Over more than forty years, Garfield creator Jim Davis grew his syndicated newspaper comic strip about an orange tabby cat into a globe-spanning multimedia empire. Yet, given the choice, Davis would like his creation to be remembered for what it was originally: a cartoon designed to brighten the days of newspaper readers on a day-to-day basis.
In an interview with Vice, Jim Davis offered insight into the production of Garfield merchandise. The character’s popularity may have started on the page, but it quickly grew beyond that, encompassing every form of media and spanning countless products, generating ceaseless revenue streams beyond Davis’ wildest idea of what success could entail.
That said, when asked about how Garfield would endure in the popular consciousness, the writer and artist admitted that he would prefer if the character’s legacy – and his as a creator – stemmed from the comic strip, rather than its many derivative products.
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Garfield Creator Jim Davis Wants The Comic To Be His Legacy
That Gets More Difficult Every Year
In 2018, many news outlets commemorated the 40th anniversary of Garfield, first published in 1978. This included Vice, who spoke to Jim Davis about the wider cultural legacy of the comic, which is tied to the multitude of merch that it spawned. Davis explained the process of approving and working on Garfield merchandise, which has become an entire industry in its own right. While the creator naturally expressed gratitude for his incredible achievement, his comments in the interview made it clear that he had never lost sight of himself as an artist, first and foremost.
As Davis put it, when asked about how Garfield will be remembered:
Garfield after forty years, yeah he’s gained a bit of iconic status. There have been movies, there have been books, there have been other things…I certainly want him to be known as a comic strip, because that’s where he really entertains. That’s where he struts his stuff. That’s his sweet spot.
Garfield’s creator is an extreme example of something all contemporary artists have to navigate: the disparity between the desire for their art to be judged on its artistic merits, and the need to make it commercially viable in some way or another. Though it started as art, Garfield has achieved nearly unparalleled success as a commercial product. This makes it extraordinarily difficult for its cultural impact to be solely judged on the merits of the comic strip.
In other words, even as Jim Davis continues to write his legendary comic, with Garfield now rapidly approaching its fiftieth anniversary, it only gets harder for its legacy to not be the various products it has spawned. Every year, more and more people come of age associating Garfield with t-shirts, bumper stickers, and various other merchandise using the character’s ubiquitous image. As a result, Davis’ desire for his artistic work on the comic strip to take precedence in peoples’ conception of Garfield becomes increasingly at odds with the reality of the situation.
Garfield Generates Over One Billion Dollars Worldwide Per Year
The Most Profitable Cat In The World
As the Vice mini-documentary explained, by 2018 the licensing and sale of Garfield-related products accounted for over one billion dollars annually worldwide. Garfield’s image has come to adorn nearly every conceivable product, but more importantly, it has taken on a meaning that encapsulates the humor of the comic. Garfield has become a signifier, indicating a particular outlook on life that has resonated with successive generations. Though the character may not primarily be engaged with in the comic book medium anymore, the essence of Jim Davis’ comedic sensibility is very much retained by its many offshoot products.
Garfield grew out of its original medium, into the global phenomenon it is today, thanks to the success and wide distribution of Jim Davis’ comic strip in syndication. Over time, the character’s core traits and classic catchphrases became cemented in popular culture, to the extent that just the image of the familiar cat can carry all of that, without the need for further elaboration in dialogue. In a way, this is a fascinating process – especially when considering the ways in which Davis has, and has not, had control over his character’s proliferation.
Jim Davis Couldn’t Avoid Licensing Garfield
Few Artists Would
Of course, Jim Davis took the opportunity to profit off the cultural popularity of Garfield. Few creators wouldn’t, given the chance – with one notable exception being Davis’ cartoonist peer, Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, who passed out a great deal of merchandising opportunities. He is something of a cautionary tale, however, as the lack of official Calvin & Hobbes merch led to the common production many unsanctioned items over the years. Davis, on the other hand, recognized that it would be folly not to extend Garfield’s brand and generate income from his creation.
That said, Davis’ success is as much a result of his strong creative drive, as it is his keen business sense. In comments like the ones he made to Vice at the time of Garfield’s fortieth anniversary, it is clear that the artist in Jim Davis doesn’t want the artistic value of his decades of work to be entirely subsumed by its financial profitability. There is far from a right or wrong answer for any artist when it comes to matters like this; that said, anyone seeking to walk the fine line between artistic integrity and commercial prosperity can benefit from reflecting on Jim Davis’ success with Garfield, as they forge their own path.
Source: Vice, Jim Davis interview; Smithsonian Magazine
Garfield
Garfield is the central character in Jim Davis’s comic strip, which officially began in 1978 under the same name. Garfield is an orange tabby cat with a love of lasagna and a disdain for Mondays. He tends to torment his owner and dog while trying to secure more food – and quiet.
