Garfield

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Garfield
From left to right: Nermal, Odie, Garfield, Arlene & Pooky
Author(s)	Jim Davis
Website	http://www.garfield.com/
Current status / schedule	Running/Daily
Launch date	June 19, 1978
Syndicate(s)	Universal Press Syndicate (current) (1994-present) United Feature Syndicate (former) (1978-1993)
Preceded by	'Gnorm Gnat'
Followed by	'U.S. Acres'

Garfield is a daily-syndicated comic strip created by Jim Davis. It chronicles the life of the title character, Garfield, a tabby cat, his owner, Jon Arbuckle, and the dog, Odie. As of 2007, it is syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals and it currently holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.^[1] The popularity of the strip has led to an animated television series, several animated television specials and two theatrical feature-length live-action films, as well as a large amount of Garfield merchandise.

Garfield pokes fun at pet owners and their relationship with their pets, often with the pet as the true master of the household. Garfield also struggles with human problems, such as diets, Mondays, apathy, and boredom.

On June 19, 2008, Garfield will celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Contents 1 History 2 Authorship 3 Beyond the strip 4 Garfield on the Internet 5 Main characters 5.1 Garfield 5.2 Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle 5.3 Odie 6 Themes and settings 6.1 Short storylines 7 Marketing and products 8 Tourism 9 Notes and references 10 External links

[edit] History

Garfield debuted on June 19, 1978, which is considered to be the character Garfield's birthday as well.

He has undergone significant changes over the lifetime of the strip. His rear paws are now drawn as proportionally huge when he walks on his hind legs. He has a wide frown which dates back to around 1982 or so, in order to allow more expression in the strip. By the middle of 1983, his familiar appearance—featuring oval-shaped eyes—had taken shape. By this time, Garfield was walking on two feet, and the strip emphasized sitcom situations such as Garfield making fun of Jon’s stupidity and his inability to date. Jon and Odie have also evolved quite a bit, from being thin and starkly colored to the cartoons they are today.

The characters and situations in Garfield have recently been constant, with no change or development for the past several years. While this was not unique to Garfield, as Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes and the children of Peanuts never aged, other strips such as For Better or For Worse, Cathy, Doonesbury and Archie maintain a continuity with characters who develop, age, and may even die as the strip proceeds. In one particular sequence, however, leading up to Garfield’s 25th birthday (which is always marked by Garfield complaining about his age along with the rest of the characters making subtle references to it), Davis brought back the Garfield from 1978, the one that waddled and always had a frown under his pinpoint eyes. The old and new Garfields talk and find that, although they look different, they are still both too greedy and territorial to stand even themselves.^[2]

On July 16, 2006,^[3] a new storyline began with the promise of changing Garfield’s life forever (according to the strip’s official website). During the next two weeks, Garfield and Jon accidentally spotted Garfield’s vet and Jon’s crush Liz in a restaurant with another man. After an embarrassing meeting, Liz admitted that she actually liked Jon, and the date ended with a kiss^[4] on July 28 (both Jon and Jim Davis’s birthday), when Jon could finally say that he had a life.

On June 7, 1999, newspapers began to offer full-color Garfield weekday strips.

[edit] Authorship

Garfield is no longer exclusively drawn by its creator due to natural aging.^[5] Jim Davis still writes and makes rough sketches for the strip, but his company, Paws, employs cartoonists and assistants who do most of the work of the finished drawing and inking. Davis's final job is usually confined to approving and signing the finished strip. Davis spends most of his time managing the business and merchandising of Garfield.^[5]

Learning from the indifference towards his previous comic strip creation Gnorm Gnat, Jim Davis has made a conscious effort to include all readers in Garfield^{[citation needed]} keeping the jokes broad and the humor general and applicable to everyone. As a result the strip typically avoids the social or political commentary present in some of Garfield’s contemporaries, such as The Boondocks, Doonesbury, and Dilbert. Although a couple of strips in 1978 addressed inflation and, arguably, organized labor, as well as Jon frequently smoking a pipe or subscribing to a bachelor magazine, these elements were ultimately pruned from the comic with the intent of maintaining a more universal appeal.^{[citation needed]} Davis adamantly disavowed social commentary in an interview published at the beginning of one of the book compilations, joking that he once believed that OPEC was a denture adhesive.^{[citation needed]}

