As Garfield gets a new comic miniseries, the greedy tabby begins a new era in the history of his ever-changing design. Officially debuting in 1978, Garfield is one of the most successful pop culture franchises in history, syndicated across the world and earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year. However, despite being recognizable all around the world, Garfield’s design has undergone constant change and refinement since his first appearance.

Garfield gets a new comic look in the upcoming Garfield #1 from BOOM! Studios. The four-issue series is an anthology comic set in the world of 2024’s The Garfield Movie, starring Chris Pratt as the voice of Garfield. The first issue includes two stories, titled ‘Midnight Munchies’ and ‘Jon Minus Garfield.’ But perhaps the biggest news for fans is that the comic will bring the sardonic feline’s design from The Garfield Movie to the printed page, interpreting his CGI design through the eyes of various artists.

The Garfield franchise began with Jim Davis’ comic strip, which has remained the heart of Garfield, Jon and Odie’s adventures. This new miniseries – from BOOM! Studios’ KaBOOM! imprint – diverges from Davis’ single-strip format, telling longer stories in the format of traditional comic books. The change to Garfield’s comic strip design is especially significant when you compare his new look to Jim Davis’ art…

Garfield’s Movie Design Hits the Comics

Garfield Returns to His Roots in Comedy Comic Series

Released in the US May 24, The Garfield Movie sees Garfield reconnect with his estranged father Vic, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. Starring the franchise’s iconic characters Odie the dog and Jon Arbuckle alongside new faces, the film kept many of the elements of Jim Davis’ original comics, while also showing the snarky cat’s ‘origin’ as Jon meets and adopts ‘baby Garfield.’ While Garfield’s movie design maintains the essential elements of his comic design, it also opted for smaller ears and more detailed take on the character’s markings and eyes (which are usually defined by a black line all around, but now merge into the snout when fully open.)

This is the design that will be used in the upcoming Garfield miniseries, telling funny stories in a longer-form format that Davis’ original strips had access to. Also unlike the comic strip, the comic will allow various artists to offer their take on Garfield’s CGI design. Davis’ strip has held close to his art style over the years, even as Garfield’s design has changed. However, in the new series and its various covers, artists are being given a far freer hand in putting their own spin on The Garfield Movie‘s design. Crystal Kung’s variant for Garfield #2, below, shows the level of creativity fans can look forward to.

While the change may look minor to casual fans, longtime lovers of the tabby will know that small changes add up – Garfield originally looked nothing like he does today, and the journey from his first appearance to now has been a process of small changes adding up.

Garfield Has Changed His Design Before

The Original Garfield Looks Nothing Like the Modern Cat

Garfield’s sleek, bipedal design might be iconic, but it’s relatively new for the character, becoming the persistent norm in the 1990s. When Garfield first appeared, he was a far stockier, less anthropomorphized character. While his colors and essential details were the same, he had large jowls and tiny eyes compared to his modern incarnation, which is a far more stylized image of a ‘cat.’ Interestingly, the 2004 Garfield: The Movie (with Billy Murray voicing the title role) opted for a similar style, opting for a more ‘realistic’ cat than the cartoonier design from 2024’s The Garfield Movie.

Garfield first appeared in Jim Davis’ comic strip Jon. In that series, Davis initially intended Jon Arbuckle to be the main character, but eventually realized that he was naturally writing all the best lines for his pet cat. Davis eventually pivoted, renaming the strip Garfield prior to its national syndication, after which the cat became a national (and eventually international) star. However, because Garfield had never been intended as the main character, Davis hadn’t designed him for the role, and had to keep making changes to accommodate the different ways he wanted to use the character.

Jim Davis Never MEANT to Change Garfield’s Design

Peanuts’ Charles Schulz Sketched Garfield’s New Look

In a 2021 interview with Heritage Auctions, Davis goes into detail about how and why Garfield’s design changed over the years. One of the biggest influences was the need for greater freedom of movement – Garfield’s stockier, more realistic design didn’t allow him to interact with the world in all the ways Davis wanted. Because of this, Davis ended up subtly reworking Garfield “to better reach a pie on a high shelf, or better move around.”

A major breakthrough came when Davis happened to run into Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, discussing the issues with animating Garfield and showing him walking on two legs. Schulz let Davis in on a secret he’d developed while animating Peanuts‘ iconic dog Snoopy – rather than maintaining a singular, consistent design, Schultz actually switched between two – one when Snoopy was sitting down, and one when he stood up, giving him larger feet so his movements made more sense. Not only did Schulz explain this trick – he actually sketched out a secondary design for Garfield, with Davis noting, “From that day on [Garfield] walked, and it was thanks to Charles Schulz.”

Garfield was also changed by real-world events. During the early 1980s, a shortage of newsprint meant that newspapers now had to try and fit the same amount of coverage onto less paper. One technique they used to do this was to shrink the comics they included, with Davis feeling that his gags were being lost in the process. As a response, Davis made Garfield’s eyes and mouth bigger and more expressive so that events were still clear to readers, especially older fans whose eyesight might have made the new sizing a challenge.

Garfield Undergoes Yet Another Change

Jim Davis’ Franchise Is Always Evolving, Justifying Its Constant Success

In this context, it’s fascinating to see the CGI movie’s design interpreted for comics. This is yet another occasion where changes have been made to Garfield’s design for various practical and commercial reasons, now passing into a new medium where they’re interpreted afresh. The Garfield of the new comic series is a drawn interpretation of a CGI adaptation of a comic character whose design has changed radically from his first appearance. For any fan of animation or illustration, it’s a major lesson in how a design can evolve again and again but still feel consistent.

Many won’t even notice the change, but for fans of pop culture and the ways that various factors influence the media we enjoy, it’s another fascinating twist in Garfield‘s tale – and one that comes with a whole new series full of funny moments from Jim Davis’ iconic (but ever-changing) cat.

Source: Heritage Auctions