Garfield celebrates four decades in print
GARFIELD, the star of Jim Davis’ internationally-popular comic strip, turned 40 this month. The cat made his first appearance on June 19, 1978, when he was syndicated in 41 American newspapers.
This cantankerous ginger feline was created after Davis’ Pendleton Times insect character Gnorm Gnat had been rejected by national publishers on the grounds that “nobody can relate to bugs”, and Davis ( far right) set out to devise “a good, marketable character” as a replacement.
By 1981, Garfield’s popularity was such that he appeared in 850 papers. By 2002, the total was 2,570, giving him an approximate audience of 263 million readers worldwide and a Guinness World Record for the world’s most widely-syndicated comic strip.
Garfield also quickly became a commercial juggernaut, shifting between US$750 million (RM3 billion) and US$1 billion (RM4 billion) in merchandise annually.
The cat, who famously loves lasagne, hates Mondays and sheds fur copiously, is accompanied in the multi-panel series by his owner, Jon Arbuckle – perennially trying to win a date with Liz, a sardonic vet – and fellow pets Odie the dog, kitten cousin Arlene and nemesis Nermal. Davis had grown up surrounded by cats on a farm in Marion, rural Indiana – a background that parallels Jon’s, also a cartoonist by profession – and where today a series of Garfield statues proudly mark his origins. Garfield was named after his creator’s late grandfather. The cat’s curmudgeonly nature, moderate misanthropy and unapologetic gluttony are all recognisable traits that have endeared him to millions.
His simple adventures – sparring with Jon, shoving Odie off the kitchen table – build to a satisfying punchline and are likewise readily digested by those still-drowsy over the breakfast table.
Perhaps Davis’ canniest instinct was in tapping into our undying fascination with cats and their shamelessly self-centred world view: what is Grumpy Cat if not a real-life Garfield?
He was quickly brought to television in the early 1980s in a series of CBS cartoon specials and then in Garfield and Friends (1988-94) and the revival, The Garfield Show (2008-), voiced in the sleepy tones of Lorenzo Music and Frank Welker respectively.
He also appeared in two CGI feature films – Garfield: The Movie (2004) and its London-set sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006) – voiced on both occasions, perfectly, by Bill Murray.
All of this has led to the character becoming one of the most recognisable in American cartoons, as famous as the Disney and Warner Brothers line-ups, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang, or Charles Addams’ beloved Addams Family ghouls.
Davis still plots Garfield’s panels but no longer draws and inks them himself, leaving those tasks to his most trusted assistants Brett Koth and Gary Barker.
The timeless, apolitical appeal of the character should, nevertheless, ensure he endures for many more years to come. – The Independent