Garfield

Garfield (right) and Odie

Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis featuring the cat Garfield, the pet dog Odie, and their socially inept owner Jon Arbuckle. As of 2006, it is syndicated in roughly 2,570 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 a children's cartoon show, several television specials and a feature-length film, as well as a large amount of Garfield-related merchandise.

The main character is named after Davis' grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after former U.S. president James Garfield.

Overview

Garfield had its debut on June 19, 1978, which is also considered Garfield's birthday. The strip pokes fun at pet owners and their relationship with their pets often portraying the pet as the true master of the home. Garfield also struggles with human problems, such as diets, loathing of Mondays, apathy, boredom, and so on.

Garfield is able to understand anything that Jon or other humans say, but is unable to talk to humans (he communicates to the reader in thought balloons). However, Garfield is able to talk to Odie and the other animals. Odie understands what Garfield says to him, but in general can not communicate back to Garfield except by barking. Most of the other animals (Arlene, Nermal, mice, and the other dogs) are capable of a two-way conversation with Garfield. Garfield apparently is able to type and a few times has written messages that Jon has read and understood (typically letters to Santa Claus), however this happens very rarely.

Over the course of the strip, Garfield's behavior and appearance evolved. Initially, he was drawn grossly obese with flabby jowls and small round eyes. Later, his appearance was slimmed down and his eyes enlarged. By 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 Jon's inability to make social connections. A number of the strip's readers feel that the quality of the writing has lessened, even as the artwork retained a consistent level of quality. Davis is no longer the sole, or even principal, artist.

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 musical accompaniment. Twelve television specials were made (through 1991) as well as a television series, Garfield and Friends, which ran from 1988 to 1995.

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

A live-action movie 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 live-action Odie. Lorenzo Music had passed away prior to the filming of the movie, and Bill Murray was cast as the voice of Garfield. Murray's laid-back, deadpan delivery has often been compared to Music's; indeed, Music provided the voice of Murray's Peter Venkman character in the cartoon version of Ghostbusters. Murray became the fourth actor to provide a voice for the Garfield: Tommy Smothers voiced the role in a cat food commercial, and an unnamed Music soundalike was used in another TV spot. Prior to Murray being cast, it was widely reported that actor John Goodman had been picked to provide Garfield's voice for the film.

For his work on the strip, creator Jim Davis received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Strip Award for 1981 and 1985, and their Reuben Award for 1989.

Production and criticism

Like many comic strips, Garfield is not exclusively drawn and written by its creator. Jim Davis's company, Paws Inc., employs cartoonists and writers who do most of the work of scripting, drawing, and inking the strip, while Davis's work is usually confined to approving and signing the finished strip. Davis spends most of his time managing the business and merchandising aspects of Garfield.

The strip is deliberately written to be inoffensive, typically avoiding the social or political commentary present in some of Garfield's contemporaries, such as Boondocks, Doonesbury, Dilbert, and Cathy.

However, there have been some exceptions to the rule. One month into the strip, on July 18, 1978 the Garfield strip criticized Jimmy Carter for his handling of inflation when Jon tells Garfield "Good news Garfield, the adminstration says that the rate of inflation is going down." To which Garfield cynically responds, "That and a buck-fifty will get you a cup of coffee." About two months later on September 4, 1978 the Garfield strip featured a strip that could be interpreted as critical toward the Labor Movement, when Garfield declares, "Labor Day, Shmabor Day/What a dumb day/To hire some jerk/Then send him away/To celebrate work/By playing all day" (the strip features a frowning Garfield by himself and does not attempt to create any tongue in cheek effect). Some aspects of the early stips contained subject matter that would be considered somewhat offensive or controversial to some today, although less so at the time. Some examples include: Jon frequently smoking a pipe (which Garfield also smoked once) July 27, 1978, Jon subscribing to a "bachelor magazine" and then expressing disappointment with the centerfold model, the use of corporal punishment (with a rolled up newspaper) on Odie, and Garfield once using the mild obscenity "sucked". Early strips may also be considered offensive to the devoutly religious, in one strip Jon tells Garfield in a factual manner that higher lifeforms have evolved from lower lifeforms, (Garfield then delivers the joke that rocks must have evolved from dogs). Several early strips deal with the theme of evolution (albeit in a humorous way). It is impossible to tell exactly what Jon's exact religious inclination is since he could be a believer in theistic evolution. However, Jon and Garfield are never seen in attendance in church services and while they celebrate Christmas with great zeal, it is always a secular Christmas.

