Garfield
From Garfield Wiki
| Garfield
<tr> <td align="center" colspan="2">Image:Garfield.JPG | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Information
<tr> <th>Species</th> <td>Orange Tabby cat</td> </tr><tr> <th>Gender</th> <td>Male</td> </tr><tr> <th>Age</th> <td>29</td> </tr><tr> <th>Date of birth</th> <td>June 19, 1978</td> </tr><tr> <th>Family</th> <td>Sonja (mother), Raoul (half-brother)</td> </tr><tr> <th>Portrayed by</th> <td>Lorenzo Music (voice in all animated appearances) | |||
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis featuring the cat Garfield, the pet dog Odie, and their socially inept owner Jon Arbuckle. As of 2006, it is syndicated in roughly 2,570 newspapers and journals and it currently holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated Comic Strip. The popularity of the strip has led to a children's cartoon show, several television specials and a feature-length film, as well as a large amount of Garfield-related merchandise.
The main character is named after Jim Davis' grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who was named after former U.S. president James Garfield.
Garfield was born in the kitchen of Mama Leone's Italian Resturant in June 19, 1978. He, however, was given to a pet store where he was bought by Jon Arbuckle. For awhile Garfield had the house to himself, them Jon's roomate, Lyman brought his dog Odie to the house. Lyman eventually disappeared from the strip, but Odie stayed.
The strip pokes fun at pet owners and their relationship with their pets - often portraying the pet as the true master of the home. Garfield also struggles with human problems, such as diets, loathing of Mondays, apathy, boredom, and so on. Garfield is able to understand anything that Jon or other humans say, but doesn't talk to humans (he communicates to the reader in thought balloons, and Jon reacts to Garfield's thoughts). However, Garfield is able to talk to Odie and the other animals. Odie understands what Garfield says to him, but in general can not communicate back to Garfield except by barking. Most of the other animals (Arlene, Nermal, mice, and the other dogs) are capable of a two-way conversation with Garfield. Garfield apparently is able to type and a few times has written messages that Jon has read and understood (typically letters to Santa Claus), however this happens very rarely.
Over the course of the strip, Garfield's behavior and appearance evolved. Initially, he was drawn grossly obese with flabby jowls and small round eyes. Later, his appearance was slimmed down and his eyes enlarged. By 1983, his familiar appearance—featuring oval-shaped eyes—had taken shape. By this time, Garfield was walking on two feet, and the strip emphasized Situation comedy situations such as Garfield making fun of Jon's stupidity and Jon's inability to make social connections. A number of the strip's readers feel that the quality of the writing has lessened, even as the artwork retained a consistent level of quality. Like many comic strips, Garfield is not exclusively drawn and written by its creator. Jim Davis's company, Paws Inc., employs cartoonists and writers who do most of the work of scripting, drawing, and inking the strip, while Davis's work is usually confined to approving and signing the finished strip. Davis spends most of his time managing the business and merchandising aspects of Garfield.
Learning from the indifference met with his previous comic strip creation Gnorm Gnat, Jim Davis has made a conscious effort to include all readers in Garfield; keeping the jokes broad and the humour general and applicable to everyone. As a result the strip typically avoids the social or political commentary present in some of Garfield's contemporaries, such as Boondocks, Doonesbury, Dilbert, and Cathy. Although a couple of strips in 1978 addressed inflation and, arguably, organized labor, as well as Jon frequently smoking a pipe or subscribing to a "bachelor magazine", these elements were ultimately pruned from the product with the intent of maintaining a more universal appeal. Davis adamantly disavowed social commentary in an interview published at the beginning of one of the book compilations, joking that he once believed that OPEC was a denture adhesive.
The characters and situations in Garfield are often constant, with no change or development for the past several years. While this is not unique to Garfield, as Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes and the children of Peanuts never age, other strips such as For Better or For Worse, Cathy, and Doonesbury maintain a continuity with characters who develop, age, and may even die as the strip proceeds.
The comic strip was turned into a cartoon special for television in 1982 in television called Here Comes Garfield. Actor Lorenzo Music, previously known as the voice of Carlton the doorman on the show Rhoda, was hired to portray the voice of Garfield. Soul singer Lou Rawls provided musical accompaniment. Twelve television specials were made (through 1991) as well as a television series, Garfield and Friends, which ran from 1988 to 1995.
A live-action movie version of the comic strip, Garfield: The Movie had its debut in the United States on June 11, 2004. The film employed a computer-animated Garfield and live-action Odie. Lorenzo Music had passed away prior to the filming of the movie, and Bill Murray was cast as the voice of Garfield. Murray's laid-back, deadpan delivery has often been compared to Music's; indeed, Music provided the voice of Murray's Peter Venkman character in the cartoon version of Ghostbusters. Murray became the fourth actor to provide a voice for the Garfield: Tommy Smothers voiced the role in a cat food commercial, and an unnamed Music soundalike was used in another TV spot. Prior to Murray being cast, it was widely reported that actor John Goodman had been picked to provide Garfield's voice for the film.
For his work on the strip, creator Jim Davis received the National Cartoonist Society Humor Strip Award for 1981 and 1985, and their Reuben Award for 1989.
On June 7, 1999, newspapers began to be offered full-color Garfield weekday strips.
