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.
While in high school in 1986, he won a student cartooning competition. During his Senior Year at 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.
Conley cited the Tintin books as the strongest visual inspiration for his work.

''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. The idea for Bucky's character came from a friend's Siamese cat. Daily strips of Get Fuzzy ended in 2013 and were replaced by reruns; as of 2017 the Sunday strips are also in reruns.

Awards

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.
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. 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.