Jim Davis

Garfield made a debut on 19th June, 1978, being shown in 41 newspapers in the US. Before Garfield, Davis was working as an assistant cartoonist while thinking about another idea which involved a bug, Gnorm Gnat. That idea was rejected because no one would be able to relate to a bug, so without success it never happened.

So for looking for different ideas, he would look at what was pretty much working for other cartoonists, he saw a lot of dogs, but no cats. Therefore, Garfield came into theory. Davis would then take inspiration from the stray cats from his family farm as a child, this would then develop into a strip which took a little over a year. Then creating a cast of well developed characters which would all contrast from each other. These would then come to interact with the lazy, lasagne-loving cat we all came to love.

The reaction to Garfield was amazing. This made David go all in for Garfield full-time, and the growth rate was wonderful, to 200m daily readers and countless best-selling books and animations.

Even now Davis is still dedicated to draw out skeletons of new Garfield strips himself while his team completes them.

With time everything changes and Garfield was no expectation, today Garfield eyes and mouth are bigger and his body smaller than what it was; a larger cat which looked grumpy all the time.

Davis has stated that people see themselves in Garfield when they read or watch him “We live in a time when we’re made to feel guilty about overeating, oversleeping, not exercising. Garfield not only does all that stuff but he’s cool with that. I think in a way he relieves our guilt,” he says. “Garfield is everyone’s alter ego.” and I think that is important, when people see their selves in things, that is when it really catches people’s attentions.

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