'Get Fuzzy' creator marvels at his comic strip's success

Darby Conley, creator of the comic strip "Get Fuzzy," got an indication that he had "arrived" as a cartoonist while in a bookstore at Christmastime. He saw a child throwing a tantrum because his mother wouldn't buy him a "Get Fuzzy" book.

Conley chose not to intervene. When encountering evidence of his strip's success — whether it's a "Get Fuzzy" calendar on someone's desk or a kid's emotional outburst — "The best thing to do is keep my mouth shut," Conley said.

The opportunities to remain tight-lipped are increasing. The strip appears in about 325 newspapers, including The Seattle Times. There are three "Get Fuzzy" books and two calendars on the market, with two more books due out in April. The strip's trio of Bucky, a single-fanged, self-centered cat; Satchel, a simple-minded dog; and Rob, their harried owner, has gained a foothold, or paw-hold, with readers.

In the 3½ years since "Get Fuzzy" debuted, Conley has started to get the hang of this professional-cartooning gig. He spends about 60 hours a week on the strip, but that's better than before.

"You do get faster at doing the strip," Conley said, "but then you have way more (strip-related) work to do." At the time of this phone interview, he had blown his deadline to finish the illustrations for the 2004 "Get Fuzzy" wall calendar.

'Species character'

A few years ago, he couldn't grasp the idea that anybody would be interested in his idea for a comic strip about a single guy and his pets, who happen to talk.

It's a simple conceit with a long history on the comics pages ("The Duplex" is another current example), but most critters in the comics "talk" in thought bubbles: Snoopy, Garfield and many more.

"When I got started, I didn't realize that talking is almost a cliché among cartoon animals," Conley said, "but almost everything I get (from readers) is, 'That's exactly how my cat is.' Or, 'My heart goes out to Satchel.' "

As well it should. The painfully sensitive pooch is an easy target for Bucky, who tires easily of harassing his furry roomie and turns to other torments, such as suing — unsuccessfully — the ferret next door on "Judge Judy." Such intrigues explain Rob's continually frazzled look.

All the while, Bucky and Satchel talk the way any other character would. In fact, all the animals in "Get Fuzzy" talk, and no one gives it a second thought. Conley said he tries to keep them in "species character."

"I had never thought about it, but anthropomorphized animals are logical to me," he said, using a word that he occasionally drops into discussions of the strip. Taking normal cat and dog behavior and adding the ability to speak "is not that far a jump." Conley said a typical reader response is: "If my animals could talk, that's what they'd be saying."

Early inspiration

The thought of what words might come out of an animal's mouth first came to Conley when he had a dog as a kid. He is a Massachusetts native who graduated from Amherst College, but he grew up in Knoxville, Tenn., where his father was a college architecture professor. Studying his pet's face, Conley would wonder what might be going through her mind — besides "When's dinner?"

His early cartoon attempts were single-panel cartoons that he admits were "rip-offs of 'The Far Side.' " The idea of drawing a series of panels that involve an ongoing story line took some getting used to.

"It seems very artificial to me to make up stories," Conley says. "It's only been in the past year that I've gotten comfortable with it."

Conley has no in-house inspiration for "Get Fuzzy" — he owns no pets. "Boston is so pet-unfriendly" for apartment dwellers, he said. He's looking to buy a condo so he can get a cat.

Besides the books and calendars, Conley says he is working with some "very experienced" people on the early stages of a film that would combine live-action and computer animation, somewhat in the style of "Stuart Little."

Would Conley be able to follow his own advice about keeping his mouth shut even in the face of a big-screen breakthrough? He may have to decide between breaking his silence or pinching himself.

"I don't think about it in those terms" of how successful his comic strip can be, Conley said. "I'm one of those cartoonists who keeps waiting for the dream to end."

John C. Davenport: jdavenport@seattletimes.com