On the Media lauds Darby Conley as "the most successful cartoonist of the new generation." -- National Public Radio
As Darby Conley's fourth treasury, this title presents strips from I'm Ready for My Movie Contract and Take Our Cat, Please!
Named Best Comic Strip of the Year in 2002 by the National Cartoonists Society, Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy takes a keen and witty look at the dynamics of interspecies cohabitation.
Beleaguered ad exec Rob Wilco is the mild-mannered guardian to Bucky, a sharp-fanged, self-absorbed house cat with a penchant for scheming and screenwriting, and Satchel, a gentle laid-back Shar-pei-Lab who frequently finds himself on the receiving end of Bucky's mischief.
Inside this fourth treasury, Get Fuzzy fans will follow Bucky's vainglorious pursuit of fame while Rob holds a magazine intervention with Satchel.
Darby Conley is an American cartoonist best known for the popular comic strip Get Fuzzy.
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 (now South-Doyle High School) in Knoxville, Conley was voted 'Most Talented' by his graduating class. He attended Amherst College, where he studied Fine Arts, drew cartoons for the student newspaper, played rugby, and was a member of an all-male, jazz-influenced a cappella group, the Zumbyes. (Fellow cartoonist alumni of Amherst include FoxTrot creator Bill Amend and the late John Cullen Murphy of Prince Valiant fame.)
Like Rob Wilco, the human protagonist in Get Fuzzy, Conley is an enthusiastic rugby union fan, playing during college and sustaining several injuries that failed to diminish his passion for the sport.
Before becoming a cartoonist, Conley held a wide array of jobs: elementary school teacher, art director for a science museum, lifeguard, and bicycle repairman. This eclectic collection of professions is reminiscent of those held by Douglas Adams, whom Conley has mentioned as a comedic influence.
Conley, an animal rights activist and vegetarian, lives in Boston.
This "Get Fuzzy" anthology is a fun, light book. It is ideal reading for the bathroom, or just some relaxing ease into sleep reading at the end of a long day. I rate it 3.5 stars simply because the collection, as well as the strip as a whole, is not consistently funny. In fact, there are a few times in this collection when it is oddly not funny at all. Thankfully those moments are few and far between, and the anthology shines when Bucky the cat is railing against Wilco's perceived liberal (and thus in Bucky's mind) incredibly weak and emasculating tendencies. The wittiest (and funniest) moments come from those strips. "Get Fuzzy" is one of the better comic strips out there today, but sadly that does not mean as much as it used to.
I don't know if it's physically impossible to rate a Get Fuzzy book at fewer than five stars. Even when the jokes fall flat, the goofy art carries you over the finish line.
Bad cartoons (Drabble, Garfield) have no punch lines to speak of...just retreads of what may once, in the author's mind at least, been an amusing finish.
Good cartoons (Get Fuzzy, One Big Happy, Sally Forth) have comic lines in most, if not all, panels.
Darb may be a pink vegetarian pacifist with negative machismo, but he gets the draws right.
The Potpourrific Great Big Bag of Get Fuzzy is Conley's fourth Get Fuzzy treasury, and includes strips from 'I'm Ready For My Movie Contract' and 'Take Our Cat, Please!'
This treasury has some hilarious strips, such as Bucky writing screenplays for Hollywood, and Satchel keeping a diary and writing letters.
This is the newest Get Fuzzy Treasury. It's overall very good, but doesn't have as many favorites as the past treasuries. As always, Bucky Katt is horrible and yet oh so wonderful. If you love Get Fuzzy, this is 247-pages of mirth. I bought one for me and one to give my mom for Christmas.
Never has Darby Conley steered me wrong :) Another great graphic novel treasury ! You meet Robert Wilco's brother , Roger Wilco There is a great section on cat and dog facts And hilarity ensues while continually wrenches his back and is out of commission !!!
I didn't laugh out loud as much with this volume, but it does contain one of my favorite Bucky Katt quotes of all time: "Correction, I was up to fabulous."
Get Fuzzy is the new generation of Garfield. Attitude and no class he's always beating on the dog. I can't get enough of Bucky Katt and his love of fish and hatred of all things ferret!
At its best, Get Fuzzy can be a great comic. It often doesn't reach that level in this book, though. But it is consistently amusing.
I am always surprised when Darby Conley forgets the basic set-up of the strip. For example, see the middle strip on page 15, in which Satchel is suddenly very bright, using the words "venerate" and "osculate" (and using them correctly!).
My favorite strip in the book is on the top of page 171. Rob and Satchel are sitting at a table. The previous strips have shown that Satchel is depressed.
1st panel [picture shows Rob and Satchel, Rob speaking:] ROB: I know you're sad, Satch, but you really should feel good about yourself. See, there are two kinds of people in the world...
2nd panel [picture shows Satchel looking miserable, with dialogue balloon coming from outside the picture] ROB: There are people who make a positive impact on the world, and people who leave a negative impression on the people around them.
3rd panel [picture shows Satchel looking puzzled, 2 dialogue balloons, one from Rob outside the picture and one from Satchel] ROB: You leave a very positive impact on everybody. SATCHEL: But how? I don't do anything!
4th panel [picture shows Rob hugging Satchel, Satchel looking happy; each has a dialogue balloon] ROB: And yet you do do good. SATCHEL: Ha ha! I do do do good!
Satchel does do good and so, for the most part, does Darby Conley.
This collection of Get Fuzzy comic strips fell a little flat, as the punch lines and story lines that take place over multiple panels was not as funny as the content of other treasuries. There seem to be a decline in satirical, witty comeback normally provided by Bucky, replaced by simple. bland, mean insults.