In the 1970s the comic strip artist Jim Davis authored a strip,
Gnorm Gnat,
which met with little success. One editor said that "his art was good,
his gags were great," but "nobody can identify with bugs." Davis took
his advice and created a new strip with a cat as its main character.
[4]
The strip originally consisted of four main characters. Garfield, the
titular character, was based on the cats Davis was around growing up; he
took his name and personality from Davis's grandfather James A.
Garfield Davis,
[5]
who was, in Davis's words, "a large cantankerous man". Jon Arbuckle
came from a coffee commercial from the 1950s, and Odie was based on a
car dealership commercial written by Jim Davis, which featured Odie the
Village Idiot. Early on in the strip Odie's owner was a man named Lyman.
He was written in to give Jon someone to talk with. Davis later
realized that Garfield and Jon could "communicate nonverbally". The
strip originally centered on Jon, being rejected by the
King Features,
Post-Hall and the
Chicago Tribune-
New York News agencies, all which asked Davis to focus on the cat, who in their opinion, got the better lines.
United Feature Syndicate accepted the retooled strip in 1978 and debuted it in 41 newspapers on June 19
[6] of that year (however after a test run, the
Chicago Sun-Times dropped it, only to reinstate it after readers' complaints).
[1][7] Garfield's first
Sunday page ran on June 25, 1978,
[8] being featured as a third-pager until March 22, 1981.
[9] A half page debuted the following Sunday (March 29),
[10] with the strips for March 14
[11] and 21, 1982,
[12] having a unique nine-panel format, but UFS curtailed further use of it (but it allowed Davis to use the format for his
U.S. Acres strip).
The strip's subject matter in the early months varied from the pattern it later settled into. Some could be seen today as
politically incorrect, such as strips involving Jon's pipe smoking
[13][14][15] or his subscription to a bachelor magazine.
[16]
Another point which has distanced these strips was the
U.S./Canada-centric humor, with a few jokes being totally untranslatable
to some languages,
[17] however by 1980, the strip became the universal family fare product for which it is now known.
The appearance of the characters gradually changed over time.
[18] The left panel is taken from a 1980 strip; the right is from a 1990 strip.
More notably, the strip underwent stylistic changes with 1978–83
strips being more realistic, while comics from 1984 onwards have been
more cartoony. This change has essentially affected Garfield's design;
who underwent a "Darwinian evolution" in which he began walking on his
hind legs, "slimmed down", and "stopped looking [...] through squinty
little eyes". His evolution, according to Davis, was to make it easier
to "push Odie off the table" or "reach for a piece of pie". Jon also
underwent major changes, and still currently is. Now, he looks older
than 1990 strips; he is taller and he has larger features.
Garfield quickly became a commercial success. In 1981, less
than three years after its release, the strip appeared in 850 newspapers
and accumulated over $15 million in merchandise. To manage the
merchandise, Davis founded
Paws, Inc.[19] By 2002,
Garfield became the world's most syndicated strip, appearing in 2,570 newspapers with 263 million readers worldwide;
[1] by 2004,
Garfield appeared in nearly 2,600 newspapers and sold from $750 million to $1 billion worth of merchandise in 111 countries.
[20]
In 1994, Davis's company, Paws, Inc., purchased all rights to the
strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature. The strip is currently
distributed by
Universal Press Syndicate, while rights for the strip remain with Paws.
While retaining creative control and being the only signer, Davis now
only writes and usually does the rough sketches. Since the late 1990s
most of the work has been done by long-time assistants Brett Koth and
Gary Barker. Inking and coloring work is done by other artists while
Davis spends most of the time supervising production and merchandising
of his characters.
[20]
ga kerasa udh kelas 11 lagi, tp gw sedih karna solmet gw ulil pindah sekolah men, sedihhhhhhh
nih dia orang nya..
huh udah kelas 11 aja nih gw ketemu temen2 baru dan ternyata mereka asik bgt haha ayg bgt gw sama mereka.. kebersamaan kita kuat bgt
erik, regi, kiki, jambia, nanda, reva, jelin. kita selalu dihukum bareng karna ga suka masuk pas pelajaran berlangsung hahaha nakal dikit..
hampir tiap ada acara kita selalu ber 4, contohnya waktu ke ultah temen ..
kita deket bgt lah pokoknya
ka kerasa nih udah kelas 3 aja nih gw, udah sibuk aja.
tiap hari pulang sore dan nyampe rumah gw langsung les privat gt deh , demi apa? demi tuhaaaaaaan! engga deng< demi UN lahhhhhh
sedih nya gw dipisahin sama temen2 gw itu, dikelas gw ga ada temen men tp lama lama banyak bgt orang baik deketin gw, baron, intan, wiwi, novianti, boin, yuda, dan temen sebangku gw lah vica namanya,
jujur pas kelas 3 ko gw makin jauh dari kata feminim ya? hahaha semuanya aut autan
ga kerasa udah UN aja lg ya kan men, disini lah puncak nya gw selama ini mati2an..
gw mikir tar gmn ya? gw bakal pisah sama semua org yg gw sayang
bener kan gw bilang? semuanya ga kerasa tau ga? acara perpisahan udah dimulai dan.. :( tumpah semua yg gw alamin selama gw sekolah SMA, ditambah lagi si ajay muter vidio angkatan gw dan semuanya ada disitu meeeeen dari kita semua MOS sampe UN kemaren, gila gila gila bgt emg huaaaaaaa gw pen teriak, semuanya terasa cepet bgt
uhuk..
i'm so envy hihi..