Jim Davis drew himself into the comic strip for Garfield's tenth birthday on June 19, 1988. He appears in the title block between Jon and Irma. The final block carries a message at the bottom which reads: HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY, BUDDY, JIM DAVIS.^[6]

For his work on the strip, creator Jim Davis received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Strip Award for 1980 and 1985, and their Reuben Award for 1988.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Beyond the strip

In 1984, Garfield was introduced to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a balloon. In recent years, he has been holding Pooky.

In 1990, Garfield made an appearance on the TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. While he was in Corey’s (the sister’s) room, he was a lamp sitting beside a picture of ALF.

The comic strip was turned into a cartoon special for television in 1982 called Here Comes Garfield. Actor Lorenzo Music, previously known as the voice of Carlton the doorman on the show Rhoda, was hired to portray the voice of Garfield. Soul singer Lou Rawls provided music. Twelve television specials were made (through 1991) as well as a Saturday morning television series, Garfield and Friends, which ran from 1988 to 1995 on CBS, and still runs occasionally in syndication today.

A live-action film version of the comic strip, Garfield: The Movie had its debut in the United States on June 11, 2004. The film employed a computer-animated Garfield and real Odie. Lorenzo Music had died before filming began, and Bill Murray was cast as the voice of Garfield. Murray’s laid-back, deadpan delivery has often been compared to Music’s^{[citation needed]}; indeed, Music provided the voice of Murray’s Peter Venkman character in The Real Ghostbusters, the cartoon version of Ghostbusters. Murray became the fourth actor to provide a voice for Garfield: Tommy Smothers voiced the role in a cat food commercial, and an unnamed Lorenzo Music sound-alike was used in another TV spot.

Garfield’s second live-action feature film, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, was released on June 16, 2006.

On November 20, 2007, the first Garfield direct-to-video feature was released: Garfield Gets Real, a CGI-animated movie written by Jim Davis.

On July 1, 2007, a memorial tribute was featured in a Garfield strip. The logo shows Garfield’s eyes being inked with a brush, and the name “VALETTE” is hidden in the stars above the house in the last panel. Valette Greene, who passed away on January 17, 2007, was Davis’ first assistant and the sole inker of the strip until 1997.[1]

[edit] Garfield on the Internet

In the July 30, 2000 strip, Odie walks up to a vacant computer and enters some information into it. The computer announces that his order has been processed, then Jon is seen looking quizzically at Dingleball.com^[7]. Later, on September 7, 2000, Garfield goes to Coffeequick.com and orders a cup of coffee. Shortly, a man comes to the door with a cup of coffee, and Garfield states he "Officially loves the Internet"^[8]. Actual websites were made on both occasions in case the readers typed in one of the addresses, and the pages feature the respective "Dingleball" and "Bean Me" games from the Garfield website.

At one point a University of Washington student offered the "Eagle_Fire Garfield Randomizer". The student had found a backdoor into the comic files of ucomics.com, and thereafter had coded a page to yield panels from years of strips that could be combined and shown to friends^{[citation needed]}. After uComics issued a "cease and desist" letter, the webmaster posted the letter on its former page along with the necessary code to recreate the original site^{[citation needed]}.

One blogger created a "remix" of the strip called Garfield Minus Garfield by digitally removing Garfield from strips, leaving Jon alone talking to himself. MotherJones.com's "Riff Blog" called the new versions "devastating (and hilarious) treatises on loneliness, without punch lines or jokes, reminiscent of the appallingly bleak early Peanuts strips."^[9] In an interview with the Washington Post, Jim Davis called the work “an inspired thing to do” ^[10]

[edit] Main characters

Main article: List of Garfield characters

[edit] Garfield

Main article: Garfield (character)

First Appearance: June 19, 1978

Garfield is the main character. He is a lazy, selfish, overweight, orange tabby cat who enjoys eating, sleeping and being sarcastic.

