Summary
There are dozens of recognizable cartoon characters in the world, from Bugs Bunny to Mickey Mouse to Snoopy, and standing shoulder to shoulder with them is none other thanGarfield. Since his creation, Garfield has been an absolute juggernaut of pop culture and merchandise, but he’s changed so much over the years that it’s unlikely fans nowadays would even recognize him.
WhileGarfieldcreator Jim Davis is a huge name now in the comic strip industry, back in 1973 no one really knew who he was. He spent two years working on a comic strip calledGnorm Gnat, which, unfortunately, found very little success. Eventually, Davis decided to branch out and started looking at what kind of animal characters were popular, which is when he noticed the distinct lack of characters who were cats.
This led to Davis creating the very first instance of Garfield and Jon Arbuckle in a comic simply known asJon.This comic followed the cartoonist Jon, the main character, and his quirky cat Garfield, but eventually, Davis decided to makeGarfield the main character. This was possibly the smartest thing he ever did, and it also came with Garfield’s first design change.
A Side By Side OfJon’s First Comic And The First Installment OfGarfield
Jonran from 1976 to early 1978, but received a name change toGarfieldin 1977. The comic was a surprising hit and, in March 1978, it was accepted for national distribution. While some newspapers, such as theChicago Sun-Timesweren’t impressed anddropped the comic, they were later forced to pick it back up after massive complaints from readers. This goes to show just how popularGarfieldwas quickly becoming after only a year into the strip’s national distribution.
After two years of daily comic strips and using every cat gag he could imagine,Davis began to evolve Garfield’s design. No longer was he the fat cat that was trapped on all fours. He instead began walking upright, and could actively grab things with his paws, using them as hands instead.The reason for this sudden evolution is that Garfield would be able to interact with the world more easily, and would also be able to do things like shove Odie off a table. It also helped from a marketing perspective, as a number of popular animal cartoon characters, such as Snoopy, stood upright on two legs.
Garfield’s Popularity Couldn’t Be Stopped
This evolution of the strip’s title character took place over a few years, likely to ease viewers into it. In 1978, Garfield slowly started to have more open and full eyes, instead of constantly squinting. By 1979, his entire body had nearly changed, with a much bigger emphasis on sitting upright instead of the slouched blob of a cat he had originally been way back inJon. Another benefit to this change is that, while it’s difficult to put a realistic cat in absurd situations, a more cartoony cat can be put in any situation Davis could imagine.
Garfield’s popularity only grew and grew as the comic strip went on, and by 1981 he appeared in 850 newspapers and was generating $15 million in merchandise, only three years after his debut.
The biggest change came to Garfield’s design during his very first cartoon special,Here Comes Garfield. The biggest problem the animators faced was simply how to move Garfield. The first instinct was to move him like a cartoon,but given how fat and heavy Garfield is, they decided to animate Garfield like a human, but this brought up its own issues. Having Garfield move like a human doesn’t really work when he has tiny cat feet, so they addressed this by giving him human-like feet and legs. This evolution was brought over to the comics, and by 1983, he was nearly always shown as bipedal.
Ironically, in 1983, he first appeared in the Macy’s Day Parade as a walking mascot, and in the following year, he appeared as a balloon with his design that kept him on all fours. By the 1990s,Garfield’s design was finally completed. He was always seen walking on two feet like a human, with a much smaller and rounder face, along with his stomach being reduced just a bit, though still making sure he seemed fat.
In the years following his debut in animation, Garfield’s design would change slightly in different adaptations, such as in the 2004Garfieldmovie starring Bill Murray, where he had a more realistic depiction. However, none of these design changes made it to the comics. By and large, his design was finalized in the 1990s and really hasn’t changed much since then.
10 Funniest Garfield Comics That Just Turned 40 (In June 2024)
As of June 2024, a whole month’s worth of Garfield comics have just turned 40 years old (coinciding with Garfield’s 6th birthday). Here’s the 10 best!
Garfield’s Cartoon Designs Have Always Been Slight Variations On His Comic Look
Garfield is one of the most recognizable characters in the world and there’s no doubt that the reason why this is that Jim Davis spent the time and effort to continually evolve the character. While Davis is a talented artist, he wasn’t happy with the original design the more he worked with it, so over time, he simply kept tweaking it again and again. He took Garfield from a completely normal looking cat, if a bit fat and frumpy, to an iconic mascot who is worth $800 million in merchandise. It’s no easy feat to make a character as recognizable as Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny, but Davis did it.
The evolution of Garfield’s design is a great example of how perfection isn’t something that happens on the first try.
While Garfield’s design has always slightly changed in the various animated media he’s appeared in,they always follow the core look that Davis settled on in the comic strips. The evolution of Garfield’s design is a great example of how perfection isn’t something that happens on the first try. It took almost a decade before Garfield’s design was finalized, and he became the absolute merchandise juggernaut that he is today. Even 40 years after his creation, Garfield continues getting new TV shows and movies, simply because everyone knows about the orange cat who hates Mondays.
Garfield’s Comics Are Iconic
Before Jim Davis came along, there were very few popular cat characters in comics. Davis was able to recognize this untapped market and from it, he built an entire empire on the back of an orange lasagna-loving cat. While Garfield became more human and less cat-like over the years, that has only made him more popular. Jim Davis' history withGarfieldis a brilliant lesson for artists that even if an idea is good, taking the time to refine and perfect that idea can truly be a million-dollar idea.
Garfield
Garfield is the central character in Jim Davis’s comic strip, which officially began in 1978 under the same name. Garfield is an orange tabby cat with a love of lasagna and a disdain for Mondays. He tends to torment his owner and dog while trying to secure more food - and quiet.
