perk up. There's another way to look at it." You just want to punch them or strangle them.

JG: I think one of the strengths of the strip is that Cathy, if I had to come up with an oxymoron, would be a "vulnerable optimist." She's vulnerable, she experiences disasters, foibles, and shortcomings, and yet she still keeps the faith and some degree of hope. I came across a quote not too long ago: "An optimist is a pessimist with experience." Then I began wondering if a pessimist an optimist with experience. Would either you or Cathy have any thoughts on which would be the correct definition?

CG: We both are optimists in our souls, so we would say that an optimist is a pessimist with experience. While the specifics in the comic strip differ from my life, one common thread is definitely the promise that each of us begins everyday with, which is, "Every single day of my life, I promise myself I'm going to eat healthy foods, I'm going to write a letter to my parents, I'm going to make contact with the friends that I need to, I'm going to be professional and pursue my work with a businesslike attitude, I'm going to take care of my house, I'm going to take charge of my finances, I'm going to not waste time worrying about insignificant things, I'm going to work out...

JG: And in your spare time...

CG: Exactly, and by 11:00 in the morning, my only remaining goal is to get through the day with some shred of dignity still intact. And yet, it doesn't seem to matter. Every single day begins the exact same way. I consider it a total miracle...that renewal of hope that happens spontaneously. I used to attribute it to the training that I got from being on a diet every day of my life for many years. In spite of a solid track record of failing every single day for ten years, beginning each day with the new hope that today's going to be different, and by the end of the week I'm going to have lost five pounds. I think the ability to regenerate hope is probably the backbone of the country. We owe the strength of this country to the overweight women. They keep trying; they keep hanging in there.

JG: I understand you were hanging in there while hanging out there-- and that you lost 50 pounds. At what point did you reach the critical mass-- or lose the critical mass-- to lose the weight?

CG: It was when I started the comic strip. The physical act of doing the comic strip probably helped me lose weight more than anything because it gave me an outlet. It gave me a way to express my anxieties besides eating.

JG: You had at least one hand occupied at a time while you were drawing.

CG: Actually, I do my best writing when I eat junk food. I eat when I write, and I don't eat when I draw. As long as the drawing takes more time than the writing, I lose weight-- but if the writing takes longer, I gain. If it's about even, I'm fine. That's my system.

JG: So the comic strip has been a built-in invitation to take those disasters that are either self-created or otherwise created and to transform them. I sometimes use an expression in my programs that everybody has heard, "Someday we'll laugh about this." The question that I pose to my audiences is, "Why wait?"

CG: This is a great job. It takes the edge off any problems I might have and it's a wonderful outlet for all my frustrations. A lot of me is Cathy. I'm probably a combination of all the characters. I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform, because I've been given some wonderful chances and I want to feel that I'm living up to them. When you see Cathy in her office screaming "AACK!" it's partly because I'm in my studio at home screaming "AACK!"-- but also because I remember very well what it's like being in a larger office.

My insecurities have been wonderful for my career. After a hideous problem with someone I'm dating, there is a part of me that just wants to be able to sit in a room and feel bad about it. Another little part of my mind is always thinking, "Ohhh, I'm sure that there is material in here somewhere." But it's a real blessing. The more chaotic and trauma-filled my life, the better my work is!

JG: In addition to your parents and your life's disasters, what else has helped prepare you for your present career?

CG: I got great training from working at W. B. Doner (a Detroit advertising agency), because the whole spirit of the agency really was humor. They really believed that good advertising was funny advertising; good advertising makes you feel good about the product, it makes you laugh. There's no reason if you're writing an ad for a television commercial why there can't be humor in it. So, everyday I was basically forced to write ads for supermarkets and try to make them funny.

JG: The corporate culture placed value on humor.

CG: I definitely think that's important. It can make all the difference in the workplace - if somebody's not so, so serious. Mr. Doner, who ran the agency, was a man who loved humor, and that just filtered down to everybody. He really let people enjoy themselves there and encouraged us to do work that made us feel good.

JG: So cartooning is a piece of cake after advertising?

CG: They're similar in that they both are life capsules about subjects that aren't always funny and trying to find a way just to triumph a little bit so that it's a little bit funny.

JG: Your mom had encouraged you to go ahead and send in your work to some of the syndicates, and you sent one to Universal Press Syndicate, which must have been at the top of the list.

CG: I got a letter back and a contract to do the comic strip. That was shocking, exciting, thrilling, but it was also pretty horrifying. I didn't know how to draw for comic strips. But, I thought, "What the heck?!"

The comic strip actually started running in newspapers about six months after I received the contract. During that six month period I ran out and bought one of those YOU-TOO-CAN-DRAW books, and started practicing. I didn't even know what you drew on. I didn't tell anybody I had a comic strip started, because partly I didn't believe it and partly....

JG: Still wanted that safety net there?

