Help Kate Worley!

Posted: Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Posted By: Shawn Patty

Kate Worley (writer of "Omaha, the Cat Dancer") is fighting cancer, and she and her family are in desparate times and near losing their house. Neil Gaiman has a brief note on his blog about it (at the bottom of the Friday, May 21, 2004 entry), which reads:

Hey Neil, have you seen Reed Waller's new blog at http://rwaller.blogspot.com/?

I hadn't but I was pleased you sent this in.

Kate Worley (who wrote, among other things, the very wonderful graphic novel/comics sequence Omaha the Cat Dancer, which Reed Waller drew) is married to Jim Vance (who wrote, among other things Kings in Disguise). They have two young children. As Reed mentions in his blog, Kate, who is working on Omaha again for the first time in many years, has cancer. It's not good. You can read some more details at this thread.

The news that she had there's going to be a collection in French, of the complete story, and, seeing the the story was left incomplete, Kate and Reed are going to finish it.

Jim and Kate are pretty much up against the wall right now, with wolves baying at the door. If they can keep going for a few more months, the wolves may calm down -- the new Omaha material will start coming out and so on. But right now she's fighting cancer and fighting to stay in the place they're living, and they're out at the edges of losing their home while Kate's working very hard to write and to get through this. (It can't be much fun for Jim or the kids, for that matter.)

I spoke to Kate, who confirmed just how bad things are right now, and said, yes, they need help, badly. Donations can be paypalled to Jim at jim1vance@aol.com. Donations, get well-cards, or nice things of any kind can be sent to Jim and Kate at 323 S Yorktown, Tulsa OK, 74104. Kate's e-mail is scriptist@aol.com. And if some well-intentioned person with more time and ability than I have decided to do a benefit comic or something to help them, I think that would be an excellent idea.

(And feel very free to pass the word along.)

Rich Johnston in his column “Lying in the Gutters” over at comicbookresources.com had this to say:

Les Humanoides are to collect and publish the seminal "Omaha The Cat Dancer." Lost in disagreement after the split of Reed Waller and Kate Worley, the situation seems to have changed. There's hope for a sizable amount of new material in the volume, but Kate's cancer relapse is unlikely to make that possible.

Follow Kate's condition and Omaha and Reed's blog.

If anyone is out there that can make a benefit comic to help them, please do so.

Got some comments on this item?
Have your say at the Silver Bulletins forum.