Summary
Despite being the world’s most syndicated comic, pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars every year,Garfieldwas originally meant to be very different, even following a different character in Jim Davis' original vision. The cynical, always hungry tabbyhas appeared on endless merchandise, starred in various movies and TV shows, and is instantly recognizable by fans across the world - however,he wasn’t supposed to be the focus of his own comic.
Jim Davis' comic success didn’t happen overnight, and he actually launched a totally different franchise before ever thinking upGarfield(more on that shortly.) However, even in the case of the lazy orange cat,Davis' original vision was a comic starring Garfield’s owner Jon Arbuckle. In fact, when Davis' strip first appeared inThe Pendleton Timesin 1976, it was titledJon.
The difference wasn’t just in the title -Jonfocuses on Arbuckle’s various misadventures, hanging out with close friend Lyman and trying unsuccessfully to find a date.Garfield was a side character who often didn’t appear at all. Indeed, it took a moment of realization for Davis to understand that he needed to shift focus away from Jon and towards his soon-to-be-iconic cat.
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While Davis was trying to treat Jon as the main character, Garfield always had a sarcastic comment that gave him the last word.
Peanutscreator Charles Schulz helped Davis redesign Garfield, inspired by a trade secret in Snoopy’s design.
‘Garfield’ Was Meant to Be Jon Arbuckle’s Comic
TumbleweedsCreator Pointed Out Jim Davis Was Focusing on the Wrong Character
Jonran from January 1976 to March 1978, but only kept its original name until 1977, when Davis renamed itGarfield. The strip was picked up for national syndication soon after and effectively relaunched, with Davis recreating severalJongags with new art. In the run-up to the series' name change,Garfield began to hog the spotlightmore and more, but it took a colleague’s insight for Davis to realize this was because of the tabby’s star power.
In a 2018 interview withMental Floss, Davis admits thatwhile he was trying to treat Jon as the main character, Garfield always had a sarcastic comment that gave him the last word. Davis recalls a conversation with T.K. Ryan (the creator of the comic stripTumbleweeds) where he explained that every time he came up with a punchline, he also thought of Garfield’s quick-witted response. Davis says:
I ran some early ideas at a local paper to see how I felt about it and I called the strip Jon. It was about him, but he had this wise cat who, every time, came back zinging him. He always had the great payoff. At the time, I worked for T.K. Ryan - the cartoonist for Tumbleweeds - and I showed it to him and told him how every time I got to the punch line the cat zings him. And T.K. said, ‘Well, what does that tell you, Jim? The strip must be about the cat. Go with it.’
Garfield’s immense fame - with hundreds of millions of readers across the world - makes it wild to think that the character was never even meant to be the star of his own comic. However, looking atDavis' original design for Garfield, it’s clear the character needed time to evolve into his iconic (and incredibly marketable) modern form. MakingGarfield’s story even stranger,Davis never actuallymeantto redesign Garfield.
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Garfield’s expressive face is a result of the 1983 newsprint shortage, with Davis adding bigger features to counteract newspapers shrinking the comic’s page space.
Becoming the Main Character Changed Garfield’s Design
Davis Kept Changing Garfield to Overcome Artistic Challenges
In his original appearance, Garfield is far more feline, standing on four legs and with a less expressive face, including notably smaller eyes. Over the decades, Garfield became more stylized, becoming mostly bipedal and developing a far more expressive face. In a 2021 interview withHeritage Auctions, Davis noted that thechanges to Garfield’s design weren’t about deliberately changing his look, but a byproduct of adjusting his design so he could believably perform new actions. Davis says:
That was never intentional. That just kind of happened over time to allow Garfield to do the things he needed to do. To better reach a pie on a high shelf, or better move around.
Garfield’s more humanoid dimensions meant that he could interact with the world around him, and were directly inspired by Snoopy’sdesign evolution over in Charles Schulz’sPeanuts. Davis shares thatSchulz actually sketched out suggested changes to Garfield when the two met by chanceand Davis explained he was having trouble drawing Garfield dancing. Schulz revealed that Snoopy actually switched between two designs, with small back feet when he was sitting down and larger feet when he was standing on his back legs - a technique Davis happily adopted, saying,“From that day on he walked, and it was thanks to Charles Schulz.”
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As for Garfield’s expressive face, that was actually down to the 1983 newsprint shortage.To make the most of the paper they had, newspapers printingGarfieldshrank down their comic sections. Davis describes making Garfield’s face bigger and also increasing the size of the text in the comic, partly because older readers were starting to complain they couldn’t read it. Davis says:
I had to make the eyes bigger, and the mouth bigger, to get the expressions literally big enough so that people – older people, older readers – could see. I made the lettering larger too, because a lot of papers were shrinking the strips almost out of sight, and I was losing the expressions of the characters.
One of the joys of media franchises as old asGarfieldthat are still running today is seeing the surprising things that influenced their early life. In the case ofGarfield, fans only have the orange cat they love because of economic issues in the ’80s and a chance meeting between Davis andPeanutscreator Charles Schulz. However, even then,Garfield’s success only came about thanks to the trail blazed by Davis’originalcomic critter.
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Davis gave up his original comicGnorm Gnatafter an editor warned him"nobody can relate to bugs!"
Garfield Wasn’t Even Jim Davis’SecondChoice as a Comic Star
Davis' First Comic Strip Followed an Insect Protagonist
BeforeGarfield, and before evenJon, Jim Davis' first professional comic wasGnorm Gnat- a newspaper strip about a sarcastic, fourth-wall-breaking bug. PrecedingJoninThe Pendleton Times,Gnorm Gnatbegan publication in 1973, but wasn’t picked up by other newspapers despite Davis' best efforts. Tonally,Gnorm Gnatis very similar toGarfield, and indeed many jokes from Davis' original comic made it intoGarfieldlater with minor changes. One place whereGnorm Gnatis unique is basing gags on the character’s size, with the strip’s insects sometimes being randomly crushed by clueless humans.
Davis eventually concluded that if he was going to succeed in comics, he’d need to leave his insect characters behind, revealing inGarfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection: 20 Years & Still Kicking!thatone editor warned him that while the art and writing inGnorm Gnatwere both syndication-worthy,“nobody can relate to bugs!“While the later success ofGary Larson’s insect-obsessedThe Far Sidewould suggest this isn’t totally true, Davis definitely struck gold by refocusing on Jon Arbuckle and his cat.
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Indeed, Davis has championedGarfield’s relatability as one of its biggest strengths in the past, pointing out thatits everyday observations are designed to be funny to people all over the world- an inarguable success, given how successful the franchise has been with international readers. While Davis did include some details like Jon’s job (cartoonist) and where the strip is set (Indiana) so that journalists wouldn’t both him with those questions at a later date, he almost never references such specific details more than once, allowing readers to fill in the gaps with whatever they find most relatable. Davis toldMental Floss:
I would like for readers in Sydney, Australia to think that Garfield lives next door. Dealing with eating and sleeping, being a cat, Garfield is very universal. By virtue of being a cat, really, he’s not really male or female or any particular race or nationality, young or old. It gives me a lot more latitude for the humor for the situations.
Garfieldis one of the most successful comic characters ever created, and yet there were so many moments in his evolution that could have turned out differently. Davis wanted to write and drawGnorm Gnatway before his feline creation, and withJon, he onlyenvisioned Garfield as a background character. Even then, Garfield might have been unrecognizable if not for Davis running into Charles Schulz and asking for advice or being forced to adjust his comic to compensate for economic factors that were nothing to do with his creative vision. Thankfully, all these events came together in just the right way to give fans theGarfieldthey know and love.
