Characters
From Garfield Wiki
This is a list of characters in the comic strip and cartoon show Garfield.
Contents |
[edit] Primary characters
[edit] Garfield
Fat orange cat with distinctive black stripes and an attitude. He hates Mondays (not applicable if it's also his birthday), loves to eat and sleep (both to amazing amounts), watch TV, and play jokes on Jon and Odie. He enjoys tormenting the mailman. His favorite food is lasagna, and he loves to snack on canaries ("you can't eat just one canary!"); however, he hates raisins and spinach].Also has sickness problems like: sleep attacks. He refuses to eat mice ("Show me a good mouser, and I'll show you a cat with bad breath"), and has befriended several. He does, however, hate spiders. He is on number 8 of his 9 lives. He first appeared on June 19, 1978.
[edit] Jon Arbuckle
Garfield and Odie's owner, a total nerd and clumsy individual who is extremely pathetic in the world of dating and coolness. He is constantly striking out when trying to get dates with women, perhaps due to his ridiculous pick-up lines (said to a woman in the grocery store: "you must be today's special, because you're making me hungry") or loud and flashy outfits. His biggest crush is Dr. Liz Wilson, Garfield and Odie's vet, who has gone out with him a few times but the dates were usually unsuccessful. Jon is the primary fodder and conversation partner to Garfield and is often the butt of his jokes. He was (possibly still is, due to it never being contradicted) a cartoonist, but this reference has not been seen since the early days of the comic strip. Whatever his occupation, Jon still manages to make enough money to keep Garfield in lasagna -- no easy feat. Often, Jon, as well as Garfield, gets bored, and comes up with "fun" ways to cure boredom (such as buying new socks, or clipping his toenails). His full name has been revealed as Jonathan Q. Arbuckle in a Christmas strip. He first appeared on June 19, 1978. His birthday has been revealed to be July 28 (which is the same as that of Jim Davis). On December 23, 1980, Jon tells Garfield that he is 30 years old (he makes a joke about only being 29 because he was sick a year). This would make Jon's birthdate July 28], 1950, and his current age 56 years old. In the live-action films (such as Garfield: The Movie and Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties), he became Dr. Liz Wilson's "boyfriend/partner".
[edit] Odie
Loveable but dopey yellow-furred, brown-eared dog constantly panting with his very large tongue, and the only character without a "voice" (though he was once shown to be thinking "I'm hungry", and in Garfield in the Rough, he "says" "I'm afraid!" over and over, faster and faster, in the "Run, Run!" scene (though this is not confirmed). More recently, he was seen actually speaking in one of Garfield's dream sequences). One strip shows him enjoying classical music on the TV with a novel, War and Peace, in his lap after Jon and Garfield leave the house. Often kicked off the table by Garfield or the victim of some practical joke. Odie's original owner was Lyman, a friend and roommate to Jon Arbuckle. He first appeared on August 8, 1978. However, Lyman disappeared in 1983 and Odie became a pet to Jon. Odie is, to Garfield, a complete slobbering idiot (though it's not the actual case since Odie did manage to take revenge on Garfield occasionally, and Garfield usually cannot notice it). He is rarely seen without his giant tongue and drooling. Recently, Odie seems to be walking on two feet more often.
[edit] Arlene
Garfield's on-and-off girlfriend. A thin pink cat who seems to be the one living thing in the world who can successfully crack jokes at Garfield on a regular basis. She has distinctively big lips and a very thin neck. Earlier in the series she also had a gap between her teeth; she also appeared more often than now. She first appeared on December 17, 1980. Although she never appeared on the animated series (with the exception of a cameo appearance in the fourth season), she appeared in the film version as well.
[edit] Pooky
Garfield's huggable teddy bear. First appearance was October 23, 1978. The strip shows Garfield searching through Jon Arbuckle's bottom drawer, finding Pooky, and adopting him as his own.
[edit] Nermal
Cute gray kitten who flaunts his cuteness (the cutest kitten in the world, he says), which annoys Garfield immensely, he also has a very sarcastic attitude, usually resulting in Garfield trying to ship Nermal to Abu Dhabi. Often comes in unannounced, much to Garfield's chagrin, particularly by waking him up by shouting hello so loud that he jumps out of his bed. When he first appeared, he was owned by Jon's parents, but that connection was quickly dropped from the strip. When we see him, it is usually because Jon has to babysit him. He is not seen on Jon's parents' farm. Because of his eyelashes and seemingly effeminate personality, fans have often mistaken him as a gay; viewers of the television series will know that Nermal's voice sounded like a woman (he was in fact voiced by Desiree Goyette]). He first appeared on September 3, 1979. However, in Garfield: The Movie, Nermal appears as an adult Siamese rather than as a cute kitten.
