The Complete "Omaha" the Cat Dancer Volume 2 by Reed Waller and Kate Worley with James Vance

Omaha is a humanoid Cat who also happens to be an exotic dancer. She was hired to work in a classy club underground, The Kit-Kat Club but something was added to the liquor, and the men at the club went wild when Omaha danced on the stage. In the ensuing brawl, Omaha's best friend, Shelley, was shot, and her boyfriend "Chuck" aka Charles Tabey Jr., fled into the night to avoid being raped (Omaha) or hurt (Chuck).

Now, they have come to San Francisco, but the repercussions of that night continue. They have taken shelter with another of Omaha's friends and fellow exotic dancers from the Club. Joanne, who just happens to be a bird-woman. They all hit it off, and following a night of drinking and sex, Omaha and Joanne were surprised by a hitman, but Omaha took him out with a brandy bottle, and he fled.

Now it's the next morning, and after dreaming of Shelley, Omaha awakes hung over and vomiting. She decides to take a walk to clear her head and ends up in Chinatown. A server at a Chinese restaurant invites her in for lunch, but calls someone to come pick her up. Omaha is kidnapped from the restaurant and taken to a plane...

Meanwhile, Chuck and Joanne wake up and find a note from Omaha, but are delivered another letter later from Chuck's father saying that he took Omaha to protect her from people who want to kill her.

Omaha doesn't like being kidnapped, but then she finds out that Shelley Hine, her former roommate and best friend who she thought dead, survived the brawl at the Kit Kat Club but has been paralyzed from the legs down. She's been rescued by Charles Sr. and has been recieving treatment to get back on the mend. Tabey Sr. has also engaged a nurse for her named Huddle, who, it turns out is also his nurse.

Back in San Francisco, Joanne has pictures that were taken at the club that night, and has asked a friend of hers, Rob Shaw, a photographer, to develop them and keep the negatives. Rob and Chuck Jr. meet and become friendly, although Chuck feels more than a little suspicious of him at first.

At Casa de Charlie Sr. Shelley is upset because she won't ever walk again, it seems, and when Charlie Sr. brings down Jerry Doyle to talk about re-opening the Kit Kat Club and having Omaha dance there, Shelley can't help but get angry at everyone involved. She won't ever dance again, after all! But when Charlie Sr. and Huddle say it's too early to tell yet, and the Doctors say her prognosis is good for walking, she deflates and apologizes to everyone, then goes down for a nap.

Charlie Jr. Has been staying with Joanne, and she's the one paying the bills. As he looks for work, he finds out how she's been paying those bills: prostitution! He's angry at her for getting involved in that, and she thinks he's ridiculous. She has to pay her bills, after all. When he won't back down, she throws him out of the house. With nowhere else to go, Chuck ends up moving in with Rob for a while.

Charlie Sr. has plans for everyone, even Omaha and his son. But as she spends more time at his house by the beach, his behavior starts to become odder and odder to her. He's always been kindly and avuncular, but now he starts verging into outright creepy behavior that does more than worry Omaha and Shelley, it also worries Huddle, who sees that Charlie has thrown his medication away. He ambushes Charlie and gets the medication into him, along with a sedative to help him sleep. But as Charlie goes forward with his plans and finally brings his son down to the house, will Charlie's odd behavior lead to a worse tragedy when he's reunited with his son who already thinks he's crazy?

Omaha the Cat Dancer is a book about Furries, that is human/animal crossbreeds. Omaha, Chuck and Charley Senior are cats, Jerry Doyle and Rob Shaw are Dogs, and Joanne is a bird, but many others exist such as moose, pigs and so on, although it is occasionally hard to tell what sort of animal some of the characters are. The one main thing that distinguishes this comic from other comics is its adult nature. Sex happens between the characters a lot. Even Chuck and Omaha, who are in love, end up sleeping with plenty of other people, such as Joanne (both of them), Jerry, and in other books, other characters as well.

But aside from the furry characters, this could be any adult comic. The sex isn't tacked on to titillate, but arises out of the character situations. It reads like an early 80's or late 70's comic, though the fashions are more out of the 80's. Other than the furry-ness, the comic tells the story of an exotic dancer who was caught in an explosive situation and the fallout from it as she attempts to lead a normal life with her boyfriend, who is the only child of a very wealthy man, and who hates his father for what he sees as his father's attempts to control his life. Additional characters come from friends of both main characters and cover some of their lives as well.

It's astonishingly well-drawn and scripted, and while there is some raunchiness from the oft-depicted sex acts, if they were drawn as a "fade to black", there would be nothing to balk at in this series, which is uncommonly good. You could say its perverted because of the cross-species sex acts which occur, but if they were just different humans, there'd be no perversion. The real action in this book comes not from the sex, but from the story unfolding inside the pages.

Well-done, and if the sex acts are numerous, remember the 80's before AIDS and you'll see it's no more than that. Stunning art and depth to the story will keep you coming back for more. Oh, yes, and the sex, too.