Darby Conley

Darby Conley is an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip Get Fuzzy.

Biography

Conley was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1970, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.[1]

While in high school in 1986, he won a student cartooning competition. During his Senior Year at Doyle High School (now South-Doyle High School) in Knoxville, Conley was voted 'Most Talented' by his graduating class. Conley was a member of Amherst College's a cappella group, the Zumbyes.[2]

Conley cited the Tintin books as the strongest visual inspiration for his work.[3]

Get Fuzzy

Comics syndicate United Media agreed in 1999 to publish Conley's new strip Get Fuzzy about an anthropomorphic cat, Bucky, and dog, Satchel, living with their single young-male owner, Rob Wilco, which premiered on September 6, 1999.[4] The idea for Bucky's character came from a friend's Siamese cat.[5]

Without explanation, Conley stopped drawing daily Get Fuzzy strips in 2013. For some time after he drew Sunday strips only, but as of September 2020 these too seem to have disappeared.[6]

Awards

Controversies

On October 30, 2003, the city of Pittsburgh served as the punch line of a strip about tourism destinations based on smells. Offended residents of the area deluged the author with negative feedback that included death threats.[8][9][10]

A May 13, 2005 strip portrayed Boston-area sports reporter Bob Lobel as a drunk, prompting Lobel to file libel lawsuits against Conley and his syndicate.[11][12] The parties announced in November 2005 that they had reached a settlement, although terms of the settlement were not disclosed. As part of the follow-up, the New Bedford Standard-Times dropped Get Fuzzy from its comics lineup.[13]

References
  1. "Darby Conley". Good Reads.
  2. "Alumni". The Zumbyes. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  3. Alvey, Brian (May 29, 2003). "A Conversation With Darby Conley". Meet the Makers. Archived from the original on December 10, 2004. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  4. Price, Robert (July 29, 2016), "Sound Off: History is achieved, but no photo to document it?," Bakersfield. Retrieved September 20, 2016
  5. Turczyn, Coury (2002). "Let's Get Fuzzy". PopCult Magazine. Archived from the original on April 18, 2005.
  6. Ward, Alyson (April 7, 2017), "What happened to the 'Get Fuzzy' comic strip?," Houston. Retrieved August 20, 2017
  7. "Division Awards: Newspaper Strip". National Cartoonists Society. Archived from the original on April 18, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  8. Fitzpatrick, Dan (November 18, 2003), "Comic strip apology really isn't: 'Get Fuzzy' creator says Pittsburghers need to take a joke", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  9. "Pittsburgh Not Laughing At Smelly Joke - Travel News Story". KCRA Sacramento. November 5, 2003. Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  10. "Letters to the Business Editor". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. November 11, 2003.
  11. Voss, Gretchen (July 2005). "Head Games". Boston Magazine. Archived from the original on August 20, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  12. "Lobel Charges Libel". WGBH. May 20, 2005. Archived from the original on September 24, 2006.
  13. "Bob Lobel Settles LIbel Lawsuit with Darby Conley" (Sports Law, 22 November 2005) accessed 9 March 2019
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