[edit] Mom
Jon's mother who's always cooking up a meal, and sending Garfield the most uncomfortable sweaters.
[edit] Dad
Jon's father who tends the family farm.
[edit] Doc Boy
Jon's only brother who tends to the pigs on the farm, and who is as much a loser as Jon. Resents being called Doc Boy (which is obviously a nickname, for Jon used to call him Iguana Gums). He is apparently younger than Jon.
[edit] Grandma
She is a Harley-riding, leather-wearing old lady. She loves Jon and Garfield, and occasionally makes appearances throughout the series. The most is revealed about her in Garfield's Christmas special, where it is revealed that her husband has passed away and she talks about her life with him.
(See Jon's Family)
[edit] Lyman
Friend of Jon's who lived with him for a while and was the original owner of Odie. He first appeared on August 7, 1978. However, He disappeared from the comic in 1983 and his disappearance was never fully elaborated upon. His last appearance in the strip was a cameo on Garfield's 10th Birthday June 19, 1988 where he appears in the title panel seated between Jon's Dad and Liz, he also appears in a flashback panel within the strip. Recently, Davis was forced to directly address the issue of 'What happened to Lyman?'. According to Davis, Lyman's original purpose was to be someone who Jon could actually talk to and express other ideas—a role more and more taken over by Garfield himself. Hence he was removed without explanation. The closest thing Davis has ever given to explain his absence is "Don't look in Jon's basement". In the Web game "Scary Scavenger Hunt" he's shown chained onto the wall in the basement of a haunted mansion as well as screaming in a bathtub upstairs (in a scene clearly referencing the "shower scene" in the film Psycho; even the screeching violins from the infamous scene are played here). In "Scary Scavenger Hunt 2", his head is found inside the kitchen oven. This "in the basement" joke was revealed by Mr. Davis to not be entirely true. In an interview he mentioned that the real reason the Lyman disappeared was that he joined the Peace Corps and was never heard from again.
[edit] Irma
Waitress and owner of "Irma's Diner", a diner occasionally patronized by Jon and Garfield. The food, service, and mental stability of both Irma and her restaurant are all questionable. For instance, her idea of a "chicken surprise" is her coming up to the table wearing a rubber chicken mask and saying "SURPRISE!" She also referred to "your choice of potatoes" as "cooked" and "raw." However, this may be attributed to her operating the diner 24 hours a day with no help (though in other comics, she is shown to speak to other diner employees). Although her main and most memorable appearances took place earlier in the strip, in 1999 she appeared (updated to match the most recent style of the strip), once again doing wacky things at the diner.
[edit] Dr. Liz Wilson
Garfield's veterinarian and long-time crush of Jon Arbuckle. She occasionally dates him, but these outings always become disasters (often thanks to Garfield tagging along for the ride). She first appeared on June 26, 1979. In a series of live-action films (such as Garfield: The Movie and Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties), she became Jon Arbuckle's "girlfriend/partner".
[edit] Herman Post
Jon Arbuckle's mailman. Garfield constantly torments him, and he perpetually tries to find a way to deliver the mail safely, but almost never succeeding.
[edit] Secondary characters
- Hubert and Reba are Jon's stereotypical "grumpy old neighbors".
- Mrs. Feeny is another neighbor, who has never appeared in the strip. Garfield routinely torments her, her little dog, and Mr. Feeny (who have never appeared as well) and as such Mrs. Feeny is always complaining to Jon about Garfield over the phone.
- Ellen is a local girl whom Jon often tries to go out with. She has never appeared in the strip, but many strips focus on Jon phoning Ellen asking for a date. She usually asks him to do something very stupid first, before refusing.
- Sonja, Garfield's mother, Garfield's most influential family member. His mother is a stray, and he hardly sees her. But when they do meet, such as in the television special Garfield on the Town and the loose adaptation that ran in the strip in December 1984, she showers him with the love that she can rarely give. She also apeared in the television special "Garfield His 9 Lives.