CG: I wasn't sure that I really wanted anybody to read it. So, it was sort of a surprise to people when it started running in the newspapers. I kept my job at the agency for about a year for the same reason; I was sure they were going to call me up and tell me that they were just joking. I quit the advertising job only when I really felt I was no longer doing both jobs justice. It was just too much to do.

JG: Did you go to school on other strips at that point?

CG: The main comic strip that I had always appreciated was PEANUTS, and I think that I probably wouldn't have even done my original little drawings if it weren't for his comic strip. Charles Schulz really blazed the trail for expressing personal insecurities through and in a cartoon form.

JG: Does he know that he played such an important role for you?

CG: Oh, yes. I told him; I'm still telling him. He's great. He's a very genuine person. (Editor's Note: See Volume 2, Numbers 1 and 2 for an interview with Charles M. Schulz.)

JG: You have an interesting career. On the one hand, you reach 70 million people a day, and at the same time you're isolated: if you don't sit down at the drawing board and do it, it ain't going to happen. CG: Some people look at the strip and say, "This is five sentences. How long could it take? You must be done by ten in the morning." And other people say, "My God, how can you do this much in a week?" The truth is somewhere in the middle.

JG: Maybe we should set up some sort of cartoonists' hotline.

CG: My sister, Mickey, and I work out life over the phone every few days. When I did a series about Cathy campaigning for a raise, it was drawn partly from my memory of what it's like to ask for a raise, and partly because I had just coached Mickey on getting hers and it was fresh in my mind.

I'll say to her, "Do you think anybody else in the world has had this experience or is it just members of our family?" Or I will sometimes have it written with three different endings and ask which one she thinks is funny, because I often don't know. She has a great sense of comedy. She's almost always right.

JG: Even with allies like Mickey, do you ever feel stuck? What do you do on those kinds of days? How do you jumpstart yourself? CG: Every cartoonist I know feels very lucky to have their spot in the paper and to be able to do this type of work. It's heaven, but there are days when you don't feel like doing it. There are days when you have no sense of humor about it. There are days when it's the last thing on earth you want to do.

There are lots of things I can do to jumpstart myself. I can call my mother and get aggravated at her. I always keep lots of beginnings of ideas on different subjects. I write my best when I'm totally by myself. At night, listening to depressing music is when my best sense of humor kicks in. If I have an evening that I can spend like that just letting my mind wander and drifting, looking through old notes and trying to make sense maybe of something that's really happening to me. Any time I have any flickering of an idea, I write it down, so I have piles of scraps of little pieces of paper around that are not jokes but beginnings of thoughts on things.

JG: What thoughts do your readers have? If one were to look in your mailbag on any given day are there particular letters that you would find there?

CG: The mail I get is really appreciative, and that is inspiring to me. That definitely makes me continue to want to do it when they say, "I really count on you every morning to give me a laugh about something." A lot of women say that it looks like I'm spying on their lives, like I'm following them around. Just on a personal basis this is very reassuring for me.

The thing I like best is the feeling that I can take something that was a real anxiety in my own life and know that I can make somebody else I've never even met feel better about the same anxiety. It's a wonderful feeling.

After Christmas this year, I found that I had bought a lot of things that I was not going to wear. Or, for a special holiday party I had bought four pair of shoes just 'cause I couldn't make up my mind to wear one; now I have three to return, but now it's two months after the holidays. So I wrote almost two weeks of strips on the guilt and horror of trying to return things, and I called Mickey up and said, "Are people just going to think I'm crazy? Am I off the deep end on this?" And she said, "Well, I'd say that you were, except I have six pair of shoes in my closet, and my girl friend told me she had to drive across town to return something because she was too embarrassed to run into the same lady." So that reassured me that if three of us did it, probably a lot of people...

JG: Do you also get letters from men, too?

CG: I get some real interesting letters from men. Some men write and say that reading CATHY really gives insight into a woman's mind and that it's really helped them understand the women in their lives.

Not many men come right out and say that they are identifying with Irving, but a lot say they have a girlfriend just like Cathy. Some write to say that they feel a lot like Cathy themselves; that her anxieties and frustrations are not all that different from men's.

Another large group of mail I get is from women the age of my mother. Some are writing to say that the mother-daughter relationship in CATHY has really meant a lot to them and their daughters and that the strip has really become like a sounding board for them with each other.

JG: Do you have any advice for parents and children?

CG: A key to keeping a sense of humor in a family is always remembering no matter how miserable your relationships are with each other, it could be worse. I get a lot of reaction on the mother/daughter relationship from people, and people seem so surprised that there are other mothers and daughters who share that antagonism and love at the same time. Many mothers and daughters have written and said for a while their only communication with each other was handing each other comic strips: "See this is how you are with me."

