I know technically the title is “Omaha” The Cat Dancer.
Yet another comic book-related record made it into my hands this week…I managed to find a copy the Omaha the Cat Dancer picture disc for dirt cheap on the eBays. Here’s the beautiful front cover:
…and who needs any stinkin’ liner notes when you can just print all the info on the record itself?
This is the original plastic envelope in which the album came, and I’ve already been told that’s not a good longterm storage option for vinyl, so I’ll get it into something else soon.
Released in 1988, and is credited to the band The Shakers, which features Omaha’s creators Kate Worley and Reed Waller as members. It’s not a bad album…, 11 tracks in all, kind of blues-ish, kind of rock-ish, kind of ballad-ish, with some catchy tunes and clever lyrics. Speaking of lyrics…the “info” side of the disc notes that if the lyric sheet wasn’t included with the record, check at the store’s front counter to see if they have it. Alas, my record did not come with said lyric sheet, and I checked my front counter and it wasn’t there either, so I guess I’ll do without.
Now, I wasn’t a reader of Omaha the Cat Dancer, though I was certainly aware of it (and its fairly convoluted publishing history). I remember it, and its collected editions, selling relatively well for us at the previous place of employment. I think it’s…well, I don’t want to say “mostly forgotten,” but I bet we could use a new release of the material for the current marketplace (and some of the sexually explicit content in the series may not seem so outré decades after its initial publication).
I did pick up the two-part Images of Omaha series from 1992, published to raise money for Worley’s medical care. That featured a lot of work from several creators I liked (Cerebus cover on #2!). And maybe someday, if that theoretical new edition of the original comics ever rolled around, maybe I’d try to sample it this time. Of course, I say that about every series I missed out on, so who do I write to in order to get an additional century or two added onto my lifespan so I can finally catch up?
Thus does the “records released by/in conjunction with comic book companies” collection expand even further (after that Tim Truman platter). Always keeping my peepers peeled for more!
Neat!
“original plastic envelope”
Yeah, those things can decay more than you would think. in addition to a new bag, you might put a piece of 12 x 12 cardboard with it, for addtional protection, as pic discs don’t have cardboard jackets. (That’s what I do with mine, anyway).
Ah, but do you have “Casper, Casper (Whatcha Doin’ on the Moon?)” by the Comix? Released by Harvey Records–which we can reasonably assume was connected in some way to Harvey Comics–this was a musical attempt to cash in on the fact that NASA had named the Apollo 16 command module “Casper.” Harvey was probably hoping to get some of the attention Charles Schulz had received when Snoopy was made the mascot of Apollo 10, but this time no one really cared much.
The B-side was “Richie Rich.”
I wondered if the NBM collections (which I have) were still available. After seeing the prices on Amazon and eBay, I’m trying to decide if I like Omaha more than money.
Surprised Amazon let the cover for 1 through since the censored cover of 4 is much more innocuous: https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=complete+omaha+cat+dancer&sa-no-redirect=1
This could be a good way to try the comic, assuming the seller hasn’t set a reserve: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Omaha-the-Cat-Dancer-1-20-In-Great-Condition/193709860433?hash=item2d1a01e651:g:2cwAAOSw0p9fe8Zi&autorefresh=true
Mike, What’s your address, fella? I’ve only got one box of vinyl around here still but I do indeed have the Omaha picture disc which I picked up when I owned my comic store. It still has the four-page lyric sheet and I just printed out copies which I would happily mail you if copies are okay?
Surely you will be tracking down all of these?
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?SeriesID=2601
forget me. I found your store’s address and sent the lyric sheets off to you today (Wed.) We’ll see how long it takes the PO to deliver them.
Thanks, JohnJ!
Happy that my vinyl storage advice was helpful. I always enjoy these posts digging into the dusty corners of comics and comics-adjacent obscurities. Keep ’em comin’!
Hey Mike, not sure if you’ve covered it, and it’s comic strips, not comic books, but are you familiar with the floppy record that was packaged with one of the Doonesbury collections in the mid-80s? Don’t ask me to recall the name of it. I had it as a kid, not sure what ever happened to it.