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Cathy #9
Thin Thighs in Thirty Years: A Cathy Collection
""I know I'm supposed to be assertive and self-sufficient," the comic strip Cathy says, "but it's boring to be invincible all by yourself"...this is the Cathy people love." -- New York Daily News
Cathy stops at the bakery on the way home from aerobics...proclaims her love for the single life yet secretly keeps a list of songs for her wedding...files business correspondence in the "doomed pile" in the corner of her office...begs her mother for advice, and then screams at her for giving it...and like millions of bright, successful women, spends bathing suit season sobbing in the department store dressing room.
Cathy stops at the bakery on the way home from aerobics...proclaims her love for the single life yet secretly keeps a list of songs for her wedding...files business correspondence in the "doomed pile" in the corner of her office...begs her mother for advice, and then screams at her for giving it...and like millions of bright, successful women, spends bathing suit season sobbing in the department store dressing room.
- GenresHumorComicsComic Strips
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
Cathy Guisewite
107 books154 followersCathy Lee Guisewite is the cartoonist who created the comic strip Cathy in 1976. Her main cartoon character (Cathy) is a career woman faced with the issues and challenges of work, relationships, her mother and food, or as Guisewite herself put it in one of her strips, "The four basic guilt groups."
Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Midland, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Guisewite received her bachelor's degree in English in 1972. She also holds seven honorary degrees.
In 1993, Guisewite received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. In 1987, she received an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy, which aired on CBS. Guisewite was a frequent guest in the latter years of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Guisewite and her husband Chris Wilkinson reside in Los Angeles. She has a daughter and a stepson.
Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Midland, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Guisewite received her bachelor's degree in English in 1972. She also holds seven honorary degrees.
In 1993, Guisewite received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. In 1987, she received an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy, which aired on CBS. Guisewite was a frequent guest in the latter years of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Guisewite and her husband Chris Wilkinson reside in Los Angeles. She has a daughter and a stepson.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 18, 2011
How can you not love Cathy? One of the best loved comic book characters ever. I can always pick up one of these books and escape for a while. Plus, it is a blast to the past, in a good way. Where else can you get references to floppy disks, Moonlighting with Bruce Willis, and the Madonna fashion trends of the mid 80s while still commiserating with the woes of bad relationships, terrible lighting in fitting rooms, and the temptation of pie? These books never go out of style.
March 10, 2020
Never came across this author or set of comics until now! I'm 35 and born in the 80's but where have this author been?
Funny, witty and oh-so-dramatic, I would have loved this comic series even more 8 years ago.
Maybe I had an off day, but I would have enjoyed it even better if I was reading it while having a cold.
The great reviews made me pick this up and I'm sure going to borrow more from the library. These are gold and hard to find at bookstores now!
Funny, witty and oh-so-dramatic, I would have loved this comic series even more 8 years ago.
Maybe I had an off day, but I would have enjoyed it even better if I was reading it while having a cold.
The great reviews made me pick this up and I'm sure going to borrow more from the library. These are gold and hard to find at bookstores now!
January 21, 2013
Love Cathy! I giggled all though it. Although it is written in the 80's, it is always the same story with relationships, dieting and work.
March 20, 2023
This was somewhere between 3 and 4 stars for me. Some of it didn't age well or dragged, but some of it was still pretty funny. I doubt I'd reread it, which is a 5-star requirement for me.
I chose this book because I've enjoyed Cathy comics in the past, and because of the title. I thought it might bring laughter to the whole weight-loss scenario. Most of the book, however, was not about weight-loss levity, and what little there was, wasn't at all encouraging to those who make health a serious priority. It reminded me of Garfield in that regard, where the cartoon Garfield is always lusting after that lasagna, without any internal turmoil, or perhaps the JoAnne Fluke book where the main character joined a gym, "Cream Puff Murder." Sometimes I feel that cartoons and books like that mentally undermine someone's efforts.
