PITTSBURGH Cartoonist apologizes for strip that poked fun at city
The strip drew 300 to 400 e-mails -- including hate mail and death threats.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A nationally syndicated cartoonist apologized for presenting a harsh view of Pittsburgh in one of his recent comics and said he plans to take a lighthearted spin on the situation in upcoming strips.
Darby Conley, creator of the dog-and-cat cartoon "Get Fuzzy," lampooned Pittsburgh as a tourist destination known primarily for its smell -- a reference to the smoke and soot once generated by the region's numerous steel mills and manufacturing plants.
Conley, 33, said that he unintentionally struck a nerve with the strip, which appeared in some 400 newspapers around the world.
Response
The Boston-based artist typically receives between 50 and 80 e-mails in response to his daily strips, but received between 300 and 400 e-mails -- including hate mail and death threats -- about the Pittsburgh cartoon to remind him that the fumes disappeared years ago.
After the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story about the strip Tuesday, Conley said that he has received thousands of e-mails. Most angry comments came from Pittsburgh-area residents even though the newspaper doesn't carry the syndicated comic.
"This comes out of left field," Conley told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "This is not indicative of a normal response when you poke fun at a city."
Smelly issue
The strip features characters named Bucky Katt and Wilco trying to recover from the bad fortunes of Wilco's favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, by booking a trip out of town. Bucky Katt asks a travel agent if she has "any packaged trips based primarily on smell."
The agent hands the cat a piece of paper and delivers the punch line: "Have a look at this pamphlet from the tourism department of Pittsburgh."
Conley says the punch line in his strip was prompted in part by a college friend living in Pittsburgh who complains about the outdated perceptions of the city. Also, he wanted to test "how many people from Pittsburgh would comment on it."
"I thought most people nowadays knew that Pittsburgh wasn't like that anymore," Conley said. "The bottom line is if there was any truth in it I don't think I would have done it."
Many readers ended up missing the joke that a cat would seek out a destination based on smell, Conley said.
The artist has quickly learned that the fight over Pittsburgh's image is a serious business. Local economic development groups are spending millions to improve the city's perception across the nation.
"People here take this very seriously," said former television reporter Bill Flanagan, who led a recent effort to craft a new image for the region. "There is a little bit of frustration about how hard it is to overcome these misperceptions."
The Greater Pittsburgh Convention & amp; Visitors Bureau sent Conley a friendly e-mail thanking him for "free publicity," but urged to him to check out the city for himself, according to bureau spokeswoman Laura Ellis.
Conley, who said he has visited the city and believes it's cleaner than Boston, said he plans to address Pittsburgh's image in upcoming strips, which should appear in the next two or three weeks. Although he hasn't written them, he said he hopes to take a lighthearted spin that will be amusing to everyone.