The newspaper might become less and less of a staple on our lawns or breakfast tables but even the youngest among us can recognize one of its most iconic and colorful stars (and we don’t mean Paul Krugman.) We’re talking about a certain lasagna-loving fat cat with a very heavy disdain for Mondays.
‘Garfield’ may not be as critically revered as iconic favorites like ‘Peanuts,’ ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and ‘The Far Side,’ but it is without a doubt the most successful comic strip series of all time. It appears every day in a number of newspapers after more than 30 years in syndication, has more than 200,000,000 readers across the globe and creator Jim Davis has reaped countless merchandising rights and profits from toys, phones, T-shirts and others.
Garfield
Garfield is a fictional character and the title protagonist from the comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis. The comic strip centers around Garfield and portrays him to be a lazy and fat yet cynical orange cat. He loves lasagna and coffee, and hates Mondays and raisins. Garfield relates to many because of his passion for food, his ability to just eat a lot, and his lack of motivation to work out. Sleep is his favorite hobby and to him, "Diet is 'die' without the 't'".
Garfield was born June 19, 1978, in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant weighing 5 lbs and 6 ounces at birth and loved Lasagna the day he was born. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food. However, the restaurant owner of Mamma Leoni's Italian restaurant had to choose between keeping Garfield or closing down his restaurant due to a lack of pasta; so Garfield was sold to a pet shop. Later in his life, Garfield accidentally runs across his mother again one Christmas Eve, and meets his grandfather (from his mother's side) for the first time. On August 19, 1978, when Jon came to the store, he had to choose between Garfield, an iguana, and a pet rock. In his cartoon appearances, Garfield usually causes mischief in every episode. In June 1983, comic strips introduced Amoeba Man, one of Garfield's alter-egos, yet he was only shown in six strips (June 20–25). In February 2010, another alter ego was introduced called Super Garfield, and his sidekick Odieboy (Odie). Amoeba Man and Super Garfield are only two of his few imaginary alter egos though, his most common one being the Caped Avenger. And for a very short period of time, Garfield would fall prey to various dogs e.g. Bungee Dog, Warm up dog etc. which would squish him in any direction. It is also given that Garfield uses the "sandbox" on occasion, such as in one 1978 strip; he says he hates commercials because they're "too long to sit through and too short for a trip to the sandbox." It was revealed on October 27, 1979, that he doesn’t like raisins. His birthday is June 19, 1978, the day the first Garfield strip was published. Interestingly, on Garfield's 25th anniversary in 2003, several strips were featured with him interacting with the version of him from 1978. Garfield frequently gets into many adventures, such as getting stuck in roll-up shades, sparring with mice, and getting locked up in animal shelters. In 2005, Garfield and Jon appeared in several comic strips of Blondie in honor of their 75th anniversary. Garfield got excited because he didn't have to think. There was an earlier Blondie crossover on the Garfield strip published April 1, 1997.
Jim Davis named Garfield after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after President James A. Garfield.
Davis grew up on his grandfather’s farm in Indiana, where there were a number of cats around his home and barn. Garfield’s wry and grumpy attitude came not from the cats, but from their loveable grumpy owner, James A. Garfield Davis who Jim described as “a large cantankerous man.”