Get Fuzzy is one of the best comic strips I have ever read. I discovered it while stripping Los Angeles Times in the course of my job and for once I found something early instead of stumbling on it past it’s prime.

Get Fuzzy centers about Rob, his dog Stachel and his cat Bucky. Rob is a nice guy who works in advertising and plays the straight man. Satchel is a dog who can talk. I don’t mean Snoopy like dog who can talk, I mean he acts like a dog, but he talks. He’s kinda dumb, but sweet. Bucky is a cat who can talk in the same way. He thinks he’s devious, but he’s pretty stupid. He’s also mean. Also appearing in the strip are several of Rob’s dates. He can’t seem to keep a girlfriend and it seems to be the pets who screw it up every time (like the time they hid in the backseat of the car while he was on a date and popped out at a bad moment with Bucky hitting on the girl and Satchel asking if he can have the doggie bag. Rob also has a friend named Joe who turns up on occasion to play straight man (like the time he asked Bucky to say something funny and Bucky replied, "I don’t do requests." How cat is that?)

I had been following the strip and proselytizing it to anyone who would stop long enough to listen for about 9 months when I started lamenting the lack of a book. I was no longer happy with sitting down at the computer and reading a month’s worth at a time, I wanted a book I could carry around the house.

And low and behold, the web site started advertising a soon to be released collection of the first year. My joy knew no bounds. I raced into work and told Ruin13 so that she could watch out for it (and to call dibs, if I didn’t she was likely to claim the first copy. I converted her.)

Six weeks passed and from the other side of the mag backstock I hear, "oh my goodness. Oh My Goodness, OH MY GOODNESS!" to which I answered, "what is it already?" She came around the end of the shelf holding up the book which I snatched out of her hands and we proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes cooing over the book and saying, "did you read that one yet?"

I read the book overnight. I was meeting Robinmichele at a local coffee shop so I took it along and sat in the back corner cackling over every other page. Maybe every page. I took it back to work the next day and loaned it to Ruin13 so she could read it while she waited for the office to ship us another copy. She had it back to me a day later. When the next copy was shipped to the store she bought it. We have a buyer lined up for the 3rd copy that arrives and possibly the 4th. At this rate it could be months before one makes it to the shelves. It’s addictive.


Still need some encouragement? Go to www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy . Read a month’s worth. Then take yourself to the nearest book outlet and purchase a copy. This could be the best thing since Dilbert.

Summation: Get Fuzzy is Dilbert for the pet set.

(And I must say that it is absolutely astonishing that Wordwalker beat me to this. I’ve had this review written since May so all the information is a tad out of date. It did take months for a copy to get to the shelves. We had our buyers tricked into stocking our store with 6 copies and Ruin13 and I proceeded to purchase most of them for Christmas gifts.

Hey, if it’s been the better part of a year since the first one came out, does that mean a new one will be out soon? Please?)



Recommended: Yes