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{{Short description|Comic strip created by Jim Davis}}
{{otheruses}}
{{About|the comic strip|the title character|Garfield (character)|the U.S. president|James A. Garfield|other uses}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox comic strip
|title=Garfield
|image=Garfieldand friends.png
|caption=Center: ] (clockwise from bottom-left: ], ], ], and ])
|alt = An illustration of the characters in the comic strip ''Garfield''.
|author=]
|owner= ]<br>{{small|(]) (2019–2022)}}<br>{{small|(]) (since 2022)}}
|website=<br />
|rss=
|atom=
|status=Running/daily
|first={{Start date and age|1978|6|19|df=no}}
|syndicate=]/]/] (1994–present)<br />] (1978–1994)
|publisher=] (under ]), occasionally ]
|genre=]<br />]
|preceded by=Jon ''(1976–1977) and ''Garfield ''(1977–1978), locally published strips in the'' ]
}}


'''''Garfield''''' is an American ] created by ]. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide ] from 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character ] the cat, ] the dog, and their owner ]. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and ]; the comic held the ] for being the world's most widely ] comic strip.<ref name="BW1">{{Cite news|title=Garfield Named World's Most Syndicated Comic Strip.|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_Jan_22/ai_82001296|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040910215254/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_Jan_22/ai_82001296|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 10, 2004|access-date=July 26, 2008|publisher=]|date=January 22, 2002}}</ref>
]


Though its setting is rarely mentioned in print, ''Garfield'' takes place in Jim Davis's hometown of ], according to the television special '']''. Common themes in the strip include Garfield's laziness, obsessive eating, love of ] and ], disdain of ]s, and ]. Garfield is also shown to manipulate people to get whatever he wants. The strip's focus is mostly on the interactions among Garfield, Jon, and Odie, but other recurring characters appear as well.
'''''Garfield''''' is a popular ] created by ] featuring the ] Garfield, the less-than-brilliant pet ] Odie, and their socially inept owner Jon Arbuckle. The character is named after Davis's grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after former ] president ].


''Garfield'' has been adapted into various other forms of media. Several ] aired on ] between 1982 and 1991, starting with '']'' and ending with '']''. Also airing on CBS from 1988 to 1994 was the animated series '']'', which also adapted Davis's other comic strip '']''. All of these featured ] as the voice of Garfield. The feature film '']'' was released in 2004 and '']'' two years later. Both were live-action movies featuring a computer-animated Garfield voiced by ]. Another animated adaptation for television, '']'', aired on ] in France and ] in the United States from 2009 to 2016. In addition, Garfield has been the subject of merchandise, video games, books, and other spin-off merchandise. The strip has also been re-published in compilations; the first of these, '']'' (1980), developed what came to be known as the "Garfield format" for re-publication of newspaper comics in book form.
== Overview ==


On August 6, 2019, before its merger with ] to become ViacomCBS (now ]), New York City–based ] announced that it would acquire ], including most rights to the ''Garfield'' franchise (the comics, merchandise and animated cartoons). The deal did not include the rights to the live-action ''Garfield'' films,<ref>{{cite web|last=Mullin|first=Benjamin|title=Viacom, Hungry For Hits, Gobbles Garfield|url=https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/viacom-hungry-for-hits-gobbles-up-garfield-11565107200|website=The Wall Street Journal|date=2019-08-06|access-date=2019-08-12|df=mdy-all}}</ref> which are still owned by ] through its ] label, as well as ''The Garfield Movie'' which was released by ] under its ] label in 2024.<ref name="collider_com">{{cite web |last=O'Rourke |first=Ryan |date=September 16, 2022 |title=''Garfield'' Release Date Moved to Spring 2024 |url=https://collider.com/garfield-release-date-change-chris-pratt/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=Collider}}</ref> Jim Davis continues to make comics, and a new Garfield animated series is in production for Paramount Global subsidiary ].<ref name="Steinberg">{{Cite news|url=https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/garfield-nickelodedon-licensing-rights-viacom-1203293468/|title=Viacom Acquires Comic-Strip Cat Garfield|first=Brian|last=Steinberg|work=]|access-date=August 6, 2019|date=August 6, 2019}}</ref>
Debuting ], ] (also considered Garfield's birthday, the strips on June 19th always show Garfield celebrating his birthday on that day), the syndicated ] pokes fun at pet owners and their relationship with their pets often portraying the pet as the true master of the home. Garfield also appeals because of the way he struggles with very human problems, such as ]s, hatred of ]s, ], ], and so on.


==History==
Over the course of the strip, Garfield's behavior has became more human and less cat-like. His appearance has also evolved, initially being drawn as grossly obese with flabby jowls and small round eyes. Later, his appearance was slimmed down and his eyes enlarged. By ], his familiar appearance&mdash;featuring ]-shaped eyes&mdash;had taken shape. By this time, Garfield had begun walking on two feet, and the strip changed to more of an emphasis on ] situations (Garfield making fun of his owner's stupidity, Jon's inability to pick up girls) and less on the foibles of cats. A number of the strip's readers feel that the quality of the writing has lessened, even as the artwork has retained a consistent level of quality (although Davis is no longer the sole, or even principal, artist).
] is the creator of ''Garfield''|alt=A picture of cartoonist Jim Davis.]]


Cartoonist ] was born and raised in ]. In 1973, while working as an assistant for T.K. Ryan's '']'', he created the comic strip '']'', which ran only in the ''Pendleton Times'' of ], from 1973 to 1975 and met with little success. Davis had tried to ] the strip, but was unsuccessful; he noted that one editor told him that his "art was good, his gags were great, nobody can identify with bugs."<ref name="Twenty"/> Davis decided to peruse current comic strips to determine what species of animal characters might be more popular. He felt that dogs were doing well, but noticed no prominent cats. Davis figured he could create a cat star, having grown up on a farm with twenty-five cats. Thus was created the character of Garfield.<ref name="Twenty">Davis. ''20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection''. p. 14.</ref>
The comic strip was turned into a cartoon special for television in ] called '']''. Actor ], previously known as the voice of Carlton the doorman on the show '']'', was hired to portray the voice of Garfield. ] ] provided musical accompaniment. Twelve television specials were made (through ]) as well as a television series, '']'', which ran from ] to ].


]
A live-action movie version of the comic strip, '']'' (with a ] Garfield and live-action Odie), debuted in the USA on ], ]. ] provided the voice of Garfield, making him the fourth actor to play the part (Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers 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.


The title character ] was based on the cats Davis grew up around; he took his name and personality from Davis' grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, whom he described as "a large, cantankerous man."<ref name="CNN">{{Cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/student.bureau/10/24/jim.davis/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214062806/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/student.bureau/10/24/jim.davis/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 14, 2009|title=The cat's meow|date=October 6, 2000|publisher=CNN|first=Gerrard|last=Hall|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> Garfield's human owner ] derived his name from a 1950s coffee commercial. Jon's roommate Lyman, added to give Jon someone to talk with, carried on the name of an earlier ''Gnorm Gnat'' character.<ref name="Twenty"/> The final character was Lyman's dog Spot, who was renamed ] so as to avoid confusion with a dog also named Spot in the comic strip '']''. From 1976 to early 1978, these characters appeared in a strip called ''Jon'' which also ran in the ''Times''. In 1977, the strip's name was changed to ''Garfield.'' {{Anchor|Quinton Reviews}} The ''Jon'' comic strip was largely unknown until 2019, when YouTuber Quinton Hoover found several ] archives of the ''Jon'' publications from the Pendleton Community Library and Indiana State Library.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/07/28/newly-discovered-davis-pre-garfield-garfield/|title=Newly Discovered – Davis' Pre-Garfield Garfield|date=July 29, 2019|website=The Daily Cartoonist|language=en-US|access-date=October 25, 2019}}</ref> ''Jon'' first appeared in the ''Pendleton Times'' on January 8, 1976, just two weeks after ''Gnorm Gnat'' ended.
== Characters ==


In March 1978, ] accepted the strip for national distribution (which had been retitled ''Garfield'' on September 1, 1977), and the last ''Pendleton Times'' strip ran on March 2, 1978. United Feature Syndicate debuted the first strip nationwide in 41 newspapers, starting on June 19, 1978. After a test run, the '']'' dropped the ''Garfield'' strip, only to reinstate it after readers' complaints.<ref name="BW1" /><ref name="Catty">{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953256,00.html|title=Living: Those Catty Cartoonists|date=December 7, 1981|access-date=June 20, 2020|magazine=]}}</ref>
=== Primary characters ===


]|access-date=June 20, 2020}}</ref> the left panel is from the March 7, 1980, strip; the right is from the July 6, 1990, strip]]
* '''Garfield''': fat orange cat with distinctive black stripes and an attitude. He hates Mondays (not applicable if it's also his birthday), loves to eat and sleep (both to amazing amounts), watch TV, and play jokes on Jon and Odie. His favorite food is ], although he hates ]s and ]. He has been seen trying to catch and (presumably) eat ], although he does not eat ]. He also hates ].


The strip underwent stylistic changes, evolving from the style of the 1976–83 strips, to a more cartoonish look from 1984 onward. This change has mainly affected Garfield's design, which underwent a "Darwinian evolution" in which he began walking on his hind legs, "slimmed down", and "stopped looking ... through squinty little eyes" His evolution, according to Davis, was to make it easier to "push Odie off the table" or "reach for a piece of pie".<ref name="NYT1"/> The redesign was in part on the advice of Davis's mentor and erstwhile rival ]; though Schulz privately expressed some jealousy at ''Garfield'' overtaking his own strip '']'' and thought Davis's characters were lacking in subtlety and nuance, he provided substantial advice to Davis over the years, particularly in setting the ] and ] blueprint Schulz had built for ], which Davis adopted to great success for ''Garfield''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tardive |first=Ambrose |date=2024-06-19 |title=Peanuts vs. Garfield: Charles Schulz Secretly Considered Jim Davis His Arch-Rival |url=https://screenrant.com/peanuts-garfield-charles-schulz-jim-davis-rivalry/ |access-date=2024-06-21 |website=ScreenRant |language=en}}</ref>
* '''Odie''': loveable but dopey yellow-furred, brown-eared dog constantly panting with his very large tongue, and the only character without a "voice" (though he was once shown to be thinking "I'm hungry" once). Often kicked off the table by Garfield or the victim of some practical joke. Odie's original owner was Lyman, a friend and roommate to Jon Arbuckle. However, Lyman disappeared in ] and Odie became a pet to Jon. Odie is, to Garfield, a complete slobbering idiot (though it's ''not'' the actual case since Odie did manage to take revenge on Garfield occasionally, and Garfield usually ''cannot'' notice it). He is rarely seen without his giant ] and drooling. He is also the sucker to Garfield's antics such as being kicked off a table and being clobbered at a distance. Recently Odie seems to be walking on two feet more often. He first appeared on ], ].


''Garfield'' quickly became a commercial success. By the beginning of 1981, less than three years after its nationwide launch, the strip was in 850 newspapers and had sold over $15&nbsp;million in merchandise. To manage the merchandise, Davis founded ]<ref name="Catty"/> In 1982 the strip was appearing in more than 1,000 newspapers.<ref>DRD/KT. "Newswatch: Garfield Hits 1000th Newspaper", ''The Comics Journal'' 73 (July 1982).</ref>
* '''Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle''': Garfield and Odie's owner. A total ] and clumsy individual who is extremely unlucky in the world of dating and coolness. Primary fodder and conversation partner to Garfield and is often the butt of his jokes. Was (possibly still is, due to it never being contradicted) a ], but this reference has not been seen since the early days of the comic strip. His full name has been revealed as Jonathan Q. Arbuckle in a ] strip.


By 2002, ''Garfield'' became the world's most syndicated strip, appearing in 2,570&nbsp;newspapers with 263&nbsp;million readers worldwide;<ref name="BW1" /> by 2004, ''Garfield'' appeared in nearly 2,600&nbsp;newspapers and sold from $750&nbsp;million to $1&nbsp;billion worth of merchandise in 111&nbsp;countries.<ref name="slatewhyhate" /> In 1994, Davis's company, Paws, Inc., purchased all rights to the strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature.
* '''Arlene''': Garfield's on-and-off girlfriend. A thin pink cat who seems to be the one living thing in the world who can successfully crack jokes at Garfield on a regular basis. She has lips and a very thin neck.(Earlier in the series she also had a gap between her teeth)


While retaining creative control and being the only signer, Davis now only writes and usually does the rough sketches. Since the late 1990s most of the work has been done by long-time assistants Brett Koth and Gary Barker. Inking and coloring work is done by other artists, while Davis spends most of the time supervising production and merchandising the characters.<ref name="slatewhyhate">{{cite magazine|url= https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/06/why-we-don-t-hate-garfield.html|title=Why we don't hate Garfield.|access-date=June 20, 2020|last=Suellentrop|first=Chris|date=June 11, 2004|magazine=]}}</ref>
* '''Pooky''': Garfield's huggable ]. First appearance was ], ]. The strip shows Garfield searching through Jon Arbuckles's bottom drawer, finding Pooky, and adopting him as his own.