Garfield was born in the kitchen of Mama Leoni's Italian Restaurant and developed a taste for lasagna the day he was born. This was revealed on a Garfield TV special called Garfield: His Nine Lives. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food. At birth, Garfield weighed 5lbs, 6oz. Later in his life, Garfield runs across his Mother again, December 11 1984, one Christmas Eve, accidentally, and meets his Grandfather for the first time. Although, in a series of strips from November 10 to November 22, 1980, Garfield meets his other grandfather, and in a television special called Garfield on the Town, he finds his long-lost mother, and is disgusted to find that they are all "mousers" which is the technical term for mice eaters. Another twist was when Garfield met the rest of his family in the special. Most of them were cousins like Sly, the family's watchcat. The most shocking part was when Garfield met his older half-brother Rauel, who has some hygenic and psychological problems. Garfield can be seen with all his family in the kitchen of Mama Leoni's Restaurant in the Garfield TV special Garfield on the Town.

At the end of the TV special Garfield Gets a Life, Jon’s car is shown driving away, and his vehicle registration plate says Indiana, indicating that Garfield lives in Indiana. Jim Davis added this is possibly because he is from Indiana. It is revealed in the special Garfield Goes Hollywood that he and Jon live in Muncie, Indiana in a contest called Pet Search.

In his cartoon appearances, Garfield usually causes mischief in every episode^{[citation needed]}. In June 1983, comic strips introduced Garfield's alter-ego, Amoeba Man, yet he was only shown in 6 strips (6-20 through 6-25). Amoeba Man is only one of his few imaginary alter egos. The Caped Avenger is one of the more common ones. Other alter-egos include Banana Man, The Chicken Man, the Claw, The Mummy, Count Cat, The Sock, Freedom Fighter, and Karate Cat.

Frequently, Garfield breaks the fourth wall, as seen in this and this strip.

[edit] Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle

Main article: Jon Arbuckle

First Appearance: June 19, 1978

Garfield and Odie's owner. His birthday is July 28, 1951, the same date as Jim Davis', but six years later.

He has poor social skills, despite being a nice and patient guy, and his attempts at dating have usually failed, (in more modern issues, he has been getting lots of dates from Liz) but Garfield is happy as long as Jon keeps him fed. He has a taste in bizarre attire and has several dull hobbies, including talking to his plants, stamp collecting, measuring the growth of his toenails, and organizing his clothes. Basically, Jon was raised as a geek^{[citation needed]}. Not entirely his fault, you discover, when he visits his family or reminisces about 'life on the farm'.

His mother often refers to him as Jonny, and his full name was revealed on December 6, 2001 to be Jonathan Q. Arbuckle, but he usually just goes as Jon. Jim Davis got this name from an old coffee commercial^{[citation needed]}. He thought the name fit the poor sap who would be stuck with a cranky feline with an overactive appetite^{[citation needed]}.

Even though he introduced himself as a cartoonist in the very first strip, Jon is never seen drawing cartoons, but his job was once referenced, as seen in the 1984 Christmas sequence when Jon left for a cartoonists' convention [2]. (However, Garfield is seen in a couple of strips using Jon's easel and ink, presumably his cartooning tools. In one strip, Garfield draws a cat.) However, in one strip, Jon accidentally washes off one of Garfield's stripes while giving him a bath, suggesting that Garfield is a cartoon that Jon drew. Jon's occupation as a cartoonist is mentioned quite often in the animated series Garfield and Friends, in fact there are several episodes that are based on his work as a cartoonist.

