Jim Davis (cartoonist)
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James Robert Davis (born July 28, 1945), is an American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip Garfield, which is currently one of the most popular cartoons in the world. [1]
[edit] Biography
Jim Davis was born in Fairmount, Indiana, near Marion, Indiana where he grew up on a small farm with his father Jim Sr., his mother Betty, his brother Dave, and 25 cats. His love of cartooning emerged during the time he would normally be doing chores, but couldn't due to asthma. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, who was also raised on a farm with his parents and brother Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birthday on July 28.
As an Art and Business major at Ball State University, he distinguished himself by earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the school along with David Letterman. While attending Ball State, he pledged and became a member of Theta Xi Fraternity. created by cartoonist Davis and featured segments that were based on his comic strips; Garfield and U.S. Acres, a lesser-known comic strip, also created by Davis, featuring Orson the Pig and ran in newspapers during the late 1980s. Outside the U.S., the strip was known as Orson's Farm. He also created a strip based on Mr. Potato Head that ran from 2000 to 2003.
He now resides in Muncie, Indiana, where he and his staff continue to produce Garfield under his own company, Paws, Inc., which started in 1981. He was married to Carolyn, a singer and elementary teacher whom he met while both were attending college, and has a son named James with her. However, according to IMDB and Garfield at 25, Davis is now divorced from Carolyn and, since 2000, has been married to a woman named Jill, the senior vice president of licensing who has worked at Paws for about twenty-five years.
Ironically, Davis did not have cats when he started Garfield because of Carolyn's allergies, but they owned a Labrador retriever named Molly. With Jill, the family has expanded to include children Ashley and Chris, granddaughter Chloe, and cats Link, Spunky, and Spritzy. Regarding leisure activities, Davis says in Garfield at 25: "When we're not working on Garfield, Jill and I like to golf, garden, attend school activities with the kids and go out for dinner and a movie once a week."
The live-action film version of Davis' creation, Garfield: The Movie was released to theaters early in the summer of 2004. Though it was an international box office success and featured Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield, it received generally negative reviews. A theatrical sequel, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, was released in U.S. movie theatres on June 16, 2006.
Davis has been recognized for his work with the National Cartoonist Society Humor Strip Award for 1981 and 1985, and their Reuben Award for 1989, and the Elzie Segar Award for 1985.
Davis recently appeared in Lazy Muncie, a parody of the popular SNL video Lazy Sunday.