Reed Waller

Reed Waller (born August 3, 1949) is an American comic book writer and artist best known for his work on Omaha the Cat Dancer with his writing partner and former wife, the late Kate Worley. Reed co-founded the pioneering funny animal APA Vootie with artist Ken Fletcher in April 1976. Both Reed and Kate were guests of honor at ConFurence 2, held in 1991.

Early Influences
Waller was heavily inspired by satirical works such as MAD magazine and Fritz the Cat, as well as the underground comics tied to the counterculture of the 1960s. A group of cartoonists known as the Air Pirates, lead by Dan O'Neill, was started in 1971, publishing satirical comics mimicking classic Disney artists but with explicit content. O'Neill and the Air Pirates would be sued by Disney for copyright infringement, with O'Neill claiming free speech for parody and satire.

Vootie
In the early 1970s, Waller was inspired by the legal battles between Disney and O'Neill and wanted to create an APA with a focus on 'funny animals', a genre that had died down with the end of Fritz the Cat in 1972 and Pogo in 1975. Waller and Fletcher printed a batch of around 100 fliers calling for artists to participate in the "Funny Animal Liberation Front," similar in nature to O'Neill's "Mouse Liberation Front." The name Vootie comes from Members were required to submit two pages of art for a bimonthly publication.In April 1976, submissions for Vootie 0 were collected and distributed among members in and out of the Twin Cities area. Vootie has been considered a major contribution in the origins of the furry fandom.

Omaha the Cat Dancer
In 1978, Reed had been playing guitar in a pick-up band for local strip clubs in Minneapolis, sketching the strippers in between sets. Jim Schumeister went as far as to suggest "Why don't you do your own funny-animal comic about strippers? You could call it Charlie's Bimbos. At the same time, the magazine received a letter from Taral Wayne stating "There's not enough sex in funny animal comics." Taking inspiration from these simultaneous sources, Waller created "The Adventures of Omaha" in response. Members of Vootie were split over the idea of adult content with funny animals, with Reed leading the crowd championing sexual liberation akin to the underground comics he was inspired by. The rest were concerned that if they were associated with adult artwork, they would struggle to enter the profitable children's entertainment market.