Jon seems to understand Garfield in some of the later comics, but only sometimes. Garfield's punch lines tend to roll toward the viewer, usually when Garfield answers questions. In the July 13, 1998, comic, he even reacted to Garfield even though Garfield hadn't even thought anything.^[11][12]

In recent comic strips Jon has had his first success in love and finally hit it off with Garfield’s vet, Dr. Liz Wilson (following the path of the end of the first movie).

Note: Only twice was it ever mentioned that Jon had a niece. One instance was in Garfield's 11th book, where Jon bought a pair of ballet slippers for his niece. The second instance was in an episode of Garfield and friends where Jon's niece Shannon visits.

[edit] Odie

Main article: Odie

First Appearance: August 8, 1978

Jon’s pet dog (originally owned by Jon’s friend Lyman). Odie is a yellow, long-eared beagle who is always drooling and walks on all four legs. He is very intelligent, although he does not usually show it. His birthday is on August 8th and is celebrated once in a strip where Jon says that Garfield didn’t care about Odie’s birthday. Because of his naiveté, Garfield likes to play tricks on him, often knocking Odie off the table.

Odie is the only animal character who doesn’t communicate with any form of dialogue (except in one comic where Odie actually speaks in Garfield’s dream, once when he tries coffee and says “Rowr...” and another when he sings on a fence “Lady of Spain, I adore you” and another one, the June 15, 1980 comic where he’s poking his original owner, Lyman, and saying he’s hungry^[13], solely communicating with body language and his enthusiastic barking and other dog sound effects).

Odie didn’t appear in the very first comics; he made his debut on August 8, 1978,^[14] which is also his birthday.^[15] Odie was originally going to be named Spot, but Davis thought the name “Odie” better indicated stupidity^{[citation needed]}. This was referenced in an early strip where Odie peed on the carpet, and Garfield remarks that they should have named him Spot.^[16] Odie used to have black ears, but Davis was told that he looked a little like Snoopy^{[citation needed]}; Odie’s ears are now brown.

By the early 1990s, Odie’s presence in Garfield became so rare that some readers wondered if he had met the same fate as his former owner Lyman^{[citation needed]}. (A letter published in National Review, responding to an Anthony Lejeune article about the decline of the American comic strip, complained that Odie had become doggie non grata.)^{[citation needed]} In recent years, however, Odie has resumed much of his former status in the cast. Jon sometimes shows favoritism toward Odie, as shown in Attention-Getting Garfield.He is really Lyman's dog.

[edit] Themes and settings

Usually, the standard setting is Garfield standing on a table or floor, always flat. Occasionally, Garfield ventures elsewhere and when he goes somewhere else, he usually spends a week or two in that area.