- Jon's house is also inhabited by mice (usually unnamed, though one of their first appearances shows one of them giving Garfield a business card for "Herman Vermin"), enjoying a quite full social life—to much annoyance of Jon. Garfield, however, cannot be bothered to chase them, and according to him they tend to either bribe or blackmail him to stay so. One particular mouse in the comic strip started appearing in 1984, and was named Squeak by Garfield, but he looked no different from the other mice. (The way you know Garfield is talking to Squeak in particular is when there are no other mice around to confuse him with.) Squeak made a cameo appearance in 1997, a few days before Garfield's 19th birthday. In the cartoon show, there was a significant mouse with a similar role named Floyd, who could be told apart by the fact that he was drawn with oval eyes like the other regulars. A running gag with Floyd was his annoyance with the fact that he didn't appear often.
- Garfield's otherwise boring life is occasionally enriched by spiders, who sometimes walk around the house or dangle from the ceiling—and whom he squishes with rolled-up newspapers. This, of course, leads to several attempts by the spiders to get back at Garfield—unsuccessful in most cases. Garfield does occasionally obtain help from the spiders, such as to get rid of an annoying fly. A spider by the name of Guido has been introduced.
- When dieting, Garfield often has hallucinations. One common hallucination features walking food which encourages Garfield to eat it.
- Three trusty household appliances in the comic are the talking bathroom scale, the alarm clock and the TV. The three objects have quite different personalities: The scale, sometimes known as RX-2, usually allows itself to be quite cynical and crude about Garfield's overweight state. But sometimes when it does so, it gets smashed or thrown into a trash can. A cover on one of the Garfield paperbacks show Garfield putting a foot on the scale and it heaving with agony. The clock usually retracts from ringing loud and waking Garfield, since he tends to smash it into pieces and was once flushed down a toilet because it woke Garfield. The TV also speaks to Garfield by itself on occasion, usually trying to persuade Garfield into continuing to watch it or turning it off. Once, when Garfield fell asleep in front of the TV, the TV yelled at him to turn it off. On an episode of Garfield TV show there was a Twilight Zone-like episode with Garfield trapped in the TV set.
- Clive is Garfield's invisible friend. He is another way through which Garfield plays pranks on and irritates Jon and Odie.
- Binky the Clown is a television personality noted for his extremely loud and piercing greetings, most notably "HEEEEEEEY, KIDS!" First seen in Garfield's Halloween Adventure, the character made his appearance in the strip's longest-running continuing storyline. On Garfield and Friends, Binky became more of a regular, and would modify his greeting to suit who it was he was greeting, such as "HEEEEEEEY, CAT!" He also had his own segment on the show during the second and third seasons, called Screaming With Binky, in which he showed up in the midst of a certain activity and then perform his trademark greeting, ruining said activity. Most of these segments were cut in syndication, but have been restored for the DVD releases.
- Stretch is Garfield's rubber chicken, who was given to Garfield on his 6th birthday. It only appeared for a week after, yet makes cameo appearences from time to time, mainly used as a weapon against Jon.
- Garfield loves to eat sparrows, and has many attempts to catch them (most of the time failing), most notably his "barbeque bird bath" and his various bird disguises.
- A tree is always trying to encourage Garfield to climb him, always ending in Garfield falling for its "same old lies". In the beginning, he sits on a tree branch, but more recently finds himself gripping the branch by his front paws and dangling. Once while stuck up a tree, he meets a cat named Ed who was raised by squirrels and had never walked on the ground before.
- A recurring plot in the strip is Garfield eating Jon's various pet fish, which causes Jon to get mad. In an attempt to prevent Garfield from eating his second pet fish one week, he lets Garfield name it. Ironically, Second Helping (the fish Garfield named) lasted to the end of the strip, an event very rare in a Garfield comic. Another time, he named a fish Sushi.
- A little chick that looks up to Garfield and calls him "Daddy" (it was originally "Mommy" until Garfield explained to the little guy what gender was). He is a nuisance to Garfield who, oddly enough, is reluctant to eat the little guy (for some strange reason, the thought just never crossed his mind). The chick doesn't like lasagna.
- A big, vicious dog often enjoys barking at Garfield. His rear end is rarely seen. He is almost always seen next to a "Beware of Dog" sign, hence the name he's been given by several fans (another one is Chain Dog).
- Mondays are another nemesis of Garfield's. Often, they are shown off-panel but causing things to happen in-panel (such as throwing a pie at Garfield). When they are shown, they are drawn as ugly monsters. The most prominent theme was "The Monday That Wouldn't Die", in which every day in the month after a certain Monday was also Monday.
