When is Garfieild not Garfield
Final Essay
Garfield is a lasagna loving, monday hating, lovable cat, who throughout history has
been revised and cycled through different versions of entertainment and media. This lazy cat
has become a staple and “norm” in the comic industry and a friendly recognizable face on the
television and in movies as well. Just as Robert Patten questioned how novels should be
viewed when the original book has undergone too much change to be considered a book, this
essay will focus on how the new form of Garfield should be studied as the original was
differently designed, and has now shifted into other forms of entertainment. “To the degree that
many of these facts and circumstances have been obscured by Oliver Twist's repackaging as a
book, its history has been effaced and the true character of its origins has been lost.” (Patten).
Has the true character of Garfield's origins been lost in transition to his new form? This question
can be answered by researching the origin of Garfield and comparing it to his new character
designs, investigating how and why these changes were made as well as the intentions behind
them, and comparing the history of Garfield to that of “Oliver Twist”. This research will inevitably
provide an answer for how Garfield became so popular, and why this cat remains so popular
and likeable while the societal standard of popular culture has shifted. Essentially, why does
Garfield work and what does he evoke in consumers?
Just as Patten sets a standard by defining what a book is, this essay begs the question
of what a Garfield is. On June 19th, 1978 Garfield was born and published. He was a fat cat on
four legs who was simply hungry (Davis). In later comics he became known to be lazy and
obsess over italian food. Author Jim Davis decided on the cartoon because he saw dogs doing
well in comic strips yet observed an absence of cats (Hall). He came up with the idea himself
and based Garfield the cat off of his grandfather (Hall). After publishing, he slowly changed
Garfield over time with the help of “Peanuts creator” Charles M Schulz (Flood). Besides
Garfield's newfound ability to stand on two legs, “his eyes and mouth are larger, and his body is
slightly smaller, which helps with the more physical humour Davis has introduced” (Flood).
Garfield has changed over time. Both his character design and his two dimensionality
have transitioned, but is Garfield still Garfield? Oliver Twist was originally a scrappy
leatherbound book when it was first published, but after a period of time the proprietor cleaned
the design up and was able to sell it for much more (Patten). At this point a book was still a
book, and the same can be said for the design changes that Garfield undertook. The addition of
hand gestures and a cleaner look did not change his personality, it just made the comic strip
look sharper and enabled Garfield to better express his unchanged personality.
A section of Robert Patten’s theory is about collaborative authorship. He argues that so
much work from so many people went into Oliver Twist and “... turning the voice from polyphonic
to monophonic…” “eras[es] all the extratextual influences” pushes the book further from being a
book as a result of serialization (Patten). While Patten is talking specifically about magazines,
there are still lines to draw. Garfield was also serialized when Davis decided to create TV shows
based on the comics. Since Davis was the person to actually produce these shows, and Mark
Evanier received credit for writing each episode, Garfield can still remain polyphonic, and
therefore Garfield.
When the team working on Oliver Twist comes towards “theatrical realization” for the
story, they start to direct the illustrations to induce dramatization (Patten). Patten believed that
that “...for Dickens the prospects, and retrospects, of dramatizing the story significantly affected
the text’s design” (Patten). When Garfield became movies and television shows the storyline
was dramatized compared to the light and easy storyline of the comics. This turned Garfield into
a character with more dimensions, but his interests and essence remained the same. The
comics also continued in a non-dramatized manner which helps separate the comics from the
show. For these reasons the design of the shows and movies do not significantly affect the
original text’s design.
Garfield has changed, but unlike Oliver Twist he still remains Garfield. After researching
the origin of Garfield and comparing it to his new character designs it is clear that although he
gains different dimensions and the original script from the comics becomes dramaticized, he is
still the same monday hating, Italian food conducting lazy feline. After investigating how and
why these changes were made and the intentions behind them, it has been discovered that the
majority of the changes were made by, or with permission from, Jim Davis. The comic even
gathers updates on relationship statuses and adjusts to the latest action happening on the
show, which furthermore shows that the comics and TV episodes are in sync and that they exist
in the same realm/universe. When comparing the history of Garfield to that of Oliver Twist, it is
clear that the dangers Patten observed which made Dicken’s novel less of a book do not apply
to the same extent when compared to Garfield. Garfield is still Garfield.
When considering the question of why Garfield works and how he became so popular
Jim Davis spells it out. ““I’m dealing with very basic things, eating and sleeping, and I predict
everyone’s still going to be eating and sleeping 40 years from now….I want him to be the cat
next door and I feel a real responsibility to balance the scales. With what’s going on in the
economy, in politics, it’s awful and very depressing, so the purpose of the comics is to lighten
things up, to go, ‘Hey, let’s not take ourselves so seriously, folks.’” (Flood). Garfield evokes
comfort, he evokes reader’s guilty pleasures such as binge eating and being lazy. He is
relatable, and in the same way 40 years ago that he is now. The world will always be a
depressing place, but Garfield is here to take that depression away by going back to the basics:
Eating and sleeping.
.
Citations:
Patten, Robert L. “When is a Book Not a Book?” The Book History Reader. Eds. David
Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. New York: Routledge , 2006. 354-368. Print.
Hall, Gerrad. “The Cat's Meow.” CNNfyi.com - The Cat's Meow - October 26, 2000, Ball State
University, 26 Oct. 2000,
web.archive.org/web/20090214062806/archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/student.bureau/10/24/jim.davi
s/.
Davis, Jim. “Garfield by Jim Davis for June 19, 1978.” GoComics, GoComics, 19 June 1978,
www.gocomics.com/garfield/1978/06/19.
Flood, Alison. “Garfield's Creator, 40 Years on: 'I'm Still Trying to Get It Right'.” The Guardian,
Guardian News and Media, 19 June 2018,
www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/19/garfield-jim-davis-40-years.