• The table is the most common setting in the strip. Common scenarios for these strips include Garfield sleeping on his back or stomach, eating, drinking coffee (usually with Jon), kicking Odie off the table, or sitting beside Jon (who is often calling women on the phone to ask for a date—mostly getting rejected). This is likely because Garfield usually needs to be face-to-face with Jon to interact with him^{[citation needed]}. In strips such as ones taking place in the living room or outdoors, the drawings are made smaller to fit both Jon and Garfield in. Sometimes, the table is actually important to the story, such as being cut up to get Jon’s dinner plate, a gag with a round table, and to mask Odie while Garfield was using him as a stool to get hot chocolate during December.
• The TV chair is one of Garfield’s favorite places, where he entertains himself with shows like Binky the Clown, "Cluck with Chuck", "Moo with Fred", and others. Many of the shows mentioned are absurd and stupid, and give Jim Davis an opportunity to comment on pop culture. In a few early strips the chair had a floral print, but Garfield sneezed it off after having an allergic reaction to the flowers. In earlier strips Garfield doesn’t use the chair at all; he is perched on top of the TV and bends his head down, planting his face right in front of the screen.
• Garfield’s bed: as a prodigious sleeper, Garfield is often found here. Even when not asleep, he sometimes uses his blanket for entertainment purposes (Amoeba Man, the Caped Avenger). The bed is sometimes moved around the house, including on the table.
• Outside, Garfield has confrontations with various characters, such as dogs (more vicious than Odie), birds, worms, and even conscious flowers. “Beware of Dog” signs abound, and Garfield often tries to torment the chained-up dogs as some kind of revenge. Garfield also tries to capture birds in the birdbath, often (but not always) unsuccessfully. He finds it a lot easier to capture flowers though, and often eats them.
• Early in the strip, Garfield would spend time on the window ledge and sometimes get trapped in the roll-up blinds. One of these events culminated in a two-week storyline in which Garfield, Odie, and Jon all got trapped in the blinds. The blinds give way eventually, and Jon ends up wandering around the city, still trapped in the blinds with his pets and getting two complete strangers and even a street lamp caught with them until a fireman frees them with a pair of scissors [3]. This was one of the few storylines in which a Sunday strip was part of the regular story arc. After this, Jon bought Venetian blinds (which Garfield, somehow, still manages to get stuck in).
• The fence in the alley is an area where Garfield often goes. He often tells bad jokes. Odie joins the act from time to time, once as a ventriloquist’s dummy, once as “Mr. Skins,” who accompanied Garfield on the drums, and once as a cue card boy. Garfield is frequently the target of disgusted fans (usually unseen), who throw shoes, pie, vegetables, and houseplants, and other things that would hurt, at him, and once burned down his fence with flaming arrows (Garfield’s temporary replacement, a plastic flamingo, just “didn’t feel the same”). Garfield, however, loves the attention he receives, and once complained that he thought a joke deserved more than a single shoe. He does sometimes get applause from his audience (once Odie held the applause sign upside down and the fans clapped upside down) though one time the audience consisted solely of his mother, another time the custodian. He apparently has to be booked onto the fence by an agent (in one strip, his agent booked him a gig on a chain link fence). Everyone thinks Odie makes better entertainment. When asked how Garfield could stand on the fence without falling, it was revealed the fence was apparently very wide.
• Up the tree is another area where Garfield often traps himself. Garfield knows how to climb, but ironically can never overcome the urge ("Why, oh why, oh why, oh why, do cats do these things?" he once lamented). A firefighter usually has to save him on the final day of the week. Once, Jon got trapped at the top of the tree trying to get him down and once, Garfield tried to run down the tree, crashing into the ground at the bottom. Another time, a firefighter came to rescue him, but when he complained about “always getting the fat ones,” Garfield sent the fireman’s ladder crashing to the ground.
• Occasionally, Garfield will be taken to the vet’s office, a place he loathes. In this setting, Jon always tries to get a date with Liz, the vet, and usually fails badly. Garfield voices how he hates waiting rooms because of the "stupid pamphlets they put in there", only to have Jon (who is reading one) say "Look, Garfield! an ingrown nosehair!" Liz sometimes does go out with Jon. At the end of one date, Jon got a kiss, his first of only three so far in the comic. (However, with his having officially “gotten a life” as of July 28, 2006 when he received his second kiss, this could change.)
• Sometimes Jon takes Garfield to the park. Jon tries to meet girls in the park, but always fails miserably and humorously. (“She acknowledged my existence!” Jon joyfully declared after a female passer-by told him to “Shaddap” before he could even say anything.)