==Content==
* '''Nermal''': cute kitten who flaunts his ] (the cutest kitten in the world, he says), which annoys Garfield immensely, usually resulting in him shipping Nermal to ]. Often comes in unannounced, much to Garfield's chagrin. He is owned by Jon's parents, and when we see him, it is usually because Jon has to babysit him. Surprisingly, we never see him on Jon's parent's ].
{{main|List of Garfield characters{{!}}List of ''Garfield'' characters}}


The strip's title character is ], an obese orange tabby cat. Garfield's personality is defined by his sarcasm, laziness, and gluttony, with the character showing a particular affinity for ]. His owner is ], a man with an affinity for stereotypically ]y pastimes. Jon's other pet is ], a dim-witted yellow dog. Most strips center around interactions among the three characters' conflicting personalities. Regular themes include Jon's frustration with Garfield's antics; Garfield's disdain for Odie; and Jon's interactions with his girlfriend and the pets' ], Dr. Liz Wilson. Many strips feature Jon, Garfield, and Odie visiting Jon's unnamed parents and brother Doc Boy on their family farm. Other side characters include various mice and spiders within the house, both frequent targets of abuse and scorn from Garfield; Garfield's ] Pooky; Garfield's girlfriend Arlene, a pink cat; Nermal, a gray striped kitten who enjoys tormenting Garfield over his perceived age; and various other pets who live in the neighborhood.
* '''Mom''': Jon's mother who's always cooking up a meal, and sending Garfield the most unconfortable sweaters.


Part of the strip's broad pop cultural appeal is due to its lack of ] or ] commentary; though this was Davis's original intention, he also admitted that his "grasp of politics isn't strong", joking that, for many years, he thought "] was a ]".<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1998/06/19/garfield-20-years-later/|title='Garfield' 20 years later|first=Beth|last=Johnson|magazine=]|access-date=June 19, 2020|date=June 19, 1998}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ecentral.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/11/5/movies/12462084&sec=movies |title=Everybody loves Garfield |work=] |location=Malaysia |access-date=January 19, 2022|archive-date=August 11, 2011|date=November 5, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811140216/http://ecentral.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/11/5/movies/12462084&sec=movies |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* '''Dad''': Jon's father who tends the family farm.


Originally created with the intentions to "come up with a good, marketable character",<ref name="wapocat">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1982/12/12/lives-the-cat-that-rots-the-intellect/d6ed28c6-bee3-41ad-81f2-1839b34b87b1/|title=LIVES: The Cat That Rots the Intellect|access-date=June 23, 2019|last=Shapiro|first=Walter|date=December 12, 1982|newspaper=]}}</ref> ''Garfield'' has spawned merchandise earning $750&nbsp;million to $1&nbsp;billion annually. In addition to the various merchandise and commercial tie-ins, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two animated television series, two theatrical feature-length live-action/CGI animated films, and three fully CGI animated direct-to-video films.
* '''Doc Boy''': Jon's only brother who tends to the ]s on the farm, and as much a loser as Jon. Resents being called Doc Boy. He is apparently younger than Jon.


==Marketing==
* '''Grandma''': She is a Harley-riding, ]-wearing old lady. She loves Jon and Garfield, and occasionally makes appearances throughout the series. The most is revealed about her in Garfield's Christmas special, where it is revealed that her husband has passed away and she talks about her life with him.
{{See also|Garfield merchandise|Garfield statues}}
''Garfield'' was originally created by Davis with the intention to come up with a "good, marketable character".<ref name="wapocat"/> Now the world's most syndicated comic strip,<ref>{{cite news |first=Jerry|last= LaMartina |title= Garfield comic strip makes Guinness Book of World Records|url= https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2002/01/28/daily4.html |work= Kansas City Business Journal |publisher= American City Business Journals |date= Jan 28, 2002|access-date=December 3, 2019 }}</ref> ''Garfield'' has spawned a "profusion"<ref name="slatewhyhate"/> of merchandise including clothing, toys, games, books, Caribbean cruises, credit cards, dolls,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/04/08/stories/2003040800360200.htm|title=The Hindu : Grab your Garfield now|publisher=Hinduonnet.com|access-date=January 10, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507134606/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/04/08/stories/2003040800360200.htm|archive-date=May 7, 2010|url-status=usurped}}</ref> DVDs of the movies or the TV series,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-131895890.html|title=Article: Garfield's ready to share the lasagna. – The Dallas Morning News (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune NewsService)|date=April 26, 2005|access-date=January 10, 2010|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125024924/http://www.highbeam.com/Search?searchTerm=Garfield's+ready+to+share+the+lasagna.&searchType=Article&currentPage=0&orderBy=|archive-date=January 25, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> and related media.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.commercebank.com/personal/cards/credit/garfield-visa/|title=Garfield Credit Card|publisher=]|access-date=August 8, 2008}}</ref> In April 2024, ] announced Garfield as their first "Chief Pet Officer" and Garfield-themed rooms for the release of '']''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 26, 2024 |title=Motel 6 in Biloxi now offering Garfield-themed room to guests |url=http://www.wlox.com/2024/04/27/motel-6-biloxi-now-offering-garfield-themed-room-guests/ |access-date=April 29, 2024 |work=WLOX}}</ref>


==Media==
* '''Lyman''': Friend of Jon's who lived with him for a while and was the original owner of Odie. He disappeared from the comic in 1983 and his disappearance was never fully elaborated upon. His last appearance in the strip was a cameo in the logo panel for the ] strip published on ], ]. A webcomic called ] involved this character in , showing why he disappeared from the Garfield strips in the first place. Of course, since Melonpool is a spoof piece, it has no continuity with Davis' work and is just for kicks with a disclaimer attached. Recently, Davis, was forced to directly address the issue of 'What happened to Lyman?'. According to Davis, Lyman's original purpose was to be someone who Jon could actually talk to and express other ideas&mdash;a role more and more taken over by Garfield himself. Hence he was removed; without explanation.
]


===Books===
* '''Irma''': waitress and owner of "Irma's Diner," a diner occasionally patronized by Jon and Garfield. The food, service, and mental stability of her restaurant is questionable. For instance, her idea of a "chicken surprise" is her coming up to the table wearing a rubber chicken mask and saying "SURPRISE!"
Starting in 1980, the comic strip has been collected in anthologies. The first, '']'', was published in March 1980 by ]. These books helped increase the strip's popularity through sales, leading to several of them reaching the top of the '']'' best sellers list.<ref name="pauer">{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/407039982/ | title=The nine lives of Jim Davis | work=Dayton Daily News | date=June 19, 1988 | accessdate=January 8, 2023 | author=Frank Pauer | pages=6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 17}}</ref> For these compilation books, Davis devised a book layout which is considerably longer and less tall than the average book. This allowed the strip to be oriented in the same format as it appeared in the newspaper, as opposed to earlier comic strip anthologies which often stacked the panels vertically.<ref name="pauer"/> This book style has since been referred to in the publishing industry as the "Garfield format" and has been adapted by other publishers. Davis noted that it became popular for other comic strip anthologies in particular, such as those of '']''.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/216476886/ | title=Happy birthday, Garfield: Celebrated cartoon character marks 10th year of cat naps, lasagna | work=The Town Talk | date=June 20, 1988 | accessdate=January 8, 2023 | author=Jim Smillie | pages=C1, C2}}</ref>


===Internet===
* '''Dr. Liz Wilson''': Garfield's ] and long-time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters (often thanks to Garfield tagging along for the ride).
Garfield.com was the strip's official website, which contained archives of past strips along with games and an online store. Jim Davis had also collaborated with ] and ] Digital Learning to create ProfessorGarfield.org, an educational website with interactive games focusing on math and reading skills, and with Children's Technology Group to create MindWalker, a web browser that allows parents to limit the websites their children can view to a preset list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=14857#middle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051016175332/http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=14857|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 16, 2005|title=Ball State University, Garfield Partner on New Website|date=August 22, 2005|access-date=July 25, 2008|publisher=Inside Indiana Business}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://san-diego-business-journal.vlex.com/vid/garfield-to-guard-web-sites-54313369|title=Garfield to Guard Web Sites|date=March 19, 2001|access-date=June 19, 2012|newspaper=]|first=Zion|last=Lee}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Garfield+Hangs+Ten+on+the+World+Wide+Wave(TM).-a073877177|title=Garfield Hangs Ten on the World Wide Wave|date=May 1, 2001|access-date=June 19, 2012|publisher=]|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305151405/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Garfield+Hangs+Ten+on+the+World+Wide+Wave(TM).-a073877177|url-status=dead}}</ref>


A variety of edited ''Garfield'' strips have been made available on the Internet, with some being hosted on their own unofficial, dedicated sites. Dating from 2005, a site titled the "Garfield Randomizer" created a three-panel strip using panels from previous ''Garfield'' strips.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Garfield Generator |url=https://www.bgreco.net/garfield/ |access-date=February 3, 2023}}</ref> Another approach, known as "Silent Garfield",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jonsview.tumblr.com|title=Silent Garfield|access-date=May 24, 2012}}</ref> involved removing Garfield's thought balloons from the strips.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jonsview.tumblr.com/post/23638639257|title=Jon's View|access-date=May 24, 2012|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304091447/http://jonsview.tumblr.com/post/23638639257|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some examples date from 2006.<ref name="silentgarfield">{{cite web|url=http://www.truthandbeautybombs.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4997&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0|title=Garfield|access-date=December 25, 2008|publisher=Truth and Beauty Bombs Forum|date=January 30, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221160206/http://www.truthandbeautybombs.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4997&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0|archive-date=December 21, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> A webcomic called ''Arbuckle'' does the above but also redraws the originals in a different art style. The ''Arbuckle'' website creator writes: "'Garfield' changes from being a comic about a sassy, corpulent feline, and becomes a compelling picture of a lonely, pathetic, delusional man who talks to his pets. Consider that Jon, according to Garfield canon, cannot hear his cat's thoughts. This is the world as he sees it. This is his story".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tailsteak.com/arbuckle/|title=Arbuckle: Garfield through Jon's eyes|access-date=July 25, 2008|publisher=Tailsteak.com}}</ref>
* '''Herman Post''': Jon Arbuckle's ]. He is constantly being tormented by Garfield, and perpetually trying to find a way to deliver the mail safely, but almost never succeeding.


Another variation along the same lines, called "Realfield" or "Realistic Garfield", was to redraw Garfield as a real cat and remove his thought balloons.<ref name="tabby">{{cite web|url=http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081114/REVIEW/72206455/-1/ART|title=The tabby vanishes|access-date=December 25, 2008|last=Hamrah|first=A. S.|date=November 14, 2008|work=The National|publisher=thenational.ae|location=Abu Dhabi|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212203731/http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081114/REVIEW/72206455/-1/ART|archive-date=February 12, 2009}} Review of ''Garfield Minus Garfield'' (Ballantine Books, 2008)</ref><ref name="realfield">{{cite web|url=http://www.collegehumor.com/hotlink:180801|title=Continuing in the 'making fun of Garfield tradition' I give you Realistic Garfield|date=February 29, 2008|access-date=December 25, 2008|publisher=]}} (hotlink)</ref> Still another approach to editing the strips involved removing Garfield and other main characters from the originals completely, leaving Jon talking to himself. While strips in this vein could be found online as early as 2006,<ref name="silentgarfield" /> the 2008 site '']'' by Dan Walsh received enough online attention to be covered by news media. Reception was largely positive: at its peak, the site received as many as 300,000 hits per day. Fans connected with Jon's "loneliness and desperation" and found his "crazy antics" humorous; Jim Davis himself called Walsh's strips an "inspired thing to do" and said that "some of work better ".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/business/media/02garfield.html|title=Is the Main Character Missing? Maybe Not.|date=June 2, 2008|access-date=July 25, 2008|first=Cate|last=Doty|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/03/AR2008040303083.html|title=When the Cat's Away, Neurosis Is on Display|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=April 6, 2008|access-date=July 25, 2008}}</ref> Ballantine Books, which publishes the ''Garfield'' books, released a volume of ''Garfield Minus Garfield'' strips on October 28, 2008. The volume retains Davis as author and features a foreword by Walsh.<ref name="tabby" />
=== Secondary characters ===


On June 19, 2020, the website was shut down during the strip's 42nd anniversary, following ] acquisition of Paws, Inc. in August 2019. The website now redirects to Nick.com, with an alternative link to GoComics.
* '''Hubert and Reba''' are Jon's stereotypical "grumpy old neighbors."


==={{Anchor|Television}} Television===
* '''Mrs. Feeny''' is another neighbor, who has never appeared in the strip. Garfield likes tormenting her little dog (who has also never appeared) and as such Mrs. Feeny is always complaining to Jon about Garfield over the phone.
<!-- redirect here from ] -->
Garfield's animation debut was on ''The Fantastic Funnies'', which aired on CBS on May 15, 1980, voiced by actor ]. ''Garfield'' was one of the strips featured, introduced as a newcomer (the strip was only two years old at the time). From 1982 to 1991, twelve primetime ''Garfield'' cartoon specials and one hour-long primetime documentary celebrating the character's 10th anniversary were aired; ] voiced Garfield in all of them. A Saturday morning cartoon show, '']'', aired for seven seasons from 1988 to 1994. This adaption also starred Music as the voice of Garfield.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lorenzo Music |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0615718/?ref_=tt_ov_st |access-date=December 29, 2022 |website=IMDb}}</ref>


'']'', a ] series, started development in 2007 to coincide with the strip's 30th anniversary in 2008.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=23758|title=New CG Garfield To Air On Cartoon Network|date=June 26, 2008|publisher=]|access-date=January 5, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305215116/http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=23758|archive-date=March 5, 2009}}</ref> It premiered in France in December 2008 and made its U.S. debut on ] on November 2, 2009. A new series is currently in development at ] after ] acquired the franchise.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://english.newsnationtv.com/entertainment/hollywood/new-garfield-series-set-at-nickelodeon-233394.html|title=Nickelodeon developing a new series on Garfield|website=News Nation|author=PTI|date=August 7, 2019|access-date=September 23, 2020|location=Los Angeles, California}}</ref>
*'''Ellen''' is a local girl whom Jon often trys to go out with. She has never appeared in the strip, but many strips focus on Jon phoning Ellen asking for a date. She usually asks him to do something very stupid first, before refusing.


====TV series====
*'''The Caped Avenger''' is Garfield's ], which mimicks ]. However, The Caped Avenger is a coward, and runs off when in danger. Usually, danger is represented by an overly large dog.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Title !! Broadcast date !! End date
!Network
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1988|09|17}} || {{End date|1994|12|10}}
|]
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|2009|11|2}} || {{End date|2016|10|24}}
|]<br />]
|-
| '']''|| {{Start date|2019|12|6}} || {{End date|2020|6|17}}
|]
|-
| Untitled ''Garfield'' series || colspan="2" | TBA
|]
|-
|}


====Primetime specials====
* Jon's house is also inhabited by '''mice''' (unnamed, though one of their first appearances shows one of them giving Garfield a business card for "Herman Vermin"), enjoying a quite full social life&mdash;to much annoyance of Jon. Garfield, however, cannot be bothered to chase them, and according to him they tend to either bribe or blackmail him to stay so. One particular mouse in the comic strip started appearing in 1984, and was named '''Squeak''' by Garfield, but he looked no different from the other mice. The way you know Garfield is talking to Squeak in particular is when there are no other mice around to confuse him with.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Title !! Broadcast date !! Emmy result
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1982|10|25}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/here-comes-garfield |title=Here Comes Garfield |publisher=] |access-date=October 27, 2016}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1983|10|28}} || {{won}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-town |title=Garfield on the Town |publisher=] |access-date=October 27, 2016}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1984|10|26}} || {{won}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-rough |title=Garfield in the Rough |publisher=] |access-date=October 27, 2016}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1985|10|30}} || {{won}}<ref>{{Citation | last =Staff | title =1985–1986 Emmy Awards | work =Information Please Database | publisher =] | url =http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0151578.html | access-date = December 3, 2007 }}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1986|5|27}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-paradise |title=Garfield in Paradise |access-date=December 10, 2016 |publisher=]}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1987|5|8}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-goes-hollywood |title=Garfield Goes Hollywood |access-date=December 10, 2016 |publisher=]}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1987|12|21}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-christmas-special |title=A Garfield Christmas Special |publisher=] |access-date=November 6, 2016}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1988|11|22}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-his-9-lives |title=Garfield: His 9 Lives |access-date=December 10, 2016 |work=]}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1989|5|23}} || {{won}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.emmys.com/shows/garfield-babes-and-bullets |title=Garfield: Babes and Bullets |access-date=December 10, 2016 |work=]}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1989|11|22}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.emmys.com/shows/garfields-thanksgiving |title=Garfield's Thanksgiving |access-date=December 10, 2016 |work=]}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1990|5|18}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.emmys.com/shows/garfields-feline-fantasies |title=Garfield's Feline Fantasies |access-date=December 10, 2016 |work=]}}</ref>
|-
| '']'' || {{Start date|1991|5|8}} || {{nom}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Terrace |first1=Vincent |title=Television Specials: 5,336 Entertainment Programs, 1936–2012 |date=2013 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9780786474448 |page=162 |edition=2nd}}</ref>
|}


===Films===
* Garfield's otherwise boring life is occasionally enriched by '''spiders''', who sometimes walk around the house or dangle from the ceiling&mdash;and who he squishes with rolled-up newspapers. This, of course, leads to several attempts by the spiders to get back at Garfield&mdash;unsuccessful in most cases.
{{Main|Garfield: The Movie|Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties|The Garfield Movie}}
A ]/] film titled '']'' was released in theaters on June 11, 2004, and a sequel titled '']'' was released on June 16, 2006. Both films were released by ] with actor ] voicing the character in both films. Despite receiving negative reviews from critics, the films were both commercial successes. Three direct-to-video films were released by ] in cooperation with ]: '']'' on November 20, 2007, '']'' on August 5, 2008, and '']'' on June 16, 2009.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McCance |first=Rodney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1WA8zgEACAAJ |title=The Creation of Garfield |date=2021 |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Limited |isbn=978-1-5267-6834-6 |language=en}}</ref>


On May 24, 2016, it was announced that ] would develop a new CG-animated '']'' film, with John Cohen and Steven P. Wegner producing, and ] directing the feature.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2016/film/news/garfield-animated-movie-alcon-1201781160/|title='Garfield' Animated Movie in the Works at Alcon|date=May 26, 2016|access-date=November 27, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://movieweb.com/movie/garfield/|title=Garfield is Getting a Fully CG-Animated Movie Reboot|access-date=November 27, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/mark-dindal-to-direct-all-animated-garfield-feature-for-alcon-166468.html|title=Mark Dindal To Direct All-Animated 'Garfield' Feature For Alcon|date=November 12, 2018|website=Cartoon Brew}}</ref> In August 2019, ] acquired the rights to Garfield, leaving the status of the movie for the time uncertain, with Dindal confirming that the film was still in production in December 2020.<ref name="Steinberg" /><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.laughingplace.com/w/articles/2020/12/18/wdfm-mark-dindal-event-recap/|title=Happily Ever After Hours with Animator and Filmmaker Mark Dindal|date=December 19, 2020|access-date=December 20, 2020}}</ref> On November 1, 2021, ] was announced as the voice of Garfield, with animation being provided by ], a production company of the film. ] was announced as the screenwriter of the film, reuniting him with Dindal after they worked together on '']''. ] will maintain global distribution rights for the film, apart from China.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2021/11/garfield-chris-pratt-to-play-title-character-in-alcon-animated-film-1234865972/|title='Garfield': Chris Pratt To Voice Title Character In Alcon Entertainment's Animated Film|last=Grobar|first=Matt|work=]|date=November 1, 2021|access-date=November 2, 2021}}</ref> On May 24, 2022, ] joined the voice cast as Vic, Garfield's father.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grobar |first=Matt |date=2022-05-24 |title=Samuel L. Jackson Joins Chris Pratt In Alcon Entertainment's 'Garfield'|url=https://deadline.com/2022/05/samuel-l-jackson-joins-chris-pratt-in-alcon-entertainments-garfield-1235031537/ |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=Deadline}}</ref> In September 2022, the film was scheduled to be released on May 24, 2024.<ref name="collider_com" />
* When on diet, Garfield often has '''hallucinations''', taking shape in '''walking food''' with limbs and a provocative manner of encouraging Garfield to eat them.


===Video games===
* Three trusty household appliances in the comic are the '''talking bathroom scale''', the '''TV''' and the '''alarm clock'''. The three objects have quite different personalities: The scale usually allows itself to be quite cynical and crude about Garfield's overweight state. But sometimes when it does so, it gets smashed or thrown into a trash can. A cover on one of the Garfield paperbacks show Garfield putting a foot on the scale and it heaving with agony. The clock usually retracts from ringing loud and waking Garfield, since he tends to smash it into pieces. The TV also speaks to Garfield by itself on occasion, usually trying to persuade Garfield into continuing to watch it or turning it off. Once, when Garfield fell asleep in front of the TV, the TV yelled at him to turn it off.
{{See also|Garfield merchandise#Video games}}
A ''Garfield'' video game was developed by ] for its ] home ] and appears in their 1984 catalog.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://atariage.com/catalog_page.html?CatalogID=67&currentPage=4|title=Atari (CO25618-001 Rev. A)|publisher=Atari, Inc.|work=AtariAge|date=1984|access-date=May 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615151625/http://atariage.com/catalog_page.html?CatalogID=67&currentPage=4|archive-date=June 15, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, after ] of its home games and computers division, owner ] decided the character's ] were too expensive given the ] of the ] at the time, and the game was cancelled.<ref name="garfieldproto">{{cite web|url=http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/garfield/garfield.htm|title=Garfield|publisher=AtariProtos|access-date=May 24, 2018}}</ref> A ] of the game was however released with Jim Davis' blessing.<ref name="garfieldproto"/>


'']'' is a 1987 video game for the ], ], ], ] and the ] based on the ]. Towa Chiki made '']'' for the ], released only in Japan in 1989. ] also made the 1995 video game '']'' for the ], ] and Windows 3.1 computers. Other companies made games, such as '']'' for the ], published by Game Factory, '']'' for DS, ''Garfield's Funfest'' for DS, and '']'' for ]. On PlayStation 2 were ''Garfield'' and ''Garfield 2'' (known in the US as ''Garfield, a Tale of Two Kitties''). '']'' was also made for PS2. ''Garfield: Saving Arlene'' was only released in Japan and in the United Kingdom. And recent additions for mobile devices are "Garfield's Diner" and "Garfield's Zombie Defense".{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
* '''Clive''' is Garfield's invisible friend. He is another way through which Garfield plays pranks on and irritates Jon and Odie.


] also released a Garfield ] titled '']'' in 1991, which met with mild success.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}
* '''Binky the Clown''' is a television personality noted for his extremely loud and piercing greetings, most notably "HEEEEEEEY, KIDS!"


In 2012, a series of Garfield video games was launched by French publisher ], including ''My Puzzles with Garfield!'', ''Multiplication Tables with Garfield'', '']'', '']'', and ''Garfield's Match Up''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Farrugia|first=Nathan|url=http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/2013/10/garfield-kart-new-details-and-pictures/|title=Garfield Kart New Details and Pictures – Capsule Computers|publisher=Capsulecomputers.com.au|access-date=May 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812130505/http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/2013/10/garfield-kart-new-details-and-pictures/|archive-date=August 12, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*'''Stretch''' is Garfield's rubber chicken, who was given to Garfield on his 7th birthday. It only appeared for a week after, yet makes cameo appearences from time to time, mainly used as a weapon against Jon.


Garfield appears as a playable character in several Nickelodeon crossover games, including '']'', '']'', and '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.ign.com/articles/nickelodeon-all-star-brawl-garfield|title=Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl's First DLC Character is Garfield|last=Bailey|first=Kat|date=December 7, 2021|website=IGN|access-date=December 7, 2021}}</ref>
*Garfield loves to eat '''sparrows''', and has many attempts to catch them (most of the time succeeding), most noteably his "barbeque bird bath" and his various bird disguises.


===Stage===
*A '''tree''' is always trying to encourage Garfield to climb him, always ending in Garfield falling for its "same old lies". In the beginning, he sits on a tree branch, but more recently finds himself gripping the branch by his front paws and dangling.
], producer of '']'', discussed making a Garfield stage musical, but due to some complications, it never got off ground. A full-length stage musical, titled "Garfield Live", was planned to kick off its US tour in September 2010, but got moved to January 18, 2011, where it premiered in ]. The book was written by Jim Davis, with music and lyrics by Michael Dansicker and Bill Meade, and it was booked by AWA Touring Services. The opening song, "Cattitude", can be heard on the national tour's website, along with two more, "On the Fence" and "Going Home!".<ref>{{cite web|title=Garfield Live on Stage|url=http://garfieldthemusical.com/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011093814/http://garfieldthemusical.com/|archive-date=October 11, 2009}}</ref> When the North American tour concluded in 2012, it toured throughout Asia.


===Comic book===
*A recurring plot in the strip is Garfield eating Jon's various '''pet fish''', which causes Jon to get mad. In an attempt to prevent Garfield from eating his second pet fish one week, he lets Garfield name it. Ironically, '''Second Helping''' (the fish Garfield named) lasted to the end of the strip, an event very rare in a Garfield comic. Garfield once had a '''staring contest''' with a goldfish, causing his eyeballs to dry out.
In agreement with Paws, ] launched in May 2012 a monthly ''Garfield'' comic book, with the first issue featuring a story written by ] (who has supervised '']'' and '']'') and illustrated by Davis's long-time assistant Gary Barker.<ref>{{cite web|title=New Garfield Comic Book|url=http://www.garfield.com/news/stories.html?boom&boom}}</ref>


===Art book===
*A '''little chick''' that looks up to Garfield and calls him "Daddy" (it was originally "Mommy" until Garfield explained to the little guy what ''gender'' was). He is a nuisance to Garfield who, oddly enough, is reluctant to eat the little guy (for some strange reason, the thought just never crossed his mind). The chick doesn't like lasagna.
In 2016, ] signed an agreement with Paws, Inc to publish an art book on the art of author Jim Davis, titled ''The Art of Jim Davis' Garfield''.<ref name="Herman">{{cite web|last=Herman|first=Daniel|title= THE ART OF JIM DAVIS' GARFIELD TO BE RELEASED BY HERMES PRESS|url=http://majorspoilers.com/2016/03/21/solicitations-art-jim-davis-garfield-released-hermes-press/|work=Major Spoilers|date=March 21, 2016|access-date=March 21, 2016}}</ref> The book includes an essay by author ] and other original material, and was released in July 2016 for ].<ref name="Herman"/>


===Restaurant===
*A '''big, vicious dog''' often enjoys barking at Garfield. His rear end is rarely seen. He is almost always seen next to a "'''Beware of Dog'''" sign, hence the name he's been given by several fans (another one is '''Chain Dog''').
In 2018, a ] themed after the franchise known as ] was opened in ]. Customers order food through the official mobile app, which also contains games and allows users to purchase episodes of ''Garfield and Friends''. The restaurant serves lasagna, Garfield-shaped pizza, "]", and Garfield-shaped dark chocolate bars. A second location opened in ] in 2019.<ref>{{cite web |last1=O’Kane |first1=Josh |title=Canadian entrepreneur behind GarfieldEATS wants to disrupt fast-food, one lasagna at a time |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadian-entrepreneur-behind-garfieldeats-wants-to-disrupt-fast-food/ |website=The Globe and Mail |access-date=20 June 2020 |date=5 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bowman |first1=Lisa |title=There's a food delivery app only sells Garfield themed cuisine |url=https://metro.co.uk/2018/04/12/food-delivery-app-sells-garfield-themed-cuisine-7462293/ |website=Metro |access-date=20 June 2020 |date=12 April 2018}}</ref> Due to the ] and a dispute over rent, the restaurant closed in 2020.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brimstin |first=Chelsea |title=Toronto 'Garfield'-themed pizza restaurant GarfieldEATS has closed |website=Indie88 |url=https://indie88.com/toronto-garfield-themed-pizza-restaurant-garfieldeats-has-closed/ |date=12 Nov 2020}}</ref>


==Main characters==
===Television series only===
{{Main|List of Garfield characters{{!}}List of ''Garfield'' characters}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="3" | Characters
! rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | ''The Fantastic Funnies''
! rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | ]
! colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | Television series
! colspan="3" |Direct-to-DVD films
! colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" | Theatrical films
|-
! style="text-align:center;" | '']''
! style="text-align:center;" | '']''
!'']''
!'']''
!'']''
! style="text-align:center;" | '']''
! style="text-align:center;" | '']''
! style="text-align:center;" | '']''
|-
! 1980
! 1982–1991
! 1988–1994
! 2009–2016
!2007
!2008
!2009
! 2004
! 2006
! 2024
|-
! ]
| ]
| colspan="2" | ]
| colspan="4" | ]
| colspan="2" | ]
| ]
|-
! rowspan="2" | ]
| rowspan="2" | Thom Huge
| ]
| rowspan="2" | Thom Huge
| colspan="4" rowspan="2" | ]
| rowspan="2" colspan="2" | ]
| rowspan="2" | ]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grobar |first=Matt |date=2022-08-17 |title='Garfield': Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Hannah Waddingham & Cecily Strong Board Animated Feature From Alcon Entertainment |url=https://deadline.com/2022/08/garfield-adds-ving-rhames-nicholas-hoult-hannah-waddingham-cecily-strong-1235094576/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
| Thom Huge
|-
! ]
| style="background:lightgrey;" |
| colspan="6" | ]
| colspan="2" {{N/A|''Uncredited dog''}}
| ]
|-
! Dr. Liz Wilson
| style="background:lightgrey;" |
| colspan="3" | ]
| colspan="3" |
| colspan="2" | ]
| Dev Joshi
|-
! Nermal
| colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;" |
| ]
| colspan="4" | ]
| ]
| style="background:lightgrey;" |
| {{N/A|''Silent cameo''}}
|-
! Arlene
| colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;" |
| {{N/A|''Silent cameo''}}
| colspan="4" | ]
| ]
| colspan="2" style="background:lightgrey;" |
|}


Through the Garfield strips, there have been many additional characters, but the main ones are described here.
*'''Cactus Jake''' a ] cowboy who happens to be a friend of Jon. He was seen only in the TV series and had a habit of saying Garfield's name wrong.


===Garfield===
*'''Al G. Swindler''' is, as his name suggests, a swindler, often conning Jon whenever he can. He only appeared in the TV series, and at the end of the episodes he was in, he would usually say, "It's getting tougher and tougher to make an honest buck these days."
'''First appearance: June 19, 1978'''
] wishing Garfield a happy birthday during the June 19th 2003 House Session]]
{{quote box|quote=I'm not overweight, I'm undertall.|source= —'']'' (1980)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pressroom.garfield.com/garfield_bio/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030410100409/http://pressroom.garfield.com/garfield_bio/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 10, 2003|title=The Garfield PressRoom: A Brief History|publisher=Paws Inc.|access-date=July 26, 2008|df=mdy-all}}</ref>|width=310px}}


] is an orange, fuzzy ] born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant (later revealed in the television special '']'' to be Mama Leoni's Italian Restaurant) who immediately ate all the pasta and lasagna in sight, thus developing his love and obsession for lasagna and ].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1984/12/13|title=Garfield|date=December 13, 1984|publisher=Gocomics.com|access-date=January 25, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite video|people=Phil Roman (Director), ] (Voice)|title=Garfield: His Nine Lives |medium=Television (Original), VHS|publisher=]}}</ref>
*'''The Buddy Bears''' are a trio of annoying singing bear cubs who encourage viewers to "always agree with the group" (similar to the ]). Their names are '''Bobby''', '''Billy''', and '''Bernie'''. The only disagreement they've ever had was over pizza toppings, which supposedly no one can agree on. They only appeared in the TV series, and Garfield has remarked that he "hates Buddy Bear episodes."


Gags in the strips commonly deal with Garfield's obesity (in one strip, Jon jokes: "I wouldn't say Garfield is fat, but the last time he got on a ], the two guys on top starved to death")<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1980/05/02|title=Garfield|date=May 2, 1980|publisher=Gocomics.com|access-date=January 25, 2022}}</ref> and his disdain of any form of exertion or work. He is known for saying "breathing is exercise".
* In the Garfield TV series, '''Binky the Clown''' became more of a regular, and would modify his greeting to suit who it was he was greeting, such as "HEEEEEEEY, CAT!" He also occasionally had his own segment on the show, called ''Screaming With Binky''.


Though Garfield can be very cynical, he does have a soft side for his teddy bear, Pooky, food, and sleep, and during one Christmas he says, "They say I have to get up early, be nice to people, skip breakfast… I wish it would never end." However, in the feature film '']'' and its sequels, Garfield is better behaved, friendlier towards Jon and Odie, less self-centered, and more sympathetic.
* '''Squeak's''' TV show counterpart went by the name '''Floyd''' and was able to be told apart by being the only mouse with oval-shaped eyes like the other characters. The mouse character in the movie was named '''Louis'''.


It has been wondered by many readers if Garfield can actually be understood by the human characters around him. Sometimes, it seems like Jon can hear him. However, it is mentioned in more than one strip that Jon cannot understand Garfield.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/2009/08/15|title=Garfield|date=August 15, 2009|publisher=Gocomics.com|access-date=January 25, 2022}}</ref> However, in the feature film '']'' and its sequels, Garfield and the other animals (save for Odie) are able to talk to, and be understood by, Jon and the other humans. In the April 1 (]), 1997, strip drawn by the artists of '']'' as part of the ],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1997/04/01|title=Garfield|date=April 1, 1997|publisher=Gocomics.com|access-date=January 25, 2022}}</ref> Garfield, still with thought balloons, can be understood by Jon.
== Themes and Settings ==


To break the fourth wall, June 19 is celebrated within the strip as Garfield's birthday. The appearance in 1979 claimed it to be his first birthday, although in the first appearance of the strip (June 19, 1978), he was portrayed as a fully grown cat, implying that the birthday is for the strip itself.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1978/06/19|title=Garfield|date=June 19, 1978|publisher=Gocomics.com|access-date=January 25, 2022}}</ref>
Usually, the standard setting is Garfield standing on a table or floor, always flat. Around 80% of the comic takes place as such. But occasionally, Garfield ventures elsewhere. When Garfield goes somewhere else, he'll usually spend the week in that area (or even two).


===Jon Arbuckle===
* '''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.
'''First appearance: June 19, 1978'''


{{quote box|quote=''Jon:'' Here's my sixth-grade report card. My parents were so proud.<br />
* '''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. He finds it a lot easier to capture flowers though, and often eats them.
''Garfield, reading the report card:'' "Jon has not shoved any crayons up his nose this term."|source= —''Garfield'' (1996)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1996/ga960311.gif|title=Garfield|date=March 11, 1996|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref>|width=310px}}


] (Full name: Jonathan Q. Arbuckle) is Garfield's owner, usually depicted as an awkward clumsy ] who has trouble finding a date. Jon had a crush on Liz (Garfield's veterinarian) and is now dating her. Jon disapproves of Garfield's "don't care, not interested", attitude and often encourages his pet to take an interest in the world around him, sometimes stating an interesting fact or asking a philosophical question in an attempt to prompt Garfield into thought. Garfield tends to brush off these attempts with a simple yet logical remark, and despite the trouble Garfield causes, Jon has a heart of gold and is very tolerant of Garfield's shortcomings, a fact which Garfield often takes advantage of. Jon's exact age is unknown, as in one 1980 strip where he stated he was 29 (though the fact he said that he would be 30 if he wasn't sick a year and this was said in the context of a joke told to Garfield makes it possible he is a different age) and in an episode of ''The Garfield Show'' he was stated to be 22. His birthday is July 28.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gocomics.com/mobile/garfield/2005/07/28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808190758/http://www.gocomics.com/mobile/garfield/2005/07/28|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 8, 2016|title=Garfield|date=July 28, 2005|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 10, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gocomics.com/mobile/garfield/2008/07/28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808210333/http://www.gocomics.com/mobile/garfield/2008/07/28|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 8, 2016|title=Garfield|date=July 28, 2008|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 10, 2016}}</ref>
* Early in the series, Garfield would spend time on the '''window ledge''' and always get trapped in the roll-up blinds This culminated when at one point, Garfield, Odie, Jon, and two complete strangers got trapped in the blinds. After this, Jon bought Venetian blinds.


Jon loves (or occasionally hates) Garfield and all cats. Many gags focus on this; his inability to get a date is usually attributed to his lack of social skills, his poor taste in clothes (Garfield remarked in one strip after seeing his closet that "two hundred moths committed suicide";<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/2002/ga020110.gif|title=Garfield|date=January 10, 2002|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> in another, the "geek police" ordered Jon to "throw out his tie"),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1989/ga890811.gif|title=Garfield|date=August 11, 1989|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> and his eccentric interests which range from stamp collecting to measuring the growth of his toenails to watching movies with "] ]s". Other strips portray him as lacking intelligence (he is seen reading a ] in one strip).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1990/ga900324.gif|title=Garfield|date=March 24, 1990|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref>
* '''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.


Jon was born on a farm that apparently contained few amenities; in one strip, his father, upon seeing indoor plumbing, remarks: "Woo-ha! Ain't science something?"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1984/ga841127.gif|title=Garfield|date=November 27, 1984|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> Jon occasionally visits his parents, brother and grandmother at their farm. It was implied that Jon is inspired by a drawing of Davis himself when he was first drawing the strip. Jon was portrayed as a ] in the first strip<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gocomics.com/garfield/1978/06/19|title=Garfield by Jim Davis for June 19, 1978 {{!}} GoComics.com|last=Davis|first=Jim|date=June 19, 1978|website=GoComics|language=en|access-date=September 30, 2019}}</ref> and occasional others in the early years; Davis stated his intent had been to express his own frustrations as a cartoonist. Ultimately, Jon's job has been referenced far more frequently in ''Garfield'' animated series than in the strip.
* 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.


===Odie===
* Sometimes Jon takes Garfield to the '''park'''. Jon tries to meet girls in the park, but always fails miserably and humorously.
'''First appearance: August 8, 1978'''<ref>{{cite web|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|work=Garfield.com|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1978/ga780808.gif|date=August 8, 1978|access-date=August 7, 2006}}</ref>


{{quote box|quote=''Jon:'' I think I'm having some kind of identity crisis.
* '''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.


''Garfield, walking past Odie who is lying in a kitchen drawer:'' He thinks '''he's''' having an identity crisis ... Odie thinks he's a potato peeler.|source= —''Garfield'' (1991)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1991/ga910912.gif|title=Garfield|date=September 12, 1991|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref>|width=310px}}
* '''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.


] is a yellow, long-eared ] with a large, slobbering tongue, who walks on all four legs, though occasionally he will walk on two like Garfield. He was originally owned by Jon's friend ], though Jon adopted him after Lyman was written out of the strip. The book ''Garfield: His 9 Lives'' (1984) ] Odie's origin: there is no mention of Lyman, and Odie was a puppy when he was acquired by Jon as company for Garfield (when Garfield was a kitten).
* '''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.


Odie is younger than Garfield and usually portrayed as naïve, happy, affectionate and blissfully unaware of Garfield's cynical, sadistic nature, despite the physical abuse Garfield exhibits toward him, including regularly kicking him off the kitchen table or tricking him into going over the edge himself. On some occasions, however, he is depicted more intelligently, as in one strip, in which he holds a heavy rock to prevent Garfield from doing this, and actually hurts Garfield's foot. In one strip when Garfield and Jon are out of the house, Odie is seen reading '']'' and watching ''An Evening With Mozart'' on television,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1989/ga890427.gif|title=Garfield|date=April 27, 1989|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> but in "Ask a Dog" strips, he is depicted as illiterate and has to be read to by Garfield. Odie has only thought once. In another strip, published on January 28, 2010, he is seen solving Jon's ] puzzle.
* '''The window''' is a setting showing Garfield looking from inside the house, making comments on events going on outside.


===Dr. Liz Wilson===
* Garfield sometimes tries to go into show business, attempting to entertain various town cats and dogs (unseen) while on the '''fence''' at night. This often results in Garfield failing and being pelted with tomatoes.
]
'''First appearance: June 26, 1979'''


{{quote box|quote=''Jon:'' Tell me, Liz, haven't we met somewhere before? A rice paddy in Hong Kong?
* 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.


''Liz:'' Look, jerk. I'll be the vet for your cat, but I won't play ] for your stupid lines. Understood?
* '''The used car lot''' is an entertaining scene that parodizes the business. Jon always gets conned by the overly clever and sneaky salesman, while Garfield knows it all along. It's paralleled very in very clever ways by the '''used refridgerator store''' and '''used christmas tree lot''' which appear later.


''Jon, shocked:'' Uh-huh. So long, doctor.
* Other themes include Garfield's week-long interactions with any one minor character, event, or thing, such as Nermal, Arlene, the mailman, the alarm clock, the scale, the TV, Pooky, spiders, mice, coffee, hamburgers (chicken, early on), balls of yarn, rubber chickens, dieting, shedding, pie throwing, fishing, Mondays, Clive (Garfield's invisible friend), 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 view. Most of ] is spent preparing for ], with a predictable focus on presents. Every week before ], the strip focuses on his birthday, which Garfield dreads. Occasionally the strip celebrates ] as well with scary-themed jokes. Jokes are introduced seasonally, with snow-related gags common in ] or ] and beach or heat themed jokes in the summer.


''Liz:'' Have a nice day.|source= —''Garfield'' (1979)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1979/ga790630.gif|title=Garfield|date=June 30, 1979|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=March 29, 2014}}</ref>|width=310px}}
== Garfield marks his territory ==
Dr. Liz Wilson is Garfield and Odie's sarcastic ] and a long time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She has a somewhat deadpan, sardonic persona and almost always reacts negatively to Jon's outlandish and goofball behavior but can even find it endearing on occasion. Jon often attempts to ask her out on a date, but rarely succeeds; however, in an extended story arc from June 20 to July 29, 2006 (with the main event taking place on July 28), Liz and Jon kiss, and have been a couple ever since.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2006&addr=060728|title=Garfield's Comic Strip Archives at Garfield.com – The Official Web Site of Garfield & Friends|publisher=Garfield.com|access-date=September 3, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711072545/http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2006&addr=060728|archive-date=July 11, 2011 }}</ref> Her first appearance was in a 1976 ''Jon'' strip, where Jon runs into her at a laundromat. This became a running gag of the strip, where Jon would often go out of his way to bump into her (a 1976 strip, for example, sees Jon stalking Liz in an alleyway.) in a 1977 strip, Liz takes a job as a waitress at Irma's diner, where Jon would also frequently ask her out to no avail. It wouldn't be until ''Garfield'' was syndicated where Liz would work as a vet.


==Recurring subjects and themes==
* His album: '']''
{{Multiple issues|section=true|
* His suction-cupped kitties: "Stuck on You" phenomenon across America and takes several years for production met the demand (Which was created after an idea trade with ] in 1990, which involved what type of object could hold the thing other than sticky items).
{{more citations needed section|date=June 2022}}
* His comic strips: published in over 2570 papers in the world, a ]
{{Overly detailed|section|nosplit|date=June 2023}}
}}
Many of the gags focus on Garfield's obsessive eating and obesity; his dislike of spiders; his hatred of Mondays, diets, and any form of exertion; his constant shedding (which annoys Jon); and his abuse of Odie and Jon as well as his obsession with mailing ] to ], or simply throwing him ''through'' the front door. Though he will eat nearly anything (with the exception of ]s and ]), Garfield is particularly fond of ]; he also enjoys eating Jon's houseplants and other pets (mainly birds and fish).


He also has odd relationships with household pests; Garfield generally spares mice, and even cooperates with them to cause mischief (much to Jon's chagrin), but will readily swat or pound spiders flat. Other gags focus on Jon's poor social skills and inability to get a date; before he started dating Liz, he often tried to get dates, usually without success (in one strip, after failing to get a date with "Nancy", he tries getting a date with her mother and grandmother; he ended up getting "shot down by three generations").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1996/ga960614.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=June 14, 1996|access-date=August 5, 2008}}</ref> When he does get a date, it usually goes awry; Jon's dates have slashed his tires, been tranquilized, and called the police when he stuck carrots in his ears. The storylines featuring Jon's dates rarely appear now. Before, he had dates with many odd characters, whereas now, he exclusively dates Liz.
== Television ==
* '']'' (], ]&ndash;])
* ''Garfield Gets a Life'' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield's Feline Fantasies''' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield's Thanksgiving'' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield's Babes and Bullets''' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield: His 9 Lives'' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield Goes Hollywood'' (animated special) ]
* ''A Garfield Christmas Special'' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield in Paradise'' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield's Halloween Adventure'' (animated special) ]
* ''Garfield in the Rough'' (animated special)]
* ''Garfield on the Town'' (animated special) ]
* ''Here Comes Garfield'' (animated special) ]


Garfield's world has specific locations that appear normally on the comic strips, like the vet's office (a place he loathes). 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. The terrible food is the center of most of the jokes, along with the poor management. 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.
== Books ==


On the farm, Jon's mother will cook huge dinners; Garfield hugs her for this. Jon has a grandmother who, in a strip, once kicked Odie; Garfield subsequently hugged her. Jon's parents have twice visited Jon, Garfield, and Odie in the city. Jon's father drove into town on his ] (which he ]) and brought a rooster to wake him up. As Garfield has a love for food, they will often eat out at restaurants. 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 takes Liz on a date, Garfield occasionally tags along—once, he ate the bread and other food at an Italian restaurant they went to.<ref name="The Garfield Vault Strip">{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/2007/ga070819.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=August 19, 2007|access-date=June 6, 2008|work=Garfield.com}}</ref>
===Numbered Paperbacks===


Frequently, the characters break the ], mostly to explain something to the readers, talk about a subject that often sets up the strip's punchline (like Jon claiming that pets are good for exercise right before he finds Garfield in the kitchen and chases him out),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1992/ga920125.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=January 25, 1992|access-date=June 21, 2008|work=Garfield.com}}</ref> or give a mere glare when a character is belittled or not impressed. Sometimes, this theme revolves around the conventions of the strip; for example, in one strip, Garfield catches a cold and complains about it, noting that his thoughts are stuffed up.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1978/ga781127.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=November 27, 1978|access-date=June 21, 2008|work=Garfield.com}}</ref>
These books, generally released twice a year, contain reprints of the comic as it appears in newspapers daily. Printed in black and white, each book covers approximately six months of comics, including the larger weekend comics (although without color).


===Short storylines===
The titles of these books were styled as ], often 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 remaid in a more normal format, showing the Sunday strips as they usually are, instead of shrunken-down to meet the book size. The new versions of the books will also be released in paperback only, and in full color for the first time.
One particular semi-recurring storyline features Jon and Liz on a date in a restaurant. They sometimes are waited on by the Italian Armando, who is refined and sophisticated and shows a great loathing towards Jon, presumably for his immature and uncouth behavior at the prestigious eatery. On other occasions, the couple receives a different waiter, such as a large ogre-like man who intimidates Jon when he is about to report a complaint about the food.


Another commonly recurring character, although hardly ever seen, is Jon's neighbor, Mrs. Feeny. Garfield seems to take both enormous pride and excess zeal in doing whatever it takes to harass her, to the point that she even erects an electric fence (which does not stop him).
# ''Garfield At Large: His First Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Gains Weight: His Second Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Bigger than Life: His Third Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Weighs In: His Fourth Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Takes the Cake: His Fifth Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Eats His Heart Out: His Sixth Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Sits Around the House: His Seventh Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Tips the Scales: His Eighth Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Loses His Feet: His Nineth Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Makes it Big: His 10th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Rolls On: His 11th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Out to Lunch: His 12th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Food for Thought: His 13th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Swallows His Pride: His 14th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield World Wide: His 15th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Rounds Out: His 16th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Chews the Fat: His 17th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Goes to Waist: His 18th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Hangs Out: His 19th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Takes Up Space: His 20th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Says a Mouthful: His 21st Book'' ]
# ''Garfield By the Pound: His 22nd Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Keeps His Chins Up: His 23rd Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Takes His Licks: His 24th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Hits the Big Time: His 25th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Pulls his Weight: His 26th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Dishes it Out: His 27th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Life in the Fat Lane: His 28th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Tons of Fun: His 29th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Bigger and Better: His 30th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Hams it Up: His 31st Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Thinks Big: His 32nd Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Throws His Weight Around: His 33rd Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Life to the Fullest: His 34th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Feeds the Kitty: His 35th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Hogs the Spotlight: His 36th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Beefs Up: His 37th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Gets Cookin': His 38th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Eats Crow: His 39th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Survival of the Fattest: His 40th Book'' ]
# ''Garfield Older and Wider: His 41st Book'' ]


Other unique themes are things like "Garfield's Believe it or Don't",<ref>{{cite web|title=Garfield's Believe it, or DON'T|url=http://garfield.nfshost.com/?s=Garfield%27s+Believe+it%2C+or+DON%27T%21|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712032111/http://garfield.nfshost.com/?s=Garfield's+Believe+it,+or+DON'T!|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 12, 2012|publisher=Garfield.nfshost.com|access-date=April 15, 2012|last=Davis|first=Jim|author-link=Jim Davis (cartoonist)|date=January 20, 1986}}</ref> "Garfield's Law",<ref>{{cite web|title=Garfield's law|url=http://garfield.nfshost.com/?s=Garfield%27s+law|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710084143/http://garfield.nfshost.com/?s=Garfield's+law|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 10, 2012|publisher=garfield.nfshost.com|access-date=April 15, 2012|last=Davis|first=Jim|date=November 8, 1982}}</ref> "Garfield's History of Dogs",<ref>{{cite web|title=Garfield Comic Strips September 1980|url=http://garfield.nfshost.com/1980/09/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708094750/http://garfield.nfshost.com/1980/09/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 8, 2012|publisher=garfield.nfshost.com|access-date=April 15, 2012|last=Davis|first=Jim|date=September 1, 1980}}</ref> and "Garfield's History of Cats",<ref>{{cite web|title=Garfield's history of cats garfield.nfshost.com :: search garfield|url=http://garfield.nfshost.com/?s=Garfield%27s+history+of+cats|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709072827/http://garfield.nfshost.com/?s=Garfield's+history+of+cats|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 9, 2012|publisher=Garfield.nfshost.com|access-date=April 15, 2012|last=Davis|first=Jim|date=August 6, 1979}}</ref> which show science, history, and the world from Garfield's point of view. Another particular theme is "National Fat Week", where Garfield spends the week making fun of skinny people. Also, there was a storyline involving Garfield catching Odie eating his food and "kicking Odie into next week".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1984/ga840629.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=June 29, 1984|access-date=June 6, 2008|publisher=Garfield.com}}</ref> 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" (Garfield subsequently falls into his food by himself).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1984/ga840630.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=June 30, 1984|access-date=June 6, 2008|publisher=Garfield.com}}</ref>
== Movie ==


A few days after the storyline began, Garfield is lying in his bed with a "nagging feeling I'm forgetting something", with Odie landing on Garfield in the next panel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1984/ga840702.gif|title=The Garfield Vault Strip|date=July 2, 1984|access-date=June 6, 2008|publisher=Garfield.com}}</ref> Jon and Liz began to go out more frequently. Jon has started hiring pet sitters to look after Garfield and Odie, though they do not always work out. Two particular examples are Lillian, an eccentric (and very nearsighted) old lady with odd quirks, and Greta, a muscle-bound woman who was hired to look after the pets during New Year's Eve.
* ] (2004) &mdash; ], ], and ] as the voice of Garfield.


Most of December is spent preparing for Christmas, with a predictable focus on presents. Other Christmas themed strips include Jon's attempts at decorating the tree and house, or the attempt to buy the tree. Some years, the Christmas strips started as early as the end of November. Another example is "Splut Week", when Garfield tries to avoid pies that are thrown at him. For most of Garfield's history, being hit with a pie has inevitably resulted in the onomatopoeia "splut", hence the name.
== External links ==
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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. However, before his 29th birthday, Liz put Garfield on a diet. On June 19, 2007, Garfield was given the greatest birthday present: "I'M OFF MY DIET!" 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.
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One storyline, which ran the week before ] in 1989, is unique among Garfield strips in that it is not meant to be humorous.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/its-not-just-you-garfield-is-not-meant-to-be-funny-6199556/ |title=It's Not Just You: Garfield Is Not Meant to Be Funny |date=March 20, 2013 |access-date=April 29, 2018 |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |last=Eveleth |first=Rose |author-link=Rose Eveleth}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=June 2019}} It depicts Garfield awakening in a future in which the house is abandoned and he no longer exists. In Garfield's ''Twentieth Anniversary Collection'', in which the strips are reprinted, Jim Davis discusses the genesis for this series:
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{{blockquote|During a writing session for Halloween, I got the idea for this decidedly different series of strips. I wanted to scare people. And what do people fear most? Why, being alone. 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?'}}
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One of the recurring storylines involves Garfield getting lost or running away. The longest one of these lasted for over a month (in 1986, from August 25 to September 28); it began with Jon telling Garfield to go get the newspaper. Garfield walks outside to get it, but speculates about what will happen if he wanders off – and decides to find out. 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).
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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, ]s, a ], a snake, a ] and ], 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 join, and both going to a pet shop, Garfield and Odie make it back home.
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Another story involved Jon going away on a business trip around Christmas time, leaving Garfield a week's worth of food, which he devoured instantly. Garfield then leaves the house and gets locked out. He then reunites with his mother, and eventually makes it back home in the snow on Christmas Eve (December 3–23, 1984). Part of this storyline was taken from the 1983 Emmy-winning special '']''.

=== National Stupid Day ===
The November 11, 2010, strip featured an interaction between Garfield and a spider. The spider forcefully warns Garfield (who is brandishing a newspaper) that should he be squished, there will be an "annual day of remembrance" for him and that he will become famous. The final panel shows a classroom full of spiders, in which the teacher asks, "does anyone here know '''why''' we celebrate 'National Stupid Day'?"<ref name="NSD-NYT">{{Cite news |last=Itzkoff |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Itzkoff |date=November 12, 2010 |title=''Garfield'' creator apologizes for 'National Stupid Day' cartoon |work=] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/garfield-creator-apologizes-for-national-stupid-day-cartoon/ |access-date=April 1, 2024 |archive-date=November 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121202430/https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/garfield-creator-apologizes-for-national-stupid-day-cartoon/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Since November 11 is ] in the US, some readers expressed concern that the strip and its timing were mocking the holiday. Davis released a statement saying that he had no control over the strip's timing but nonetheless apologized for any offense it may have caused.<ref name="NSD-Reuters">{{Cite news |date=November 12, 2010 |title=''Garfield'' creator apologizes for Veterans Day strip |work=] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/comics-garfield/garfield-creator-apologizes-for-veterans-day-strip-idUSN1216970820101112/ |access-date=November 21, 2023 |archive-date=November 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121202428/https://www.reuters.com/article/comics-garfield/garfield-creator-apologizes-for-veterans-day-strip-idUSN1216970820101112/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Paws, Inc.==
{{main article|Paws, Inc.}}
Paws, Inc.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.send2press.com/PRnetwire/pr04_101203-nypaws.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041020045311/http://www.send2press.com/PRnetwire/pr04_101203-nypaws.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 20, 2004|title=Running Paws, Inc. – The Evolution of Dog Walking Reaches 100th Client – Business News from Send2Press Newswire 10/12/04|publisher=Send2press.com|date=October 12, 2004|access-date=January 10, 2010}}</ref> was founded in 1981 by ] to support the Garfield comic strip and its licensing. It is located in ], and has a staff of nearly 50 artists and licensing administrators. In 1994, the company purchased all rights to the Garfield comic strips from 1978 to 1993 from ]. However, the original black and white daily strips and original color Sunday strips remain copyrighted to United Feature Syndicate. The full-color daily strips and recolored Sunday strips are copyrighted to Paws as they are considered a different product. Though rights to the strip remain with Paws, Inc., it is currently distributed by the ]. In August 2019, Davis sold Paws, Inc. to ], who has placed Garfield under the ] banner.<ref name="Steinberg"/>

== See also ==
* {{Portal inline|1980s}}
* {{Portal inline|1990s}}
* {{Portal inline|Comics}}
* {{Portal inline|Cartoon}}
* {{Portal inline|United States}}

==Bibliography==
===Primary sources===
* {{Cite book|last=Davis|first=Jim|title=20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection|publisher=New York: Ballantine Books|year=1998|isbn=978-0-345-42126-5}}
* {{Cite book|last=Davis|first=Jim|title=In Dog Years I'd be Dead: Garfield at 25|publisher=Random House, Incorporated|year=2004|isbn=978-0-345-45204-7}}

===Secondary sources===
* {{Cite book |last1=Choron |first1=Sandra |last2=Choron |first2=Harry |last3=Moore |first3=Arden |year=2007 |title=Planet Cat: A Cat-alog |url=https://archive.org/details/planetcatcatalog00chor |url-access=registration |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-81259-2}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lang |first=J. Stephen |year=2004 |title=1,001 Things You Always Wanted to Know about Cats |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-7645-6926-5}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Hoffmann |first1=Frank W. |last2=Bailey |first2=William G. |year=1994 |title=Fashion & Merchandising Fads |url=https://archive.org/details/fashionmerchandi00hoff |url-access=registration |publisher=Haworth Press |isbn=978-1-56023-031-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hurd |first=Jud |year=2004 |title=Cartoon Success Secrets: A Tribute to 30 Years of Cartoonist Profiles |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |isbn=978-0-7407-3809-8}}
* {{Cite book |last=Inde |first=Vilis R. |year=1998 |title=Art in the Courtroom: Piracy or Fair Use? |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-95971-5}}
* {{Cite book |last=Mansour |first=David |year=2005 |title=From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |isbn=978-0-7407-5118-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Price |first=Nelson |year=1997 |title=Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers from Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman |publisher=Emmis Books |isbn=978-1-57860-006-9}}
* {{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Katharine M. |year=2001 |title=The Cat and the Human Imagination: Feline Images from Bast to Garfield |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-08750-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Phyllis |year=2007 |title=Indiana: Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places |publisher=Globe Pequot Press |isbn=978-0-7627-4414-5}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* {{Official website}}
*
* at ]. from the original on August 1, 2016.
*
*

{{Garfield|state=expanded}}
{{UniversalPressSyndicate}}

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Latest revision as of 03:25, 24 December 2024

Comic strip created by Jim Davis This article is about the comic strip. For the title character, see Garfield (character). For the U.S. president, see James A. Garfield. For other uses, see Garfield (disambiguation).

Garfield
An illustration of the characters in the comic strip Garfield.Center: Garfield (clockwise from bottom-left: Nermal, Odie, Arlene, and Pooky)
Author(s)Jim Davis
OwnerPaws, Inc.
(Viacom) (2019–2022)
(Paramount Global) (since 2022)
Websitewww.nick.com/garfield
www.gocomics.com/garfield
Current status/scheduleRunning/daily
Launch dateJune 19, 1978; 46 years ago (1978-06-19)
Syndicate(s)Universal Press Syndicate/Universal Uclick/Andrews McMeel Syndication (1994–present)
United Feature Syndicate (1978–1994)
Publisher(s)Random House (under Ballantine Books), occasionally Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)Gag-a-day
Humor
Preceded byJon (1976–1977) and Garfield (1977–1978), locally published strips in the Pendleton Times-Post

Garfield is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as Jon in 1976 (later changed to Garfield in 1977), then in nationwide syndication from 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, Odie the dog, and their owner Jon Arbuckle. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals; the comic held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.

Though its setting is rarely mentioned in print, Garfield takes place in Jim Davis's hometown of Muncie, Indiana, according to the television special Happy Birthday, Garfield. Common themes in the strip include Garfield's laziness, obsessive eating, love of coffee and lasagna, disdain of Mondays, and dieting. Garfield is also shown to manipulate people to get whatever he wants. The strip's focus is mostly on the interactions among Garfield, Jon, and Odie, but other recurring characters appear as well.

Garfield has been adapted into various other forms of media. Several half-hour television specials aired on CBS between 1982 and 1991, starting with Here Comes Garfield and ending with Garfield Gets a Life. Also airing on CBS from 1988 to 1994 was the animated series Garfield and Friends, which also adapted Davis's other comic strip U.S. Acres. All of these featured Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. The feature film Garfield: The Movie was released in 2004 and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties two years later. Both were live-action movies featuring a computer-animated Garfield voiced by Bill Murray. Another animated adaptation for television, The Garfield Show, aired on France 3 in France and Cartoon Network in the United States from 2009 to 2016. In addition, Garfield has been the subject of merchandise, video games, books, and other spin-off merchandise. The strip has also been re-published in compilations; the first of these, Garfield at Large (1980), developed what came to be known as the "Garfield format" for re-publication of newspaper comics in book form.

On August 6, 2019, before its merger with CBS Corporation to become ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), New York City–based Viacom announced that it would acquire Paws, Inc., including most rights to the Garfield franchise (the comics, merchandise and animated cartoons). The deal did not include the rights to the live-action Garfield films, which are still owned by The Walt Disney Company through its 20th Century Studios label, as well as The Garfield Movie which was released by Sony Pictures under its Columbia Pictures label in 2024. Jim Davis continues to make comics, and a new Garfield animated series is in production for Paramount Global subsidiary Nickelodeon.

History

A picture of cartoonist Jim Davis.
Cartoonist Jim Davis is the creator of Garfield

Cartoonist Jim Davis was born and raised in Muncie, Indiana. In 1973, while working as an assistant for T.K. Ryan's Tumbleweeds, he created the comic strip Gnorm Gnat, which ran only in the Pendleton Times of Pendleton, Indiana, from 1973 to 1975 and met with little success. Davis had tried to syndicate the strip, but was unsuccessful; he noted that one editor told him that his "art was good, his gags were great, nobody can identify with bugs." Davis decided to peruse current comic strips to determine what species of animal characters might be more popular. He felt that dogs were doing well, but noticed no prominent cats. Davis figured he could create a cat star, having grown up on a farm with twenty-five cats. Thus was created the character of Garfield.

The first Jon strip, which ran in the Pendleton Times on January 8, 1976

The title character Garfield was based on the cats Davis grew up around; he took his name and personality from Davis' grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, whom he described as "a large, cantankerous man." Garfield's human owner Jon Arbuckle derived his name from a 1950s coffee commercial. Jon's roommate Lyman, added to give Jon someone to talk with, carried on the name of an earlier Gnorm Gnat character. The final character was Lyman's dog Spot, who was renamed Odie so as to avoid confusion with a dog also named Spot in the comic strip Boner's Ark. From 1976 to early 1978, these characters appeared in a strip called Jon which also ran in the Times. In 1977, the strip's name was changed to Garfield. The Jon comic strip was largely unknown until 2019, when YouTuber Quinton Hoover found several microfilm archives of the Jon publications from the Pendleton Community Library and Indiana State Library. Jon first appeared in the Pendleton Times on January 8, 1976, just two weeks after Gnorm Gnat ended.

In March 1978, United Feature Syndicate accepted the strip for national distribution (which had been retitled Garfield on September 1, 1977), and the last Pendleton Times strip ran on March 2, 1978. United Feature Syndicate debuted the first strip nationwide in 41 newspapers, starting on June 19, 1978. After a test run, the Chicago Sun-Times dropped the Garfield strip, only to reinstate it after readers' complaints.

The appearance of the characters gradually changed over time; the left panel is from the March 7, 1980, strip; the right is from the July 6, 1990, strip

The strip underwent stylistic changes, evolving from the style of the 1976–83 strips, to a more cartoonish look from 1984 onward. This change has mainly affected Garfield's design, which underwent a "Darwinian evolution" in which he began walking on his hind legs, "slimmed down", and "stopped looking ... through squinty little eyes" His evolution, according to Davis, was to make it easier to "push Odie off the table" or "reach for a piece of pie". The redesign was in part on the advice of Davis's mentor and erstwhile rival Charles M. Schulz; though Schulz privately expressed some jealousy at Garfield overtaking his own strip Peanuts and thought Davis's characters were lacking in subtlety and nuance, he provided substantial advice to Davis over the years, particularly in setting the franchising and merchandising blueprint Schulz had built for Snoopy, which Davis adopted to great success for Garfield.

Garfield quickly became a commercial success. By the beginning of 1981, less than three years after its nationwide launch, the strip was in 850 newspapers and had sold over $15 million in merchandise. To manage the merchandise, Davis founded Paws, Inc. In 1982 the strip was appearing in more than 1,000 newspapers.

By 2002, Garfield became the world's most syndicated strip, appearing in 2,570 newspapers with 263 million readers worldwide; by 2004, Garfield appeared in nearly 2,600 newspapers and sold from $750 million to $1 billion worth of merchandise in 111 countries. In 1994, Davis's company, Paws, Inc., purchased all rights to the strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature.

While retaining creative control and being the only signer, Davis now only writes and usually does the rough sketches. Since the late 1990s most of the work has been done by long-time assistants Brett Koth and Gary Barker. Inking and coloring work is done by other artists, while Davis spends most of the time supervising production and merchandising the characters.

Content

Main article: List of Garfield characters

The strip's title character is Garfield, an obese orange tabby cat. Garfield's personality is defined by his sarcasm, laziness, and gluttony, with the character showing a particular affinity for lasagna. His owner is Jon Arbuckle, a man with an affinity for stereotypically nerdy pastimes. Jon's other pet is Odie, a dim-witted yellow dog. Most strips center around interactions among the three characters' conflicting personalities. Regular themes include Jon's frustration with Garfield's antics; Garfield's disdain for Odie; and Jon's interactions with his girlfriend and the pets' veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson. Many strips feature Jon, Garfield, and Odie visiting Jon's unnamed parents and brother Doc Boy on their family farm. Other side characters include various mice and spiders within the house, both frequent targets of abuse and scorn from Garfield; Garfield's teddy bear Pooky; Garfield's girlfriend Arlene, a pink cat; Nermal, a gray striped kitten who enjoys tormenting Garfield over his perceived age; and various other pets who live in the neighborhood.

Part of the strip's broad pop cultural appeal is due to its lack of social or political commentary; though this was Davis's original intention, he also admitted that his "grasp of politics isn't strong", joking that, for many years, he thought "OPEC was a denture adhesive".

Originally created with the intentions to "come up with a good, marketable character", Garfield has spawned merchandise earning $750 million to $1 billion annually. In addition to the various merchandise and commercial tie-ins, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two animated television series, two theatrical feature-length live-action/CGI animated films, and three fully CGI animated direct-to-video films.

Marketing

See also: Garfield merchandise and Garfield statues

Garfield was originally created by Davis with the intention to come up with a "good, marketable character". Now the world's most syndicated comic strip, Garfield has spawned a "profusion" of merchandise including clothing, toys, games, books, Caribbean cruises, credit cards, dolls, DVDs of the movies or the TV series, and related media. In April 2024, Motel 6 announced Garfield as their first "Chief Pet Officer" and Garfield-themed rooms for the release of The Garfield Movie.

Media

Garfield graffiti in Berlin (Germany)

Books

Starting in 1980, the comic strip has been collected in anthologies. The first, Garfield at Large, was published in March 1980 by Ballantine Books. These books helped increase the strip's popularity through sales, leading to several of them reaching the top of the New York Times best sellers list. For these compilation books, Davis devised a book layout which is considerably longer and less tall than the average book. This allowed the strip to be oriented in the same format as it appeared in the newspaper, as opposed to earlier comic strip anthologies which often stacked the panels vertically. This book style has since been referred to in the publishing industry as the "Garfield format" and has been adapted by other publishers. Davis noted that it became popular for other comic strip anthologies in particular, such as those of The Far Side.

Internet

Garfield.com was the strip's official website, which contained archives of past strips along with games and an online store. Jim Davis had also collaborated with Ball State University and Pearson Digital Learning to create ProfessorGarfield.org, an educational website with interactive games focusing on math and reading skills, and with Children's Technology Group to create MindWalker, a web browser that allows parents to limit the websites their children can view to a preset list.

A variety of edited Garfield strips have been made available on the Internet, with some being hosted on their own unofficial, dedicated sites. Dating from 2005, a site titled the "Garfield Randomizer" created a three-panel strip using panels from previous Garfield strips. Another approach, known as "Silent Garfield", involved removing Garfield's thought balloons from the strips. Some examples date from 2006. A webcomic called Arbuckle does the above but also redraws the originals in a different art style. The Arbuckle website creator writes: "'Garfield' changes from being a comic about a sassy, corpulent feline, and becomes a compelling picture of a lonely, pathetic, delusional man who talks to his pets. Consider that Jon, according to Garfield canon, cannot hear his cat's thoughts. This is the world as he sees it. This is his story".

Another variation along the same lines, called "Realfield" or "Realistic Garfield", was to redraw Garfield as a real cat and remove his thought balloons. Still another approach to editing the strips involved removing Garfield and other main characters from the originals completely, leaving Jon talking to himself. While strips in this vein could be found online as early as 2006, the 2008 site Garfield Minus Garfield by Dan Walsh received enough online attention to be covered by news media. Reception was largely positive: at its peak, the site received as many as 300,000 hits per day. Fans connected with Jon's "loneliness and desperation" and found his "crazy antics" humorous; Jim Davis himself called Walsh's strips an "inspired thing to do" and said that "some of work better ". Ballantine Books, which publishes the Garfield books, released a volume of Garfield Minus Garfield strips on October 28, 2008. The volume retains Davis as author and features a foreword by Walsh.

On June 19, 2020, the website was shut down during the strip's 42nd anniversary, following Paramount's acquisition of Paws, Inc. in August 2019. The website now redirects to Nick.com, with an alternative link to GoComics.

Television

Garfield's animation debut was on The Fantastic Funnies, which aired on CBS on May 15, 1980, voiced by actor Scott Beach. Garfield was one of the strips featured, introduced as a newcomer (the strip was only two years old at the time). From 1982 to 1991, twelve primetime Garfield cartoon specials and one hour-long primetime documentary celebrating the character's 10th anniversary were aired; Lorenzo Music voiced Garfield in all of them. A Saturday morning cartoon show, Garfield and Friends, aired for seven seasons from 1988 to 1994. This adaption also starred Music as the voice of Garfield.

The Garfield Show, a CGI series, started development in 2007 to coincide with the strip's 30th anniversary in 2008. It premiered in France in December 2008 and made its U.S. debut on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2009. A new series is currently in development at Nickelodeon after Paramount Global acquired the franchise.

TV series

Title Broadcast date End date Network
Garfield and Friends September 17, 1988 (1988-09-17) December 10, 1994 (1994-12-10) CBS
The Garfield Show November 2, 2009 (2009-11-02) October 24, 2016 (2016-10-24) France 3
Cartoon Network
Garfield Originals December 6, 2019 (2019-12-06) June 17, 2020 (2020-06-17) France 3
Untitled Garfield series TBA Nickelodeon

Primetime specials

Title Broadcast date Emmy result
Here Comes Garfield October 25, 1982 (1982-10-25) Nominated
Garfield on the Town October 28, 1983 (1983-10-28) Won
Garfield in the Rough October 26, 1984 (1984-10-26) Won
Garfield's Halloween Adventure October 30, 1985 (1985-10-30) Won
Garfield in Paradise May 27, 1986 (1986-05-27) Nominated
Garfield Goes Hollywood May 8, 1987 (1987-05-08) Nominated
A Garfield Christmas December 21, 1987 (1987-12-21) Nominated
Garfield: His 9 Lives November 22, 1988 (1988-11-22) Nominated
Garfield's Babes and Bullets May 23, 1989 (1989-05-23) Won
Garfield's Thanksgiving November 22, 1989 (1989-11-22) Nominated
Garfield's Feline Fantasies May 18, 1990 (1990-05-18) Nominated
Garfield Gets a Life May 8, 1991 (1991-05-08) Nominated

Films

Main articles: Garfield: The Movie, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, and The Garfield Movie

A live-action/computed animated film titled Garfield: The Movie was released in theaters on June 11, 2004, and a sequel titled Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties was released on June 16, 2006. Both films were released by 20th Century Fox with actor Bill Murray voicing the character in both films. Despite receiving negative reviews from critics, the films were both commercial successes. Three direct-to-video films were released by Paws, Inc. in cooperation with Davis Entertainment: Garfield Gets Real on November 20, 2007, Garfield's Fun Fest on August 5, 2008, and Garfield's Pet Force on June 16, 2009.

On May 24, 2016, it was announced that Alcon Entertainment would develop a new CG-animated Garfield film, with John Cohen and Steven P. Wegner producing, and Mark Dindal directing the feature. In August 2019, Viacom acquired the rights to Garfield, leaving the status of the movie for the time uncertain, with Dindal confirming that the film was still in production in December 2020. On November 1, 2021, Chris Pratt was announced as the voice of Garfield, with animation being provided by DNEG, a production company of the film. David Reynolds was announced as the screenwriter of the film, reuniting him with Dindal after they worked together on The Emperor's New Groove. Sony Pictures will maintain global distribution rights for the film, apart from China. On May 24, 2022, Samuel L. Jackson joined the voice cast as Vic, Garfield's father. In September 2022, the film was scheduled to be released on May 24, 2024.

Video games

See also: Garfield merchandise § Video games

A Garfield video game was developed by Atari, Inc. for its Atari 2600 home video game system and appears in their 1984 catalog. However, after Atari's spinoff and sale of its home games and computers division, owner Jack Tramiel decided the character's royalties were too expensive given the declining state of the video game industry at the time, and the game was cancelled. A ROM image of the game was however released with Jim Davis' blessing.

Garfield: Big Fat Hairy Deal is a 1987 video game for the Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and the Amiga based on the comic strip. Towa Chiki made A Week of Garfield for the Family Computer, released only in Japan in 1989. Sega also made the 1995 video game Garfield: Caught in the Act for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear and Windows 3.1 computers. Other companies made games, such as A Tale of Two Kitties for the DS, published by Game Factory, Garfield's Nightmare for DS, Garfield's Funfest for DS, and Garfield Labyrinth for Game Boy. On PlayStation 2 were Garfield and Garfield 2 (known in the US as Garfield, a Tale of Two Kitties). Garfield: Lasagna World Tour was also made for PS2. Garfield: Saving Arlene was only released in Japan and in the United Kingdom. And recent additions for mobile devices are "Garfield's Diner" and "Garfield's Zombie Defense".

Konami also released a Garfield handheld electronic game titled Lasagnator in 1991, which met with mild success.

In 2012, a series of Garfield video games was launched by French publisher Anuman Interactive, including My Puzzles with Garfield!, Multiplication Tables with Garfield, Garfield Kart, Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, and Garfield's Match Up.

Garfield appears as a playable character in several Nickelodeon crossover games, including Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway, and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2.

Stage

Joseph Papp, producer of A Chorus Line, discussed making a Garfield stage musical, but due to some complications, it never got off ground. A full-length stage musical, titled "Garfield Live", was planned to kick off its US tour in September 2010, but got moved to January 18, 2011, where it premiered in Muncie, Indiana. The book was written by Jim Davis, with music and lyrics by Michael Dansicker and Bill Meade, and it was booked by AWA Touring Services. The opening song, "Cattitude", can be heard on the national tour's website, along with two more, "On the Fence" and "Going Home!". When the North American tour concluded in 2012, it toured throughout Asia.

Comic book

In agreement with Paws, Boom! Studios launched in May 2012 a monthly Garfield comic book, with the first issue featuring a story written by Mark Evanier (who has supervised Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show) and illustrated by Davis's long-time assistant Gary Barker.

Art book

In 2016, Hermes Press signed an agreement with Paws, Inc to publish an art book on the art of author Jim Davis, titled The Art of Jim Davis' Garfield. The book includes an essay by author R.C. Harvey and other original material, and was released in July 2016 for San Diego Comic-Con.

Restaurant

In 2018, a ghost restaurant themed after the franchise known as GarfieldEATS was opened in Dubai. Customers order food through the official mobile app, which also contains games and allows users to purchase episodes of Garfield and Friends. The restaurant serves lasagna, Garfield-shaped pizza, "Garfuccinos", and Garfield-shaped dark chocolate bars. A second location opened in Toronto in 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a dispute over rent, the restaurant closed in 2020.

Main characters

Main article: List of Garfield characters
Characters The Fantastic Funnies Garfield Television Specials Television series Direct-to-DVD films Theatrical films
Garfield and Friends The Garfield Show Garfield Gets Real Garfield's Fun Fest Garfield's Pet Force Garfield:
The Movie 		Garfield:
A Tail of Two Kitties 		The Garfield Movie
1980 1982–1991 1988–1994 2009–2016 2007 2008 2009 2004 2006 2024
Garfield Scott Beach Lorenzo Music Frank Welker Bill Murray Chris Pratt
Jon Arbuckle Thom Huge Sandy Kenyon Thom Huge Wally Wingert Breckin Meyer Nicholas Hoult
Thom Huge
Odie Gregg Berger Uncredited dog Harvey Guillén
Dr. Liz Wilson Julie K. Payne Jennifer Love Hewitt Dev Joshi
Nermal Desirée Goyette Jason Marsden David Eigenberg Silent cameo
Arlene Silent cameo Audrey Wasilewski Debra Messing

Through the Garfield strips, there have been many additional characters, but the main ones are described here.

Garfield

First appearance: June 19, 1978

Mike Pence wishing Garfield a happy birthday during the June 19th 2003 House Session

I'm not overweight, I'm undertall.