The characters and situations are constant, with no change or development for the past several years. While this is not unique to Garfield, as Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes and the children of Peanuts never age, other strips such as For Better or For Worse, Cathy, and Doonesbury maintain a continuity with characters who develop, age, and may even die as the strip proceeds.

Garfield's inoffensive, merchandising-oriented approach has been widely criticized by many commentators including Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, whose views against merchandising were explained at great detail in The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book. Watterson, when asked for his opinion of fellow cartoonists, including Jim Davis, once tactfully described Garfield as "consistent". [2]

Characters

More at Garfield characters

Major characters in Garfield include:

Garfield: The main character. A lazy, overweight, orange cat who likes eating and sleeping above all. He considers himself to be more intelligent than humans or dogs. Also, he hates Mondays.
Jon: Garfield's owner. He has poor social skills and his attempts at dating women always fail, but Garfield is happy as long as he keeps him fed. His birthday was July 28, 1950 as was revealed in the 2005 strip on that date and a strip on December 23, 1980 where he declares that he is 30 years old, making Jon currently 56 years old.
Odie: Jon's pet dog (although technically owned by Jon's friend Lyman, who hasn't been seen in the strip in well over a decade). A yellow, long-eared dog who is always drooling. He is very stupid and naïve and because of this, Garfield likes to play tricks on him. Sometimes Odie is smart enough to play tricks on Garfield. Odie walks on two legs. Odie didn't appear on the very first comics, debuting on August 8, the day after Lyman.
Arlene: Garfield's on-and-off girlfriend. A pink cat with a long neck and a gap in her teeth. Garfield is deeply in love with her, but she has doubts about him.
Nermal: "The world's cutest kitten". Garfield hates him when he comes to show everyone how cute he is. Garfield often tries to mail him to Abu Dhabi. Nermal is owned by Jon's parents, but is never seen when Jon visits his parents' farm.
Liz: A veterinarian. Garfield hates going to the vet's, but Jon often forces him to. Sometimes the visit is just an excuse for Jon to ask the beautiful Liz out for a date. Also, she claims that Liz is short for Lizard. She may have been joking.
Pooky: Garfield's teddy bear.

Themes and Settings

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

The TV Chair is one of Garfield's favorite places, where he entertains himself with shows such as Binky the Clown and others. Many of the shows mentioned are absurd and stupid, and give Jim Davis an opportunity to comment on pop-culture.
Outside, Garfield has confrontations with various characters, such as dogs (more vicious than Odie), birds, worms, and even conscious flowers. "Beware of Dog" signs are abound, and Garfield often tries to torment the chained-up dogs as some kind of revenge. Garfield tries to capture birds in the bird fountain, often unsuccessfully (However, unlike Tom in Tom and Jerry, Garfield does occassionally kill and consume his prey). He finds it a lot easier to capture flowers though, and often eats them.
Early in the series, Garfield would spend time on the window ledge and always get trapped in the roll-up blinds. This culminated in a two-week storyline in which Garfield, Odie, Jon, two complete strangers, and even a street lamp (Odie had to go) all got trapped in the blinds. 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 tells bad jokes or caterwauls, in a homage to vaudeville. Odie joins the act from time to time, once as a ventriloquist's dummy, and once as "Mr Skins", who accompanied Garfield on the drums. Garfield is frequently the target of disgusted fans, who throw shoes, rotten vegetables, and houseplants at him and once burned down his fence with burning 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, though one time the audience consisted solely of his mother.
Up the tree is another area where Garfield often traps himself. Garfield knows not to climb, but ironically can never overcome the urge. A firefighter usually has to save him on the last day of the week. One time, Jon got stuck up the tree trying to rescue him.
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, his failures causing Garfield to snicker. At the end of one date, Jon got a kiss, currently his only on-screen kiss in the comic.
Sometimes Jon takes Garfield to the park. Jon tries to meet girls in the park, but always fails miserably and humorously.
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 the suitcase, but at some point Jon gave up and took him along as an equal. These are funny because they portray Jon's inability to get along with people normally. They also introduce new scenarios, which are usually rare in this strip.
The Beach is frequented by Garfield and company, and is another site at which Jon fails at finding girls. Garfield hates the beach simply because it has no TV, and is too hot. This theme will often show up in the summer.
Irma's diner was visited often early on, but not as much as the series progressed. Irma is a chirpy, but slow-witted and unattractive waitress/manager, and one of Jon's few friends. The food is terrible, and is the center of most of the jokes, along with the poor management.
The window is a setting showing Garfield looking from inside the house, making comments on events going on outside. Sometimes Jon joins him.
Jon periodically visits his parents and brother on the farm. This results in comical displays of stupidity by Jon and his family, and their interactions.
The used car lot is an entertaining scene that parodies the business. Jon always gets conned by the overly clever and sneaky salesman, while Garfield knows it all along. This is paralleled in the used refrigerator store and used Christmas tree lot which appear later.