• Vacations are taken by Jon and his pets every so often, usually to exotic places. Early in the series, Garfield had to sneak along in Jon’s suitcase (this tactic is also used in the second Garfield film, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties). But at some point Jon gave up and took him along as an equal, albeit sometimes dressed as a child. Most often Jon will choose some undesirable tourist trap in a tropical setting. In a particular storyline, Jon takes Garfield to an isle called Guano Guano which actually means “bat feces” in Spanish. Although Jon does say “Aloha” to a native, thereby speaking Hawaiian, it is not said where the isle is on the map. Greeting the native with “Aloha” was implied as the ignorance that Americans have towards tropical cultures, because when he greets the native, it is implied that the native gives Jon an obscene gesture."Aloha This!"
• The beach can be a sub-setting that falls under a vacation destination, but it is implied that Jon takes Garfield to the local beach^{[citation needed]}. This is yet another hot spot for Jon to try to pick up dates but he always fails. Garfield hates the beach simply because it has no TV, and is too hot; however, he does like the fact that he thinks he can “go” wherever he wants. This theme often shows up in the summer^{[citation needed]}.
• An airliner is a sub-setting for vacations. Earlier in the strip, Jon and Garfield had to ride in third class, but when they visited Guano Guano, it is not implied what section they were in. Garfield and Odie also had to be dressed as children so as not to ride with the luggage.
• Campsites are sometimes accompanied by the fishing in a small boat sub-setting.
• Jon’s car is a common setting when Jon is taking Garfield to his parents’ farm to visit, to the vet, or when Jon and Garfield go to a fast food drive through. Sometimes the destination is not implied. One time, it is implied that, when lost, the two end up in Switzerland.
• Irma’s Diner is another occasional setting. Irma is a chirpy but slow-witted and unattractive waitress/manager, and one of Jon’s few friends and is the only one who calls Jon "Hon" (although she is probably the only woman he has known that he hasn’t asked out other than in one strip, an insane lady with a monkey). The terrible food is the center of most of the jokes, along with the poor management. Along with Irma’s Diner, other no-name restaurants, from fancy to tourist trap, are sometimes used as a setting.
• Jon periodically visits his parents and brother on the farm. This results in week-long comical displays of stupidity by Jon and his family, and their interactions. There is a comic strip where Jon's brother Doc Boy is watching two socks in the dryer spinning and Doc Boy calls it entertainment. On the farm, Jon's mother will cook huge dinners, Garfield hugs her for this. Jon has a grandmother who in a strip kicked Odie and Garfield hugged her. Jon's parents did once visit Jon, Garfield, and Odie in the city. Jon's father brought a rooster to wake him up.
• Stores & shopping lots are usually on and off settings where Garfield sometimes wreaks havoc. Some include the grocery store, the pet store, the furniture store, fancy restaurants, the florist, the refrigerator store, the Christmas tree lot, and the used car lot.
• Cinemas are rare settings but appear on and off. In a particular setting where Liz reluctantly goes on a date with Jon, he takes her to see a film called Sludge Monster VII: The Oozing. When Jon asks Liz if she wants a bucket of popcorn, she asks for just the bucket.
• Christmas tree, on rare occasions, we find Garfield sitting by the Christmas tree. Sometimes on Christmas Day, sometimes Christmas Eve.
• House, as in the house in which the comic takes place: there are hints of a two-story house. On Garfield’s 16th birthday, as Garfield is expecting a surprise, it appears that there is a staircase in the background, but when viewed from outside the house in a later comic, the house appears as a one-story. Also in one comic strip Garfield falls through the ceiling claiming he jumped out of bed. In Here Comes Garfield, Garfield is seen walking down the stairs during Lou Rawls' Long About Midnight song. There have also been many episodes of Garfield and Friends featuring a staircase. In the strip, the address is 711 Maple Street [4]. In the TV series and specials, a possible address for the house is 357 Shady Grove Lane according to Pizza Patrol, though in Here Comes Garfield and Garfield: His 9 Lives, it is Main Street.
• Coffee Shop, Jon and Garfield have recently been going to a coffee shop called "Xan's Cafe Caffeine". Garfield states they don't go to the shop much because Jon will get latte on his face, forming a foam mustache.^[17]
• Restaurants, since Garfield has a love for food, they will often eat out. Most trips end up embarrassing because Garfield will pig out, or Jon will do something stupid, including wearing an ugly shirt, which happened one night when he took Liz on a date. When Jon does take Liz on a date, Garfield always tags along, and he once filled up on bread.^[18]

