Get Fuzzy

Get Fuzzy caught me by surprise when I started reading the paper every day at work last fall. it had been years since I regularly checked the comic section and in the post Watterson/Larson world, I didn't miss it.
But I've enjoyed Bucky Katt and Satchel Pooch's endless torment of their owner Rob so much over the last few months, I went ahead and grabbed Groovitude last night and virtally devoured it today. It hits that same level of pet owner humor that many other strips have successfully done in the past, but without the calm and occaisionally sappy moments. "Fuzzy" is anything but. Its brutal and hurtful as often as possible, and scratches on some of that weird kind of Adult Swim kinda humor here and there, which is pretty damn edgy for anything in the newspaper comics pages.
Darby Conley's writing may have me in stitches, but his art is what caught my eye. He lives in his details and shading, with depth and dynamic imagery thats far too uncommon in the comics section. He's writing and drawing and monthly comic book 3 panels at a time it seems! The rest of the comics page seems to be made up of people who have little to no art skills at all, getting by on their jokes. I guess the only thing that bothers me is that joke writers can just write their joke, and if they can't do better than they're doing (and I won't name names) they need to partner with an better artist.
Conley has got it as much as Aaron McGruder does, and that a high complement from me, since I continued to read Boondocks on the web for years after not reading it in print, and even now when the paper I read doesn't print it. PvP creator Scott Kurtz may be gunning against Syndication, but Get Fuzzy makes me beleive its not broken yet.