Can't there be laughter and dedication both? I suppose it's much easier to laugh at foibles, but I wish Cathy had a little success somewhere along the line. In that, I suppose she is a little bit of a female Charlie Brown, but she does connect with her friends more than Charlie Brown did.
Most of this book dealt with Cathy's dating regrets and her jealousy over her friend Andrea's wedding and baby. I feel like I've read those comics before. Cathy felt a little deceived, too, because Andrea had indicated earlier in their friendship that she was so career-oriented that she didn't want a spouse. Apparently, she'd put down relationships in general and undermined Cathy's relationships to the point that Cathy now had regrets. It doesn't sound like a very good friendship, unless those dating relationships had been dangerous somehow, but given that this is the Cathy cartoon, I doubt it. I could understand Cathy feeling hurt over it.
In the end, although I am happily married, I decided that if someone were actually having relationship struggles or still searching for someone, this might be more of a painful read rather than a funny one. In that, it reminded me of The New Yorker's "Rejection Selection" of cartoons that didn't make into the paper. Most of them were cut for a reason, and sometimes that reason was due to insensitivity to the grieving, etc.
I realize my view is entirely too serious for such a frivolous thing as a comic strip, but there you have it.
I chose this book because I've enjoyed Cathy comics in the past, and because of the title. I thought it might bring laughter to the whole weight-loss scenario. Most of the book, however, was not about weight-loss levity, and what little there was, wasn't at all encouraging to those who make health a serious priority. It reminded me of Garfield in that regard, where the cartoon Garfield is always lusting after that lasagna, without any internal turmoil, or perhaps the JoAnne Fluke book where the main character joined a gym, "Cream Puff Murder." Sometimes I feel that cartoons and books like that mentally undermine someone's efforts.
Can't there be laughter and dedication both? I suppose it's much easier to laugh at foibles, but I wish Cathy had a little success somewhere along the line. In that, I suppose she is a little bit of a female Charlie Brown, but she does connect with her friends more than Charlie Brown did.
Most of this book dealt with Cathy's dating regrets and her jealousy over her friend Andrea's wedding and baby. I feel like I've read those comics before. Cathy felt a little deceived, too, because Andrea had indicated earlier in their friendship that she was so career-oriented that she didn't want a spouse. Apparently, she'd put down relationships in general and undermined Cathy's relationships to the point that Cathy now had regrets. It doesn't sound like a very good friendship, unless those dating relationships had been dangerous somehow, but given that this is the Cathy cartoon, I doubt it. I could understand Cathy feeling hurt over it.
In the end, although I am happily married, I decided that if someone were actually having relationship struggles or still searching for someone, this might be more of a painful read rather than a funny one. In that, it reminded me of The New Yorker's "Rejection Selection" of cartoons that didn't make into the paper. Most of them were cut for a reason, and sometimes that reason was due to insensitivity to the grieving, etc.
I realize my view is entirely too serious for such a frivolous thing as a comic strip, but there you have it.
April 12, 2025
A friend (AC) sent me this book in a box of books. I'd say it's about on par for comic collection books.
One theme in this collection is Cathy's friend Andrea's pregnancy (in fact, the collection ends with the child's birth). Not as much of the collection dealt with weight loss or getting fit, as one might assume from the title. Cathy does lament that she's lost then regained the same weight several times. She also discusses vanity in a separate strip.
One theme in this collection is Cathy's friend Andrea's pregnancy (in fact, the collection ends with the child's birth). Not as much of the collection dealt with weight loss or getting fit, as one might assume from the title. Cathy does lament that she's lost then regained the same weight several times. She also discusses vanity in a separate strip.
April 13, 2021
Like all Cathy comic books this one is hilarious and well thought out.
April 30, 2021
amusing frippery
July 27, 2011
super! we're in the federal express years of our love lives. LOL
October 14, 2013
Funny! Funny! Funny! Great book for all Cathy fans!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews