Talk:Garfield

An event mentioned in this article is a June 19 selected anniversary

I wonder if it's a bizarre coincidence or intentional....

The late Lorenzo Music not only performed the voice of Garfield the cat in the cartoon, but also of Peter on the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters.... the character who Bill Murray portrayed in the film Ghostbusters (and Ghostbusters II). Now, Bill Murray will be voicing Garfield in the live action movie... weird. --Dante Alighieri 08:23 18 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I believe the answer is that Music was CHOSEN to be the voice of Bill Murray's character in the cartoon due to the similarity in their voices; and now, the reverse is true. 66.157.94.151 16:29, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

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Interesting article about Garfield in Slate a little while back: Why we hate the Mouse but not the cartoon copycat. Purports that Davis' success was due in part to his deliberate attempts to make a bland, inoffensive, marketable character. Too NPOV to really include, but interesting anyway. --Fastfission 01:36, 9 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Maybe the blandness is POV, but a frank explanation of the committee set-up that creates it would be welcome. People will come to their own conclusion when they realize that Davis is a joyless miser, brooding in his cavernous mansion, grasping a glass of brandy with his thin, clawlike fingers, and a superior smirk on his greedy, soulless face... while some group of artists and writers churns out his cash-cow.

I remember a number of years ago I looked at some autobiography-styled anthology. He says point-blank that he wants it to be as inoffensive and as "global" as possible by avoiding any sort of cultural issues/editorializing, which, imho, makes it bland and boring. I remember that he showed one comic saying, basically "why can't we all get along", saying that was as political as he ever got.

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Does anyone know what strips Strech was in?

Stretch? The rubber chicken? I just added that guy to the artical! Oh how I loved him...anyway, he appeared throughout the week of that fat cat's 7th b-day, and has made a few cameo appearences. --Wack'd About Wiki 00:32, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

- I think it was in his 12th book where they introduced him... or that might be where he was last seen... why did they drop that character, anyway? He was just as good as Pooky! CanadianCaesar 05:08, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

And is anyone starting a Garfield's Pet Force entry?--Teh Bomb Sophist 08:32, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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Does anyone know which 1983 strip was Lyman's last regular appearance in?

I don't know the last 1983 appearence (thus I'm not of TOO much help), but I do know he's not in Garfield's 10th book, which starts with strips from 10/24/83. So it's somewhere in his 9th book...

Thanks, that was pretty helpful. Now I know where to search.

Lyman's last Appearance was April 24th 1983. It was the one where Garfield and Jon are injured by a bubble that Garfield popped.

Lyman makes one final cameo appearance in the title panel of Garfield's 10th birthday strip on 6/19/88. He is seated between Jon's Dad and Liz. There is also a flashback panel showing him in the strip.

Who's "dag"?

Todays strip [1] has some strangely person in it called "dag". I've never seen him before (though he looks strange familiar, like out of a thirties comic strip). Could anybody elaborate who he is? Thanks :-) Peter S. 12:26, 20 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It's Dagwood Bumstead! Matt 02:34, 21 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks :-) Peter S. 09:38, 16 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently, that comic is part of a series of comic crossovers that center around Blondie and Dagwood inviting characters from other comic strips for their 75th Anniversary, and Garfield is involved in that particular crossover. Here is the article covering this, also showing a panel from the Beetle Bailey crossover. Of course, this is not the first time Garfield and Blondie and Dagwood crossed over with each other. One April Fools strip in 1997 has Garfield and Jon getting their house painted and having to visit the Blondie and Dagwood strip, and they are even drawn in the same style throughout it. You can read the comic in question here

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Garfield's Bird Diet

Garfield usually eats pet cananries and wild sparrows. --Wack'd About Wiki 14:22, 5 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Garfield in Doonesbury

I don't know if it was Doonesbury but I'm pretty sure it's in one comic by the guy who draws em.

In the comic section, my brother told me to read this comic and it featured this guy doing an experiment and told him something horrible went wrong. The other guy looks inside the room and sees a room full of Garfields with black bowties on his head. He runs out to barf and the 1st guy comments "I must of drooled in the beakers".

Anyone know that comic. I'd like to make reference to it to this article under a Trivia section?--TKGB 22:08, 11 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Dropped From Prominant Newspapers

I know recently that Garfield has been dropped by some major papers' comics sections. I think one out in LA, and I know that the Star Ledger in NJ did this. Does anybody have more information on these events (losing distribution in major papers can be a big blow to the comic strip). --THollan 11:34, 20 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It's been dropped from at least three major newspapers this year,[2] but if you're going to include this information, be careful about claiming it's a recent trend due to the blandness of the strip. I don't know if it actually makes that much difference to the bottom line for Paws.--John Lynch 04:43, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Size concern

Bit large isn't it? I think at the very least the character section could be moved to it's own article.--John Lynch 04:43, 31 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I have moved it. An anonymous user moved it back, kind of defeating the purpose of a separate article, so I reverted him. — JIP | Talk 15:05, 14 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Books

Could anybody tell me the correct order of the following books: Garfield Gets Cookin', How to Draw Garfield, Furry Tails, Party Now, Age Later, Never Accept a Gift With Air Holes, Garfield Beefs Up, Insults. Put Downs and Slams, and Stupid Cupid? Scorpionman 02:25, 20 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Clean-up recommended

This has article been nominated for clean-up. A negative spin has been imparted on most of the articles content (some of which is un-sourced and inaccurate) thus not conforming to the non-POV policy. The article itself is also quite patchy and reads more like a soapbox than an encyclopedic article.--Knuckle 08:43, 2 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically? — Phil Welch Katefan's ridiculous poll 13:17, 2 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Knuckle, this article seems to be more focused on POV criticisms than encyclopedic information on Garfield. And the small amount of biographical data there is far from complete. If you compare it to other comic strip articles, its very obvious. I have a good amount of well sourced information on Garfield, and over the next few weeks I will endeavor to complete this article in more of an encyclopedic format.--Jimi Snukka 01:45, 4 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is one criticism section. Articles on other widely-criticized and parodied strips including Family Circus, Boondocks, Doonesbury, and Dilbert either have criticism sections or sorely need them. Instead of congratulatory and apologetic fancruft, we need an article that adequately details what it is and what people think of it. — Phil Welch Are you a fan of the band Rush? 07:51, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

1978 or 1979?

This is regarding the following section:

Garfield had its debut on June 19, 1978, which is also considered Garfield's birthday. Comic strips on June 19th depict the cat celebrating his birthday, except in 1979 when he was shown celebrating his birthday on the 20th.

This edit changed the year from 1979 to 1978. Which was it? The IP hasn't made any other edits, so there's no way to tell if the user is going around making good or bad edits. I'll change it back to 1979 until we find some way of verifying when it was. --Mr. Billion 09:06, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Verified: It was actually 1978. The reason garfield had his birthday on the 20th is because his actual birthday (the 19th) was the first garfield strip, which was needed to introduce the characters and setting. At any rate this bit of info really isn't necessary in this portion of the article, so i think i'll take it out. It reads better without it anyway.--Jimi Snukka 00:10, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that's probably best. Thanks. --Mr. Billion 03:19, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

External Link

Slate.com has been removed from the external links selection because it does conform with Wikipedia's policy for external links. The garfield related article on the site does not contain neutral and accurate material that wikipedia requires. The article itself is very one sided, where some facts have been twisted or omitted to suit a particular point of view.--Jimi Snukka 01:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

We don't have an external link policy, and it's not a violation of NPOV to link to criticism. — Phil Welch Are you a fan of the band Rush? 06:10, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I meant that its not in line with the style guide for external links, oops. At any rate some of the material itself is also incorrect: Garfield was actually not successful in the early days; with it being cancelled from the Chicago Sun-Times after 3 months of test runs. The comment of the strip being completely inoffensive is also incorrect, as certain strips, including the killing of spiders, the nerd hall of fame, garfields use of the words 'sex' and 'sucked', and others, have attracted numerous angry letters. Inaccurate material such as this, as well as it demonstrating a heavy bias, is all against what the style guide says, so i'm removing it. It was aggreed in a past discussion also, that the link should not be included in the article; but someone seems to have put it back in though, with no explaination. If you think the official website should be removed as well (because of heavy advertising) Phil, feel free to remove it.--Jimi Snukka 07:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If we point out these facts in the article—not in relation to the external link but just in general—I think we can still keep the external link. (I still think that as a generalization, the assertion that it was successful in the early days is true, in context. The article was talking about the first few *years*, not the first few *months*.) We sorely need the link, since it does serve as criticism, however much you may disagree with it. Incidentally, instead of edit warring, try to discuss these issues on the relevant talk page before making a final edit. Anyway, the style guide specifically recommends: "On articles with multiple Points of View, a link to sites dedicated to each, with a detailed explanation of each link. The number of links dedicated to one POV should not overwhelm the number dedicated to any other. One should attempt to add comments to these links informing the reader of their point of view." The external link you removed serves this purpose well. — Phil Welch Are you a fan of the band Rush? 07:33, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have nothing against fair criticism of this article, or any other. But if the article linked uses incorrect information to back up its criticisms (which it does), then it should not be added. The only reason the Garfield.com site is present is because its the official comic strip website, not for the purpose of creating a POV external link. But like i said before, if you feel this should be removed anyway, then i have no objections whatsoever--Jimi Snukka 07:46, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What information is incorrect? You haven't pointed out any real factual errors in the article—for instance, the article's mention of Garfield's early success was clearly written in the context of years as opposed to months, while the comment about its inoffensiveness is largely a matter of opinion. Garfield is certainly inoffensive compared to, say, The Boondocks or Doonesbury. — Phil Welch Are you a fan of the band Rush? 07:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The article also conveniately forgets Davis' unsuccessful 5 year outing with his first comic strip Gnorm Gnat created prior to garfield. The notion that he needed an accessible character such as Garfield came from an editor who commented on Gnorm Gnat stating: 'you art is good, your gags are great, but bugs - nobody can identify with bugs!'. The slate article gives the reader to impression that Davis' only desire from the beginning was to create a very marketable comic strip for merchandising, if this were true then he wouldn't have created such a niche concept as Gnorm Gnat. And, like i've said before there have been numerous offended readers have sent angry letters regarding some of the daily strips, thus it can't be as completely inoffensive and bland as the slate article leads the reader to believe. It is not a good idea to put a pov link in an article meant to be un-biased. Other people in past discussions on this subject also seem to agree. But, given that you've now stuck it in the criticism section where it belongs, i really don't care to argue any further bout it.--Jimi Snukka 08:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]