[edit] Short storylines

Garfield comic strips have occasionally featured some members of Jim Davis’s other cartoon strip, U.S. Acres (known as Orson’s Farm outside the US).

Garfield often engages in one- to two-week-long interactions with a minor character, event, or thing, such as Nermal, Arlene, the mailman, an alarm clock, a talking scale, the TV, Pooky, spiders, mice, balls of yarn, dieting, shedding, pie throwing, fishing, Mondays (The Monday That Wouldn’t Die^[19]), birthdays, lasagna, the “Caped Avenger” (Garfield’s alter ego), Mrs. Feeny, colds, hallucinations with birthday displeasures or dietary complications, talks with his grandfather, etc.

Other unique themes are things like “Garfield’s Believe It or Don’t,”^[20] “Garfield’s Law,”^[21] “Garfield’s History of Dogs,”^[22] and “Garfield’s History of Cats,”^[23] which show science, history and the world from Garfield’s point of view. Another particular theme is the “National Fat Week,” where Garfield spends the week making fun of skinny people. Also, there was a time when Garfield caught Odie eating Garfield’s food, so Garfield “kicked Odie into next week.”^[24] Soon, Garfield realizes that “Lunch isn’t the same without Odie. He always slips up behind me, barks loudly and makes me fall into my food,” with the result of Garfield falling into his food by himself.^[25] Soon after, Garfield is lying in his bed with a “nagging feeling I'm forgetting something,” with Odie landing on Garfield in the next panel.^[26] Ever since Jon and Liz began to go out more frequently, Jon has started hiring pet sitters to look after Garfield and Odie, though they don't always work out. Two particular examples are Lillian, an eccentric old lady with odd quirks, and Greta, a muscle bound woman who was hired to look after the pets during New Years. Most of December is spent preparing for Christmas, with a predictable focus on presents.

Every week before June 19, the strip focuses on Garfield's birthday, which he dreads because of his fear of getting older. This started happening after his sixth birthday. But, before his 29th birthday, Liz put Garfield on a diet. And on June 19, 2007, Garfield was given the greatest birthday present: “I’M OFF MY DIET!” (Note: This is the first time the dieting and birthday themes came together in a series of strips.) Occasionally the strip celebrates Halloween as well with scary-themed jokes, such as mask gags. There are also seasonal jokes, with snow-related gags common in January or February and beach or heat themed jokes in the summer.

One storyline, which ran the week before Halloween in 1989 (Oct 23 to Oct 28), is unique among Garfield strips in that it is not meant to be humorous. It depicts Garfield awakening in a future in which the house is abandoned and he no longer exists. In tone and imagery the storyline for this series of strips is very similar to the animation segment for Valse Triste from Allegro non troppo, which depicts a ghostly cat roaming around the ruins of the home it once inhabited.

There was some speculation about what these strips meant^{[citation needed]}, including the possibility that Garfield was either dead or starving to death in an abandoned house, imagining future strips in a state of denial. Jim Davis is reported to have actually “laughed loudly” when informed of these rumors circulating on the internet.^[27] In Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection, in which the strips are reprinted, Jim Davis discusses the genesis for this series of strips. His caption, in its entirety states:

“During a writing session that week, I got the idea for this decidedly different series of strips. I wanted to scare people. And what do people fear? Why, being alone of course. We carried out the concept to its logical conclusion and got a lot of responses from readers. Reaction ranged from 'Right on!' to 'This isn't a trend is it?'”"

Another storyline used often is when Garfield gets lost or runs away. One of these storylines lasted for over a month; it started when Jon tells Garfield to go get the newspaper. Garfield walks outside to get it, but speculates what will happen if he wanders off. Jon notices Garfield has been gone too long, so he sends Odie out to find him. He quickly realizes his mistake (Odie, being not too bright, also gets lost). Jon starts to get lonely, so he offers a reward for the return of Garfield and Odie. He is not descriptive, so animals including an elephant, monkeys, a seal, a snake, a kangaroo & joey, and turtles are brought to Jon’s house for the reward. After a series of events, including Odie being adopted by a small girl, both pets meeting up at a circus that they briefly joined, and both going to a pet shop, Garfield and Odie make it back home. Another involved Jon going away on a business trip, leaving Garfield a week's worth of food which he devoured instantly, so Garfield leaves his house and gets locked out. He then reunites with his parents, and eventually makes it back home in the snow on Christmas.