Garfield's often engages in week-long interactions with a minor character, event, or thing, such as Nermal, Arlene, the mailman, an alarm clock, a scale, the TV, Pooky, spiders, mice, coffee, hamburgers, balls of yarn, rubber chickens, dieting, shedding, pie throwing, fishing, Mondays, Clive, lasagna, the "Caped Avenger", sweaters, colds, etc.

Some more unique themes are things like "Garfield's Believe It or Don't", "Garfield's Law", "Garfield's History", which show the world, history, and science from Garfield's point-of-view. Another particular theme is the "National Fat Week", where Garfield spends the week making fun of skinny people. Most of December is spent preparing for Christmas, with a predictable focus on presents. Every week before June 19th, the strip focuses on his birthday, which Garfield dreads. Occasionally the strip celebrates Halloween as well with scary-themed jokes. Jokes are introduced seasonally, with snow-related gags common in January or February and beach or heat themed jokes in the summer.

One storyline, which lasted a week from October the 23rd, 1989 (possibly to coincide with Halloween, although the 31st actually fell the following week), is unique in that it is not humourous. It depicts Garfield awakening in a future in which the house is abandoned and he no longer exists. This is revealed to have been a dream of some kind, and ends with this narration: "An imagination is a powerful tool. It can tint memories of the past, shade perceptions of the present, or paint a future so vivid that it can entice...or terrify, all depending on how we conduct ourselves today."

Garfield's Marketing

His album: Am I Cool or What?
His suction-cupped kitties: "Stuck on You" phenomenon across America and takes several years for production met the demand. The concept was created after an idea trade with Scott Adams in 1990, which involved what type of object could hold the thing other than sticky items.
His Fantasy Books: Garfield and friends appear in a series of fantasy books called Garfield's Pet Force where Garfield, Nermal, Arlene, Odie and Pooky were given Superpowers in an alternate dimension.

Television

Garfield and Friends (Animated cartoon series, 1988–1995)
Garfield Gets a Life (animated special) 1991
Garfield's Feline Fantasies (animated special) 1990
Garfield's Thanksgiving (animated special) 1989
Garfield's Babes and Bullets (animated special) 1989
Garfield: His 9 Lives (animated special) 1988
Garfield Goes Hollywood (animated special) 1987
A Garfield Christmas (animated special) 1987
Garfield in Paradise (animated special) 1986
Garfield's Halloween Adventure (animated special) 1985
Garfield in the Rough (animated special) 1984
Garfield on the Town (animated special) 1983
Here Comes Garfield (animated special) 1982

Books

Numbered Paperbacks

These books, generally released twice a year, contain reprints of the comic as it appears in newspapers daily. These books were originally printed in black and white, but recent ones have been in color, each book covers approximately six months of comics, including the larger weekend comics (in black and white in all except the recent editions).

The titles of these books were styled as double entendres alluding to Garfield's weight or his habits. These books introduced the "Garfield format" in publishing, whereby the books are horizontally oriented to match comic strip dimensions. They are currently being reprinted in a larger format, showing the Sunday strips to be formatted in a size as they usually are, instead of shrunken-down to meet the book size. Newer versions of the books will be released in paperback only, and in full color for every cartoon, not just the Sunday strips.

