Set in fictional Mipple City, Minnesota (derived from "MPLS", the old postal abbreviation for Minneapolis) in a universe populated by anthropomorphic animal characters, the strip is a soap opera focusing on Omaha, a feline exotic dancer, and her lover, Chuck, the son of a business tycoon.

[1] The strip debuted in the funny animal magazine Vootie, and it was subsequently published in a number of underground comix in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He visited local strip clubs in St. Paul with his sketchbook, and read newspaper articles about attempts to shut the bars down.

Another contributor to the magazine, Jim Schumeister, proposed a comic called Charlie's Bimbos, in which "a bevy of strippers champion liberty in the face of Puritan oppression".

[16] The story began as a satire of local blue laws, before evolving into a comic book soap opera.

The story starts out as Susie uses her modeling to begin working at the strip club "Kitty Korner Klub" with her newfound friend Shelly Hine, where she now goes by the stage name of "Omaha".

[18] After working as a locally popular dancer, she and Shelly meet Chuck Katt, an artist who begins to fall in love with Omaha and whom she considers "normal".

"Omaha" the Cat Dancer was the first of several comic books in the early 1980s which integrated sex into their storylines, rather than using sexual explicitness for shock value.

[4][21] In 1990, issues of "Omaha" the Cat Dancer were seized by New Zealand authorities; the country's Obscene Publications Tribunal declared that the series was not indecent.

[22] In Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics, D. Aviva Rothschild praised the series, finding the plot as strong, and the characters as three-dimensional and appealing.

[23] Entertainment Weekly writer Alex Heard panned the comic, writing that "the story moves very slowly [...] one can readily agree with the disgruntled fan who wrote, 'My God!

'"[16] In 1992, Kitchen Sink published two volumes of Images of "Omaha" as a benefit to pay for the treatment of Waller's bowel cancer.

The volumes featured contributions by major comic book artists, such as Dave Sim, Alan Moore and Frank Miller.