- Darby Conley
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Darby Conley is an American cartoonist best known for the popular comic strip Get Fuzzy.
Contents
Background
Conley was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1970, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.
His first cartoons appeared in the Doyle High Trailblazer, his school paper in Knoxville, Tennessee. His single-panel strip of weirdness won him first place in a News-Sentinel student cartoon competition in 1986, thus planting the idea of someday becoming a professional cartoonist.[1]
He went on to earn a Fine Arts and Art History degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts, continuing to improve his Far Side clones for the Amherst Student, graduating in 1994. While a student in college, he played rugby, explaining the rugby sport references in his comic strip. Conley was also a member of an all-male, jazz-influenced a cappella group, the Zumbyes.[1]
Conley became a vegetarian in 2005. He currently lives in Boston with two cats, Lego and Rugby.
Before cartooning
Conley's first real job was putting boats and mountain bikes together at an outdoor sports store, work that he says shredded his hands. He says that the best job he's held to date (except cartoonist) was his stint as a lifeguard at a University of Tennessee pool where no one ever actually swam. After college, he taught at an elementary school for grades two and four, then became the art director for a science museum. Meanwhile, he had been submitting his cartoons to syndicates.[1]
Get Fuzzy
After submitting his Gary Larson-esque efforts to syndicates for years, a few representatives advised Conley that a strip with regular characters and some continuity might prove easier to "sell". As an animal lover, Conley decided to feature a cat and dog; some fine-tuning resulted in the strip Get Fuzzy.
Comics syndicate United Media agreed in 1999 to publish Conley's new strip, which first appeared in September of that year. Get Fuzzy began its run in 75 papers, an unusually high number for a newcomer. But the strip’s runaway popularity was even more unprecedented. With remarkable rapidity, the circulation had more than doubled, the first book of collected strips was published, and talks were being conducted over the production of plush toys, a TV show, and even a movie.
Get Fuzzy has been called one of three break-out comics in the 2000s, the others being The Boondocks and Pearls Before Swine.
Conley has admitted that he considers himself more of a "dog person" than a "cat person", and Satchel Pooch was based partially on his beloved childhood pet Patch. Despite Satchel's endearing characteristics, it is unquestionably Bucky Katt who has proven the most popular character of the strip. The idea for Bucky's character came from a friend's Siamese who seemed to hate Darby no matter what he did. Darby drew several versions of Bucky with his ears up, until he hit on drawing Bucky with his ears constantly pinned down. Conley was intrigued by the idea of a cat who was so unrelentingly hostile that his ears were permanently flattened against his skull, and the unique look of Bucky was born.
Awards
In 2002, the National Cartoonists Society selected Get Fuzzy to receive their Award for Newspaper Comic Strip.[1]
Influences
The creative influences of Conley's favorite cartoonists, Gary Larson and Berke Breathed, are noticeable in Get Fuzzy, but he has added his own spark of individuality.[1]
Comics that Conley has cited as personal favorites include Bloom County, The Far Side and The Adventures of Tintin. Each of these has influenced his drawing style and the sense of humor that comes through in each strip. Much of what Conley drew in his high school years and beyond, in fact, was what he described as "Far Side rip-off type stuff".
Conley has also stated that his sense of humor was shaped in part by the likes of comedy/science fiction author Douglas Adams and legendary comic troupe Monty Python. Many "one-shot" Get Fuzzy strips feature wordplay and puns that reflect these influences. He is also a fan of the band Ween.
In one "Get Fuzzy" strip, when Bucky forced Rob and Satchel to recite lines from "Dust Bowl Willie", "the greatest comic strip ever", Rob and Satchel's guesses as to what the strip was were Peanuts and Garfield, respectively, hinting that he may like and/or respect these strips as well.
Controversies
Conley faced minor controversy in late 2003 when Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania served as the punch line of a strip about tourism destinations based on smells. Offended residents of the area deluged the author with feedback that ranged from mild indignation to death threats.[2] He again was the center of controversy after Boston-area sports reporter Bob Lobel sued him in 2007 after a strip that portrayed him as a drunk.[1][3] [4]
References
- ^ a b c d e f get fuzzy by darby conley, http://www.nya-nya.us/getfuzzy/conley.html
- ^ POSTED: 11:01 a.m. EST November 5, 2003 (2003-11-05). "Pittsburgh Not Laughing At Smelly Joke - Travel News Story - KCRA Sacramento". Thekcrachannel.com. http://www.kcra.com/travelgetaways/2613194/detail.html. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
- ^ "Head Games". Boston Magazine. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/head_games_1/. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
- ^ WGBH: Greater Boston
External links
Categories:- American cartoonists
- Comic strip cartoonists
- Amherst College alumni
- People from Knoxville, Tennessee
- People from Concord, Massachusetts
- 1970 births
- Living people
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