Dorothy Gambrell is a cartoonist who writes and draws the online

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

''Cat and Girl'' in addition to the blog ''very small array''. Her work has appeared in the literary journal Backwards City Review and the

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

anthology The Other Chekhov, and appears regularly in the literary journa
Grasslimb
As of 2013, she is a contributing graphics editor for ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. Additionally, Dorothy played guitar in the self-styled "last uncool band in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

," The Vandervoorts. Following the move to Tucson, Gambrell became part of The Basement Apartments. She currently plays for Jenny and the Holzers. She grew up on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, New York, and attended

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

. She recently moved from the Greenpoint neighborhood of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. By the spring of 2009, Dorothy had returned to Brooklyn.

''Cat and Girl''

In the second quarter of 1999, Gambrell started the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

''Cat and Girl''. The title characters are Cat, a giant

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

cat given to zany schemes and

indulgences In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (, from , 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". The '' Catechism of the Catholic Church'' describes an indulgence as "a remission before God o ...

(particularly eating

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

-based

paint Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

), and Girl, a cynical girl with a philosophical bent and a penchant for

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

. Gambrell insists Girl is not modeled after herself, an assertion she backs up by occasionally inserting a character based on herself into the comic. ''Cat and Girl'' mixes usually dry humor with literary allusions. Gambrell described the subject of her webcomic as "a cat, a girl, and an experimental

meta-narrative A metanarrative (also meta-narrative and grand narrative; french: métarécit) is a narrative ''about'' narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (as yet ...

(sp)". In ''Cat and Girl'', Gambrell frequently jokes about obscure subject matter, sometimes based on "cultural references that maybe twelve people will get." Gambrell alternates between more and less obscure jokes, not wanting to censor herself nor talking down to her readers. A recurring theme in ''Cat and Girl'' is

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...

, as Gambrell emphasizes the powerful ways in which people deceive themselves when reminiscing on the past. Gambrell also created the webcomic ''The New Adventures of Death'', which she published through

Modern Tales Modern Tales was a webcomics subscription service active from 2002 to 2012. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster of approximately 30 professional webcomic artists. Shaenon Garrity, one of the si ...

under a subscription fee. In 2005, ''Cat and Girl'' and ''The New Adventures of Death'' were together named among the best webcomics of the year by

Joe Zabel Joe Zabel (born July 7, 1953)Zabel entry
Who's Who of Amer ...

. In 2019, ''Cat and Girl'' won a

National Cartoonists Society Division Award The Silver Reuben Award is an award for cartoonists organized by the National Cartoonists Society. Until 2015, the awards was known as the National Cartoonists Society Division Awards. Current categories Advertising Illustration Award From its in ...

in the "On-Line Comics – Short Form" category.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gambrell, Dorothy Living people American women cartoonists American webcomic creators People from Greenpoint, Brooklyn Year of birth missing (living people) Williams College alumni Artists from Tucson, Arizona American female comics artists Female comics writers American cartoonists 21st-century American women

''Cat and Girl''

References

External links