Cathy's mother in the strip now brags about her ability, which is elevated to an art form, about how quickly she can turn Cathy into a lunatic. I think it's important for people to know that those contradictory feelings that you have when you're part of a family are really normal.

One of my best strips capturing mother-daughter relationships is one where Cathy says, "I love you Mom, but I'll never be like you. I'll never think like you, I'll never act like you, I'll never look like you." And Mom says, "Oh, I know, I used to say the exact same thing to my mom, and I wound up thinking just like her, acting just like her, looking like her. See, you're just like me already." Cathy runs from the room screaming, and Mom says, "Oh, isn't that cute, that's just what I used to do."

JG: As you said at one point, "Mother is one of the four basic guilt groups." Any quick comments on the other three guilt groups?

CG: I've identified the guilt groups as food, love, mother and career. These are certainly the forces that drive me crazy on a daily basis. They all really create a circle that makes up my life.

JG: You're surrounded.

CG: Exactly. Feel bad about Mom, so I eat to console myself. Then I feel fat; then I take that out on the person I'm dating. Then I'm in trouble with the person I'm dating; then I can't work. Then I feel helpless; I feel lost. I go crying to Mom. "Help me, Mom. Save me." Mom tries to save me, then I scream at her for butting into my life. Then I feel bad about that. It just goes around and around.

JG: The funny bone is connected to the...

CG: I've found an interesting way to make myself laugh about something if I'm feeling depressed: I list every single thing in my life that has gone wrong within a given day-- from the contact it took 12 tries to get it in the eye to there being no food in the refrigerator, etc.

JG: You have enough time to list all this?

CG: If you get specific and list every single thing that's gone wrong, you really can't get through the whole day without finding some humor on the list, because they're ridiculous. You look back at the things that have become so aggravating, and they seem sort of silly in the context of the whole.

Cathy's motto is "Take life one disaster at a time." My motto is "Take life two disasters at a time." I'm an overachiever.

JG: What do you hope to achieve as you look into your crystal ball into the '90s? What may be in store for Cathy then?

CG: That's a good one, because I'm not really comfortable with having her get married and having children. I feel the single women of the country would come to my house and murder me, and they would feel so deserted.

JG: Just as you wanted to do to some of your friends.

CG: When I read about a woman who's totally together career- wise, I'm inspired, I'm proud, and I go home and eat a carton of Cool Whip. When I read about a woman who has a perfect career and a perfect relationship with a supportive, sensitive man, I go home and eat a carton of Cool Whip and scream at my date. When I read about a woman who has a perfect career, a perfect relationship, adorable, bilingual children and regular open, loving chats with her mother about her sex life, I write out my frustrations in M & M's and eat them one paragraph at a time.

I think I'm honest about it. The role models for women today, although inspiring, can also be a little bit demoralizing. This ideal woman seems too far out of my reach. It's hopeless. Cathy, in contrast, is very honest and real. Her problems are everyone's problems. It's encouraging to have a friend who can admit defeat and then pick up and go forward and never stop trying.

I've heard from a lot of people that Cathy is a good role model. She certainly doesn't always deal with things the correct way, but she makes an effort. Cathy has become a friend to all sorts of women. She bumbles along, makes mistakes, suffers defeats-- but she never gives up.

JG: As you take a look at the last 13 years, has there been any significant evolution that you've noticed? To what extent has Cathy's growth and development mirrored yours?

CG: The times for women have taken some interesting turns in the last 13 years, and I think the strip has followed those turns. I have. I've had Cathy experience those as much as I could stand to deal with them myself.

JG: In case you ever "outgrow" Cathy, would you ever consider starting a second strip?

CG: I've instructed my family and friends that if I ever mention doing a second comic strip they are to just march me into the insane asylum and lock the door. Lock the door, strap me down. I could not do two, not only 'cause I would go crazy with having twice as many deadlines, but because...this is really my point of view on the world, and it's the only point of view I've got....If I write about the things I'm really thinking about or going through or having anxiety attacks over, it comes off as not only the funniest but also sounds the most legitimate.

I have a high energy level and lots of drive, and while I don't have any huge master plan, I'd like to do as much as I can with Cathy in the coming years. I think I can say a lot through the character.

JG: What's the biggest challenge for you in living with Cathy?

CG: Lack of time, but I thrive on the deadline. I did a strip once, and needless to say, I drew it about five minutes before the Federal Express man arrived to pick it up-- where Cathy is running through her office saying, "When the deadlines are impossible, I get my most brilliant ideas!" And in the next frame, "When the pressures are unbelievable, I think faster and work harder!" And then, "When every aspect of my career is on emergency alert, I'm brighter, more efficient, and get more done!" And in the last frame, she throws all her papers in the air and shouts, "I'm stressed for success!" I feel that way sometimes. I'm usually about 45 seconds ahead of deadline.

JG: You have provided a lifeline to laughter for millions of us. I hope you stay at least 45 seconds ahead in the future.

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