James Childress (April 13, 1941-January 22, 1977) created Conchy in the early 1960s as an homage to his love of beachcombing. By 1962, Childress was pitching the strip to syndicates with no results. Eventually, he started marketing it directly to newspapers under the business name Corinthian Features. Through this, Conchy began its newspaper run on March 2, 1970. By 1974, Conchy was appearing in 26 papers, finally attracting a syndicate's interest, from Field Enterprises, who signed Childress up that year. His client list increased to over 150 papers.