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Darby Conley, Creator of Get Fuzzy - Page 2

© Susanna McLeod

Becoming a syndicated cartoonist did not happen immediately for Darby Conley. He taught elementary Grades Two and Four for two years, and then accepted a position as Art Director for The Science Discovery Museum in Acton, Massachusetts. His continued cartoon submission efforts were noticed by United Media editors. They contacted him and made suggestions of what they would like to see. Within six months, Conley developed the characters and theme of Get Fuzzy. He named his characters after baseball players Bucky O'Neil and Satchel Paige, and Rob Wilco after two of his friends with the same first name.*(2) The comic strip was a hit with a good start in 75 papers and is now up over the 175 newspapers mark. (A large number of successful comic strips debuted in under 20 newspapers and grew from there.)

"I tried to think of how I could make a living, you know, writing jokes and drawing little pictures and it's either that for a children's book, but I a got a syndication contract first, so off we go," Darby mentioned in an interview on KBCO radio in Boulder, Colorado.*(3)

The creative influences of Conley's favourite cartoonists, Gary Larsen and Berke Breathed, are noticeable in Get Fuzzy, but he has added his own spark of individuality to a refreshing and uproarious cartoon. His zing is not from watching his own pets, though - he lives in a Boston apartment where pets are forbidden.

Let's hope we'll see Bucky and his victims, er, I mean fellow cartoon characters, in Get Fuzzy in more comics sections soon.

Darby Conley's interview in Metropulse: *(1) http://www.metropulse.com/dir_zine/dir_2...

If you haven't seen Get Fuzzy, have a look at this site: *(2) http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/getfuz...

*(3) Listen to a portion of the radio interview with Darby Conley: http://www.kbco.com/misc/contact.html

Popcult Magazine's hopes for comic strip revival with Get Fuzzy: http://www.popcultmag.com/obsessions/pro...