Garfield At Large: His First Book 1980
Garfield Gains Weight: His Second Book 1981
Garfield Bigger than Life: His Third Book 1981
Garfield Weighs In: His Fourth Book 1982
Garfield Takes the Cake: His Fifth Book 1982
Garfield Eats His Heart Out: His Sixth Book 1983
Garfield Sits Around the House: His Seventh Book 1983
Garfield Tips the Scales: His Eighth Book 1984
Garfield Loses His Feet: His Ninth Book 1984
Garfield Makes it Big: His 10th Book 1985
Garfield Rolls On: His 11th Book 1985
Garfield Out to Lunch: His 12th Book 1986
Garfield Food for Thought: His 13th Book 1987
Garfield Swallows His Pride: His 14th Book 1987
Garfield World Wide: His 15th Book 1988
Garfield Rounds Out: His 16th Book 1988
Garfield Chews the Fat: His 17th Book 1989
Garfield Goes to Waist: His 18th Book 1990
Garfield Hangs Out: His 19th Book 1990
Garfield Takes Up Space: His 20th Book 1991
Garfield Says a Mouthful: His 21st Book 1991
Garfield By the Pound: His 22nd Book 1992
Garfield Keeps His Chins Up: His 23rd Book 1992
Garfield Takes His Licks: His 24th Book 1993
Garfield Hits the Big Time: His 25th Book 1993
Garfield Pulls his Weight: His 26th Book 1994
Garfield Dishes it Out: His 27th Book 1995
Garfield Life in the Fat Lane: His 28th Book 1995
Garfield Tons of Fun: His 29th Book 1996
Garfield Bigger and Better: His 30th Book 1996
Garfield Hams it Up: His 31st Book 1997
Garfield Thinks Big: His 32nd Book 1997
Garfield Throws His Weight Around: His 33rd Book 1998
Garfield Life to the Fullest: His 34th Book 1999
Garfield Feeds the Kitty: His 35th Book 1999
Garfield Hogs the Spotlight: His 36th Book 2000
Garfield Beefs Up: His 37th Book 2000
Garfield Gets Cookin': His 38th Book 2001
Garfield Eats Crow: His 39th Book 2003
Garfield Survival of the Fattest: His 40th Book 2004
Garfield Older and Wider: His 41st Book 2005
Garfield Pigs Out: His 42nd Book 2006

In the UK, over 60 Garfield books, mainly 'Pocket Books' or paperbacks, have been published by Ravette. The format is slightly different, as the strips are presented in a vertical style.

Other books

Garfield: His 9 Lives (1984) - novel, later made into a TV special.
Garfield and the Truth About Cats (1991)
Garfield's Guide to Everything (2004)
Garfield book of Cat Names (1988)
Garfield Crazy about Numbers (sticker book)
Give Me Coffee and No One Gets Hurt (discontinued)
Garfield's Big Book of Excellent Excuses (2000)
Garfield and the Santa Spy

Additionally, adaptations of Garfield television specials have been published in comic format:

A Garfield Christmas (1987)
Garfield Travel Adventures (2005) collects three previous books:

Garfield in the Rough (1984)
Garfield in Paradise(1986)
Garfield Goes to Hollywood(1988)

Several early-reader adventure novels featuring Garfield were published in the late 1990's:

Garfield and the Beast in the Basement (1998)
Garfield and the Mysterious Mummy (1998)
Garfield and the Teacher Creature (1998)
Garfield and the Wicked Wizard (1999)

Video games

File:S20558c8cot.jpg

Title screen for Garfield: Caught in the Act

Garfield was also transported into video games, the first being a never-released Atari 2600 prototype, in 1983, and there was also an NES game of Garfield made in Japan in 1989.

Other titles:

Create With Garfield (1985) for Apple II and Commodore 64
Garfield: A Big Fat Hairy Deal (1987) for ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64
Garfield: A Winter's Tail (1989) for Atari ST (Will not work on Atari STe computers), Amiga, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64
Garfield no Isshukan (1989) for the NES
Garfield: Caught in the Act (1995), for Genesis , Game Gear and PC
Garfield (2004), for PC and PS2
Garfield's Mad About Cats (2005), for PC
Garfield: The Search for Pooky (2005) for GBA
Garfield Bound for Home (2006) for Nintendo DS

Movies

Garfield: The Movie (2004) — Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield.
Garfield 2 (2006) - same cast.

External links