Garfield is one of the most popular and most merchandised comics characters in the world, yet there are a lot of of facts the average person doesn’t know about the long-running Jim Davis strip. Launching in 1976 under a different title, Garfield‘s went from success to success and quickly become a household name. Garfield the cat is an instantly recognizable and ironically iconic character, with a great deal of literature getting written about how Davis initially created the grumpy feline, the reasoning behind that original inspiration, and ultimately how it has gone from strength to strength.
Boasting one of the best cartoon catchphrases of all time — “I hate Mondays” — Garfield was instantly relatable and captured the audience’s attention thanks to its honest and simple point of view. The comic would innovate and evolve, ensuring that it continued to match modern tastes, demonstrating that Garfield himself is timeless as a creation. These facts might just help fans rethink what they know about the comic strip and how its size and scale can be measured after years atop the mountain.
Garfield Is The Most Widely Syndicated Comic Strip
Garfield
has managed to stand the test of time partially because so many people managed to get eyes on the cat. The comic strip has been syndicated in multiple newspapers, ensuring that across the globe, anyone with a paper to hand will likely be able to come across a variation of Garfield’s antics. But the key is the fact that
Garfield
has beaten out all of its competition.At its height,
Garfield
was featured in over 2500 newspapers worldwide.
The relatable cartoon character
thus actually garnered the
Guinness World Record
for the most widely syndicated comic strip of all time, an honor it continues to hold. Considering the medium isn’t exactly in its heyday and digital publishing is taking hold further,
Garfield
could hold the position forever more.
Gardield Is Set In Muncie, Indiana
The location that
Garfield
is set in isn’t very well known. It’s only mentioned every now and then, and there are often no signs pointing to specific elements that can be attributed to any one location. The idea behind that is so that the suburban lifestyle could appeal to anyone, with the comedy not subjected to any place-based context.Despite that appeal to all attitude,
Garfield
is technically set in Muncie, Indiana, the home of Davis. While the
classic comic book strip might have crossed
over with a few other fan favorites, in Muncie
Garfield
meets new characters every day, as there is even a real-life trail
dedicated to statues of the lazy feline
who has helped put the town on the map.
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Garfield Has Spun Off Multiple New York Times Best Sellers
It has become quite the habit for well-known comic strips to be published in a collected form. It’s easier for fans to enjoy them all in one place. Indeed,
Garfield
has had quite a few collections put together of all the work of Davis. They are huge in their scale considering just how many cartoons have been published and continue to be created.The popularity of the cat has even been demonstrated in the sales of these physical copies. With everyone trying to
get over their case of the Mondays
,
Garfield
has led the charge and thus become a New York Times Best Seller on multiple occasions. Looking through the archives will reveal
Garfield’s
ascent to the top of that list against some worthy competition.
Jim Davis Has Changed Garfield’s Format
There are multiple approaches to the comic strip that an artist can take. The established format fans are now familiar with is largely that of the three-panel structure, allowing Davis to forge a beginning, middle, and end for the story. It’s also an easier way to set up a punchline with an introduction, conflict, and resolution playing out in simple terms.Although
Garfield
has never been added to the list of
best single-panel comic strips
, it has messed around with its formula as fans are able to find 4-panel stories and even the occasional 9-panel variation. Collecting
Garfield’s
narratives together could also sometimes forge a larger tale, with the experimentation period eventually landing on the perfect balance.
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Jim Davis Created Garfield With Multimedia And Merchandising In Mind
Fans might assume that every major creation was designed with some sincerity, to perhaps portray the artist’s point of view and voice to a wider audience. But that wasn’t the case with
Garfield.
The fact of the matter is, the cat was forged in an attempt to craft a branded and marketable character that might be able to be sold to the public.Speaking with
The Washington Post
, Davis noted that there was a gap in the market for a cat cartoon and that after attempting to get syndicated for 8 years,
Garfield
provided a solution.
With multiple Garfield movies
, published collections, TV shows, toys and all kinds of products, in the end, Davis turned out to be spot on with his analysis.
Multiple Creators Work On Garfield With Jim Davis
Often with major comic strips, singular artists continue to lend only their voice to their work. Although those characters might get used elsewhere under the penmanship of someone else, the original cartoon runs are very consistent in who is designing them. That’s not the case with Davis’
Garfield
which has changed hands multiple times.Looking across the credits of the cartoon hit and other names begin to surface. Indeed, while Davis might write on
Garfield
more often than not, artists such as Brett Koth and Gary Barker now contribute to the vision of
Garfield
as well; when they aren’t working on their own groundbreaking pieces that is. So although
Garfield
became especially iconic in the 80s
, it continues to evolve with new voices.
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Garfield Is Never Political
Garfield
fans might not have been paying too much attention to the content of the comic book strip itself, especially when looking across the timeline, away from the modern incarnation of the cartoon. The cat has touched on plenty of themes, most of which are based around his laziness or home-living arrangement which is sure to cause chaos.Fans might not know that
Garfield
has always been very down-to-Earth in its subject matter, and relatable in a timeless fashion. It never gets satirical or political and has never actually drifted into that territory in the past. It’s certainly difficult to find any other comic strip that truly never comments on the matters of the moment,
such as Charles M. Schulz’s
Peanuts
, but that’s what makes
Garfield
special.
Jim Davis Named Garfield After A Family Member
It’s often a mystery where the name of a famous character could come from.
Garfield
is quite an unusual name, but it fits the cat so well. It’s carved out a place for itself in pop culture history. Now, whenever anyone hears the name
Garfield,
they are sure to think of the feline. Strangely enough, the series was first released under the name Jon.But regardless, the name Garfield came from one of Davis’ own family members.
In a CNN interview
, Davis revealed that the name of his grandfather was James A. Garfield Davis. Most fans don’t know that the cartoon character thus had quite an important personal link to Davis’ own history as the cat’s very existence will always preserve that memory whether it’s
in the movies fans loved as kids
or the cartoons that hold up now.
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Garfield Has Its Origins In A Comic Strip Titled Gnorm Gnat
Davis’ work extends past
Garfield.
In actuality, the cat is not the first cartoon animal that the creator had worked on. The Pendleton Times ran a comic strip between 1973 and 1975
known as
Gnorm Gnat
which was another creation of Jim’s mind. The difference was that this was in a gag-a-day structure, with single panels often taking precedent.It was quite different from what fans would eventually get with
Garfield,
although it’s clear analyzing those early cartoons that many of the same basic ideas were still in place. Gnorm Gnat obviously didn’t have the appeal of Garfield the cat or indeed other massive comic strip creations
like Bill Watteron’s
Calvin and Hobbes.
Paws Inc. Owns The Rights To Garfield
The
Garfield
comic run has been syndicated by a wide array of companies across the cat’s history, including Universal Press Syndicate, United Feature Syndicate, and Andrews McMeel Syndication. However, United Feature do not own the rights to the character itself anymore, even though Universal Press Syndicate continues to act as a distributor.That’s because those rights are now owned by a company known as Paws Inc. The appropriately named business is owned by Davis, meaning that he was eventually able to fully turn his mind’s creation into a profitable and marketable character that he can have the complete rights to. Perhaps with that power he should get the final say
on Garfield’svoice actors too
.
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