—Garfield At Large: his First Book (1980)

Garfield is an orange, fuzzy tabby cat born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant (later revealed in the television special Garfield: His 9 Lives to be Mama Leoni's Italian Restaurant) who immediately ate all the pasta and lasagna in sight, thus developing his love and obsession for lasagna and pizza.

Gags in the strips commonly deal with Garfield's obesity (in one strip, Jon jokes: "I wouldn't say Garfield is fat, but the last time he got on a Ferris wheel, the two guys on top starved to death") and his disdain of any form of exertion or work. He is known for saying "breathing is exercise".

Though Garfield can be very cynical, he does have a soft side for his teddy bear, Pooky, food, and sleep, and during one Christmas he says, "They say I have to get up early, be nice to people, skip breakfast… I wish it would never end." However, in the feature film Garfield Gets Real and its sequels, Garfield is better behaved, friendlier towards Jon and Odie, less self-centered, and more sympathetic.

It has been wondered by many readers if Garfield can actually be understood by the human characters around him. Sometimes, it seems like Jon can hear him. However, it is mentioned in more than one strip that Jon cannot understand Garfield. However, in the feature film Garfield Gets Real and its sequels, Garfield and the other animals (save for Odie) are able to talk to, and be understood by, Jon and the other humans. In the April 1 (April Fools' Day), 1997, strip drawn by the artists of Blondie as part of the comic strip switcheroo, Garfield, still with thought balloons, can be understood by Jon.

To break the fourth wall, June 19 is celebrated within the strip as Garfield's birthday. The appearance in 1979 claimed it to be his first birthday, although in the first appearance of the strip (June 19, 1978), he was portrayed as a fully grown cat, implying that the birthday is for the strip itself.

Jon Arbuckle

First appearance: June 19, 1978

Jon: Here's my sixth-grade report card. My parents were so proud.
Garfield, reading the report card: "Jon has not shoved any crayons up his nose this term."

—Garfield (1996)

Jon (Full name: Jonathan Q. Arbuckle) is Garfield's owner, usually depicted as an awkward clumsy geek who has trouble finding a date. Jon had a crush on Liz (Garfield's veterinarian) and is now dating her. Jon disapproves of Garfield's "don't care, not interested", attitude and often encourages his pet to take an interest in the world around him, sometimes stating an interesting fact or asking a philosophical question in an attempt to prompt Garfield into thought. Garfield tends to brush off these attempts with a simple yet logical remark, and despite the trouble Garfield causes, Jon has a heart of gold and is very tolerant of Garfield's shortcomings, a fact which Garfield often takes advantage of. Jon's exact age is unknown, as in one 1980 strip where he stated he was 29 (though the fact he said that he would be 30 if he wasn't sick a year and this was said in the context of a joke told to Garfield makes it possible he is a different age) and in an episode of The Garfield Show he was stated to be 22. His birthday is July 28.

Jon loves (or occasionally hates) Garfield and all cats. Many gags focus on this; his inability to get a date is usually attributed to his lack of social skills, his poor taste in clothes (Garfield remarked in one strip after seeing his closet that "two hundred moths committed suicide"; in another, the "geek police" ordered Jon to "throw out his tie"), and his eccentric interests which range from stamp collecting to measuring the growth of his toenails to watching movies with "polka ninjas". Other strips portray him as lacking intelligence (he is seen reading a pop-up book in one strip).

Jon was born on a farm that apparently contained few amenities; in one strip, his father, upon seeing indoor plumbing, remarks: "Woo-ha! Ain't science something?" Jon occasionally visits his parents, brother and grandmother at their farm. It was implied that Jon is inspired by a drawing of Davis himself when he was first drawing the strip. Jon was portrayed as a cartoonist in the first strip and occasional others in the early years; Davis stated his intent had been to express his own frustrations as a cartoonist. Ultimately, Jon's job has been referenced far more frequently in Garfield animated series than in the strip.

Odie

First appearance: August 8, 1978

Jon: I think I'm having some kind of identity crisis.

Garfield, walking past Odie who is lying in a kitchen drawer: He thinks he's having an identity crisis ... Odie thinks he's a potato peeler.

—Garfield (1991)

Odie is a yellow, long-eared beagle with a large, slobbering tongue, who walks on all four legs, though occasionally he will walk on two like Garfield. He was originally owned by Jon's friend Lyman, though Jon adopted him after Lyman was written out of the strip. The book Garfield: His 9 Lives (1984) retcons Odie's origin: there is no mention of Lyman, and Odie was a puppy when he was acquired by Jon as company for Garfield (when Garfield was a kitten).

Odie is younger than Garfield and usually portrayed as naïve, happy, affectionate and blissfully unaware of Garfield's cynical, sadistic nature, despite the physical abuse Garfield exhibits toward him, including regularly kicking him off the kitchen table or tricking him into going over the edge himself. On some occasions, however, he is depicted more intelligently, as in one strip, in which he holds a heavy rock to prevent Garfield from doing this, and actually hurts Garfield's foot. In one strip when Garfield and Jon are out of the house, Odie is seen reading War and Peace and watching An Evening With Mozart on television, but in "Ask a Dog" strips, he is depicted as illiterate and has to be read to by Garfield. Odie has only thought once. In another strip, published on January 28, 2010, he is seen solving Jon's sudoku puzzle.

Dr. Liz Wilson

Liz's first appearance from a 1976 Jon strip, where she was simply known as 'that girl.'

First appearance: June 26, 1979

Jon: Tell me, Liz, haven't we met somewhere before? A rice paddy in Hong Kong?

Liz: Look, jerk. I'll be the vet for your cat, but I won't play fall guy for your stupid lines. Understood?

Jon, shocked: Uh-huh. So long, doctor.

Liz: Have a nice day.

—Garfield (1979)

Dr. Liz Wilson is Garfield and Odie's sarcastic veterinarian and a long time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She has a somewhat deadpan, sardonic persona and almost always reacts negatively to Jon's outlandish and goofball behavior but can even find it endearing on occasion. Jon often attempts to ask her out on a date, but rarely succeeds; however, in an extended story arc from June 20 to July 29, 2006 (with the main event taking place on July 28), Liz and Jon kiss, and have been a couple ever since. Her first appearance was in a 1976 Jon strip, where Jon runs into her at a laundromat. This became a running gag of the strip, where Jon would often go out of his way to bump into her (a 1976 strip, for example, sees Jon stalking Liz in an alleyway.) in a 1977 strip, Liz takes a job as a waitress at Irma's diner, where Jon would also frequently ask her out to no avail. It wouldn't be until Garfield was syndicated where Liz would work as a vet.

Recurring subjects and themes

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Many of the gags focus on Garfield's obsessive eating and obesity; his dislike of spiders; his hatred of Mondays, diets, and any form of exertion; his constant shedding (which annoys Jon); and his abuse of Odie and Jon as well as his obsession with mailing Nermal to Abu Dhabi, or simply throwing him through the front door. Though he will eat nearly anything (with the exception of raisins and spinach), Garfield is particularly fond of lasagna; he also enjoys eating Jon's houseplants and other pets (mainly birds and fish).

He also has odd relationships with household pests; Garfield generally spares mice, and even cooperates with them to cause mischief (much to Jon's chagrin), but will readily swat or pound spiders flat. Other gags focus on Jon's poor social skills and inability to get a date; before he started dating Liz, he often tried to get dates, usually without success (in one strip, after failing to get a date with "Nancy", he tries getting a date with her mother and grandmother; he ended up getting "shot down by three generations"). When he does get a date, it usually goes awry; Jon's dates have slashed his tires, been tranquilized, and called the police when he stuck carrots in his ears. The storylines featuring Jon's dates rarely appear now. Before, he had dates with many odd characters, whereas now, he exclusively dates Liz.

Garfield's world has specific locations that appear normally on the comic strips, like the vet's office (a place he loathes). 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. The terrible food is the center of most of the jokes, along with the poor management. 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, once kicked Odie; Garfield subsequently hugged her. Jon's parents have twice visited Jon, Garfield, and Odie in the city. Jon's father drove into town on his tractor (which he double-parked) and brought a rooster to wake him up. As Garfield has a love for food, they will often eat out at restaurants. 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 takes Liz on a date, Garfield occasionally tags along—once, he ate the bread and other food at an Italian restaurant they went to.

Frequently, the characters break the fourth wall, mostly to explain something to the readers, talk about a subject that often sets up the strip's punchline (like Jon claiming that pets are good for exercise right before he finds Garfield in the kitchen and chases him out), or give a mere glare when a character is belittled or not impressed. Sometimes, this theme revolves around the conventions of the strip; for example, in one strip, Garfield catches a cold and complains about it, noting that his thoughts are stuffed up.

Short storylines

One particular semi-recurring storyline features Jon and Liz on a date in a restaurant. They sometimes are waited on by the Italian Armando, who is refined and sophisticated and shows a great loathing towards Jon, presumably for his immature and uncouth behavior at the prestigious eatery. On other occasions, the couple receives a different waiter, such as a large ogre-like man who intimidates Jon when he is about to report a complaint about the food.

Another commonly recurring character, although hardly ever seen, is Jon's neighbor, Mrs. Feeny. Garfield seems to take both enormous pride and excess zeal in doing whatever it takes to harass her, to the point that she even erects an electric fence (which does not stop him).

Other unique themes are things like "Garfield's Believe it or Don't", "Garfield's Law", "Garfield's History of Dogs", and "Garfield's History of Cats", which show science, history, and the world from Garfield's point of view. Another particular theme is "National Fat Week", where Garfield spends the week making fun of skinny people. Also, there was a storyline involving Garfield catching Odie eating his food and "kicking Odie into next week". 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" (Garfield subsequently falls into his food by himself).

A few days after the storyline began, Garfield is lying in his bed with a "nagging feeling I'm forgetting something", with Odie landing on Garfield in the next panel. Jon and Liz began to go out more frequently. Jon has started hiring pet sitters to look after Garfield and Odie, though they do not always work out. Two particular examples are Lillian, an eccentric (and very nearsighted) old lady with odd quirks, and Greta, a muscle-bound woman who was hired to look after the pets during New Year's Eve.

Most of December is spent preparing for Christmas, with a predictable focus on presents. Other Christmas themed strips include Jon's attempts at decorating the tree and house, or the attempt to buy the tree. Some years, the Christmas strips started as early as the end of November. Another example is "Splut Week", when Garfield tries to avoid pies that are thrown at him. For most of Garfield's history, being hit with a pie has inevitably resulted in the onomatopoeia "splut", hence the name.

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. However, before his 29th birthday, Liz put Garfield on a diet. On June 19, 2007, Garfield was given the greatest birthday present: "I'M OFF MY DIET!" 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.

Right panel of the October 27, 1989, strip

One storyline, which ran the week before Halloween in 1989, 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 Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection, in which the strips are reprinted, Jim Davis discusses the genesis for this series:

During a writing session for Halloween, I got the idea for this decidedly different series of strips. I wanted to scare people. And what do people fear most? Why, being alone. 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?'

One of the recurring storylines involves Garfield getting lost or running away. The longest one of these lasted for over a month (in 1986, from August 25 to September 28); it began with Jon telling Garfield to go get the newspaper. Garfield walks outside to get it, but speculates about what will happen if he wanders off – and decides to find out. 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 and 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 join, and both going to a pet shop, Garfield and Odie make it back home.

Another story involved Jon going away on a business trip around Christmas time, leaving Garfield a week's worth of food, which he devoured instantly. Garfield then leaves the house and gets locked out. He then reunites with his mother, and eventually makes it back home in the snow on Christmas Eve (December 3–23, 1984). Part of this storyline was taken from the 1983 Emmy-winning special Garfield on the Town.

National Stupid Day

The November 11, 2010, strip featured an interaction between Garfield and a spider. The spider forcefully warns Garfield (who is brandishing a newspaper) that should he be squished, there will be an "annual day of remembrance" for him and that he will become famous. The final panel shows a classroom full of spiders, in which the teacher asks, "does anyone here know why we celebrate 'National Stupid Day'?"

Since November 11 is Veterans Day in the US, some readers expressed concern that the strip and its timing were mocking the holiday. Davis released a statement saying that he had no control over the strip's timing but nonetheless apologized for any offense it may have caused.

Paws, Inc.

Main article: Paws, Inc.

Paws, Inc. was founded in 1981 by Jim Davis to support the Garfield comic strip and its licensing. It is located in Muncie, Indiana, and has a staff of nearly 50 artists and licensing administrators. In 1994, the company purchased all rights to the Garfield comic strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature Syndicate. However, the original black and white daily strips and original color Sunday strips remain copyrighted to United Feature Syndicate. The full-color daily strips and recolored Sunday strips are copyrighted to Paws as they are considered a different product. Though rights to the strip remain with Paws, Inc., it is currently distributed by the Andrews McMeel Syndication. In August 2019, Davis sold Paws, Inc. to Viacom, who has placed Garfield under the Nickelodeon banner.

See also

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Davis, Jim (1998). 20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-42126-5.
  • Davis, Jim (2004). In Dog Years I'd be Dead: Garfield at 25. Random House, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-345-45204-7.

Secondary sources

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