[edit] Marketing and products

Main article: Garfield merchandise

As a result of the worldwide proliferation of the comic strip, Paws, Inc. has become a global licensing powerhouse, selling the characters' images for production on a wide variety of products, including common objects like food, toys, and household items. As of 2004, Garfield products generate between 750 million and 1 billion dollars a year.^[5] A franchise of stores selling exclusively Garfield-brand products has become popular outside of North America.

Merchandising was linked to the strip even in its early days; Jim Davis has said in interviews that his goal with Garfield was to create "a good, marketable character... And primarily an animal. ...Snoopy is very popular in licensing. Charlie Brown is not."^[5] Davis says in In Dog Years I'd Be Dead that he spends nearly every morning working on "concepts for new products." Still, Davis has tried to avoid overexposure; after the runaway success of Garfield plush dolls with suction feet for cars, the dolls were pulled from the market to avoid over-saturation and a possible backlash.^[5]

[edit] Tourism

Marion, and surrounding Grant County, Indiana have erected a series of Garfield statues around the area. The brainchild of local leader Pete Beck^[28] (a county councilman at the time), the basic idea is to place a likeness of Garfield in each community in the county. It is hoped that as the project matures Garfield fans will travel to Grant County and make a circuit to see all of the statues. The statues are made of hollow fiberglass after private fundraising provides for the construction at each location. Native son and creator of Garfield, Jim Davis has donated the artwork to create the statues royalty free.

Statues have been erected at these locations:

• First Fairmount, "James Dean Garfield" was unveiled in August 2006. He is dressed in cool attire, sporting an open-button collar and denim jeans, placed outside the Fairmount Library.^[29]
• In Sweetser, "College-bound Garfield" was unveiled in Summer 2006; the statue is located along the popular Sweetser Switch Trail after money was raised by the Sweetser Lions Club.^[30] This one is in place in front of the train. Unfortunately, this one was vandalized as its lower left arm was cut off, but the statue was repaired by summer 2007.
• Marion, downtown along the Mississinewa River, at the start of the popular River Walk leading to Matter Park, and was unveiled in July 2006. "Health and Fitness Garfield" is dressed in running attire sporting the colors of Marion High School and carries a water bottle. This one has been vandalized when a man hugged Garfield too tightly and the head came off. The head was discovered at the Mississinewa Reservoir, and eventually restored to its body.
• Van Buren, as a "Tribute to the Popcorn Capital", Garfield was unveiled during the 2006 Popcorn Festival. Garfield is dressed in the athletic uniform of the long-defunct Van Buren High School "Aces."
• Marion General Hospital, unveiled Dr. Garfield May 11, 2007. He is wearing surgical scrubs, holding a stethoscope and resting one foot on a first aid kit.^[31]
• Although not an official part of the project, in a similar vein Arbor Trace Golf Club commissioned a local chainsaw artist to carve a wooden Garfield statue which has been placed in the clubhouse. Garfield is nattily dressed in a duffer leaning on his driver.^[32]

More statues are planned in other communities in the area as funds are raised to erect them. The town of Swayzee hopes to erect a Garfield statue later in 2007. Fundraising has begun in the town of Jonesboro with a preliminary design of Garfield dressed as a firefighter, commemorating that Joneboro was the home of the first organized fire department in the county. The town of Matthews has announced plans for a Garfield statue posed as a fisherman.^[33]

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Details on all of the Garfield-related food items of the ’80s and ’90s, with photographs
• Garfield Minus Garfield
• Garfieldhome.org: the next best thing after lasagna
• Garfield on ROK Comics
• Easy-browsable Garfield Comic archive with an RSS feed
• Garfield Minus Garfield
• Daily Garfield Reader

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