"Cathy": 1976-2010

“Cathy” creator Cathy Guisewite is hanging up the acks after 34 years of trying to bring The Real Life Of A (Neurotic) Single Lady (Who Is Surrounded By Horrible People) to the funny pages. Guisewite, whose last “Cathy” strip will appear in newspapers on Oct. 3, cites the ticking of her “creative biological clock” (yes, she really said this) as part of the reason for her decision to move on, and Guisewite did show a bit of growth in recent years with jokes about digital bloat, and not just the kind you have after eating too many bon bons. But the strip’s already-slim roster of “reasons I will be alone forever and am therefore worthless” gags shrunk (a bit) after the titular heroine decided to marry her longtime on-again off-again sweetheart Irving. (Just like Moonlighting!) And that was in 2005! Surely Guisewite is cursing all the online-dating innovations her namesake missed out on by getting hitched back then.