That Darn Cat and Girl: Dorothy Gambrell, Part 2 of 2

Gambrell's eclectic tastes could not be constrained to Cat and Girl: besides some random side projects, she created two other strips, both now defunct, for the micropayment-based website Modern Tales: The New Adventures of Death, a Cat and Girl spin-off, and the political The Ralph Bunche. Gambrell stated: "they were projects, my belief in their quality varied, and they ended a long time ago. The Ralph Bunche was a good concept that I was not skilled enough to make work. The New Adventures of Death is something I would like to go back to, but at the moment I have no time for it."

Her busy schedule does however allow time for her blog A Very Small Array, a collection of oddities, funny charts and graphs, and travel itineraries. Gambrell's "goal in life has been to make things. Not just cartoons, but maps, lists, music, misguided pamphlets, shirts, photographs, trophies. Very Small Array is a place where I can put some of these other things. I like the impersonal, fact-based facade that charts and maps bring. I like that when we see a chart or map we assume they are quantifying knowledge and that the knowledge that they are quantifying means anything at all." Some of these graphs perfectly encapsulate the tension between the personal and impersonal in Gambrell's work: one such chart compares her friends in New York to her friends in Arizona.

Gambrell has been able to make a living by drawing cartoons, supplemented by Cat and Girl merchandise sales and odd jobs. She revealed, "I have always considered the project of making a living from comics as much about not spending money as it is about making money. That project is still in effect."[1] As part of that project, Gambrell has moved from Brooklyn, New York to Tucson, Arizona. Creatively, "moving to Tucson has allowed me to not worry about money all the time. Moving to Tucson has allowed me to think about New York critically. When I leave Tucson I might be able to start thinking critically about this place." Another way Gambrell reduces finance-related stress is the Donation Derby on Cat and Girl's website, which is a charming conceit. Readers can donate via Paypal, and Gambrell will draw, in a style influenced by Jeffrey Brown, what she purchased with the money. The idea originated "when Paypal made their donation button available a number of cartoonists started using it, and I did need money but felt uncomfortable asking for money and giving nothing in return. This was around the time of Save Karyn, in which some lady who ran up giant credit card bills buying designer clothing was asking people on the Internet to bail her out. I was in more of an affording-only-rice-to-eat world. I figured if I give people a drawing of what I did with their money, not only will I be giving them something in return for their donation, but I can show that I am spending that money on low-end groceries or electricity bills."

Gambrell's upcoming projects include "a three-page comic-story introduction in The Other Chekhov, which is due out soon. I have a six-page story in You Ain't No Dancer #3, due out at some point. The second Cat and Girl book will be out as soon as I can finish it, which is as soon as I can also finish about 18 simultaneous projects that will probably end in ruin and tire fires." She reflected that the biggest change in webcomics over the last eight-and-half years has been "the development of infrastructure. If you're starting a webcomic now there are hosting services directed particularly to you. You can be independent, but still use easily modifiable publishing programs like Wordpress. You can sell ads through Google or Project Wonderful, without building your own means to solicit and bill advertisers. You can just put the comic on your Livejournal. In 1999 I wasn't even aware that programs like Dreamweaver existed. When Cat and Girl began everything on the website had to be sloppily hand-coded through telnet. Everything was harder then and we lived for three weeks on hard tack."

1 - Sound advice for anyone in comics, really.

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