- The Spluts are slapstick-comedy flying pies which strike Garfield upon random occasions, making the sound "splut!" when they hit. Typically the Spluts are used for shock humor or as a running gag ('Garfield: (checks the calendar) "Yep... it's 'Splut week.'")
- The people who throw heavy objects at Garfield when he sings on the fence.
- There's occasionally a dog who usually pops up at the final panel of a strip and harming Garfield in the process, always exclaiming, "____ DOOOGGGG!" with the blank word being his way of entrance. He is dressed in a pilot's cap, a cape, and a shirt that reads the initnals of his name, which varies between his appearances. Examples include, "Trapdoor Dog", "Slingshot Dog", and "Bungee Dog".
- Santa Claus is portrayed as a real, rather than fictional, character in the Garfield strip. This is a rarity as most newspaper comics do not show Santa as someone who actually exists. Belief in Santa is unquestioned, both Garfield and Jon believe in him and Garfield has witnessed him flying in his sleigh, coming down the chimney, and distributing presents. Somehow despite all of the trouble that Garfield gets into he remains on Santa's nice list. On Garfield's first Christmas Eve (December 24, 1978), he received 20 pounds of lasagna, a request which Santa notes nobody else in the world asked for.
- Herman was Jon's pet frog, but was later inevitably eaten by Garfield.
- Snoopy the dog from the Peanuts comic strip who makes a cameo appearance as a mirror reflection of Garfield on a Monday comic strip.
- In one strip, Odie had a girlfriend (October 3, 2002). She doesn't seem to have appeared in any other strips.
[edit] Television series only
- Cactus Jake is the foreman of the Polecat Flats ranch, and a friend of Jon. He was seen only in the TV series and had a habit of saying Garfield's name wrong. Whenever Garfield wore a cowboy outfit, Jake always believed that he really was a cowboy named "Shorty" (Jon would always recognize "Shorty" as Garfield, however.)
- Al G. Swindler is, as his name suggests, a swindler, often conning Jon whenever he can, not to mention mispronouncing his last name. He only appeared in the TV series, and at the end of the episodes he was in, he would usually say, "It's getting tougher and tougher to make an honest buck these days."
- The Buddy Bears are a trio of annoying singing bear cubs who encourage viewers to "always agree with the group" (similar to The Get-Along Gang). Their names are Bobby, Billy, and Bertie. The only disagreement they've ever had was over pizza toppings, which supposedly no one can agree on. Their show once replaced Binky's, and Roy Rooster from U.S. Acres has twice been stuck as their fall guy. Garfield has remarked that he "hates Buddy Bear episodes". In the episode "The Garfield Opera", the bears' full names are revealed to be Robert, William, and Bertram, respectively. Infrequently, they are accompanied by their sister, Betty Buddy Bear.
- Madman Murray is a caricature of the type of estatic salesmen seen advertising used cars on television. Somewhat like Swindler, Madman is continually conning Jon out of his money. However, Madman's appearances on the show do not typically end with Garfield outsmarting him as often.
- Penelope served as another love interest for Garfield, appearing only in the show's last three seasons, quickly becoming a regular even with only three episodes being labeled by their titles as "Penelope episodes". She lives in an Italian restaurant, which is no doubt the main reason that Garfield goes out with her. The fact that Garfield enjoys eating more annoys Penelope, but she willingly goes out with him anyway, because as she says, "It doesn't matter what we do so long as we do it together."
- Ludlow is a young sparrow who appeared during the last two seasons, and who sounded somewhat like Augie Doggy. Being young and impressionable, he believes that Garfield is his friend, and as a result, Garfield cannot bring himself to eat him. Ludlow's dad distrusts cats, and therefore is agressive to Garfield.
- The Singing Ants are a group of black ants who showed up to ruin Jon's picnic in the season five episode "The Picnic Panic". They are referred to as the Singing Ants because they make their appearance announcing what they do, which is to steal food from picnics, by way of song. The ants proved to be so popular with viewers that two seasons later, the ants reappeared in the aptly-titled "Another Ant Episodes". This time, though, they were red ants, and they had come to steal all the food in Jon's house. The Ants are perhaps the only antagonistic characters whom Garfield cannot succeed in outsmarting.
- Mr. Burnside is Jon's next-door neighbor, who is constantly annoyed by Garfield stealing his food.
