Editing Garfield (section)

==History==
[[File:Jim Davis cropped.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Cartoonist [[Jim Davis (cartoonist)|Jim Davis]] is the creator of ''Garfield''.|alt=A picture of cartoonist Jim Davis]]

Cartoonist [[Jim Davis (cartoonist)|Jim Davis]] was born and raised in [[Muncie, Indiana]]. In 1973, while working as an assistant for T.K. Ryan's ''[[Tumbleweeds (comic strip)|Tumbleweeds]]'', he created the comic strip ''[[Gnorm Gnat]]'', which ran only in the ''Pendleton Times'' of [[Pendleton, Indiana]], from 1973 to 1975 and met with little success. Davis had tried to [[Print syndication|syndicate]] the strip, but was unsuccessful; he noted that one editor told him that his "art was good, his gags were great, [but] nobody can identify with bugs."<ref name="Twenty"/> Davis decided to peruse current comic strips to determine what species of animal characters might be more popular. He felt that dogs were doing well, but noticed no prominent cats. Davis figured he could create a cat star, having grown up on a farm with twenty-five cats. Thus was created the character of Garfield.<ref name="Twenty">Davis. ''20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection''. p. 14.</ref>

[[File:Jon - 1976-01-08.png|thumb|upright=1.35|right|The first ''Jon'' strip, which ran in the ''Pendleton Times'' on January 8, 1976. It was redrawn as the first ''Garfield'' strip published on June 19, 1978, with the dialogue in the second panel removed and Garfield's line in the first panel moved there.]]

The title character [[Garfield (character)|Garfield]] was based on the cats Davis grew up around; he took his name and personality from Davis' grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, whom he described as "a large, cantankerous man."<ref name="CNN">{{Cite news|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/student.bureau/10/24/jim.davis/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214062806/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/fyi/student.bureau/10/24/jim.davis/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 14, 2009|title=The cat's meow|date=October 6, 2000|publisher=CNN|first=Gerrard|last=Hall|access-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> Garfield's human owner [[Jon Arbuckle]] derived his name from a 1950s coffee commercial. Jon's roommate Lyman, added to give Jon someone to talk with, carried on the name of an earlier ''Gnorm Gnat'' character.<ref name="Twenty"/> The final character was Lyman's dog Spot, who was renamed [[Odie]] so as to avoid confusion with a dog also named Spot in the comic strip ''[[Boner's Ark]]''. From 1976 to early 1978, these characters appeared in a strip called ''Jon'' which also ran in the ''Times''. In 1977, the strip's name was changed to ''Garfield.'' {{Anchor|Quinton Reviews}} The ''Jon'' comic strip was largely unknown until 2019, when YouTuber [[Quinton Kyle Hoover|Quinton Hoover]] found several [[microfilm]] archives of the ''Jon'' publications from the Pendleton Community Library and [[Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau|Indiana State Library]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2019/07/28/newly-discovered-davis-pre-garfield-garfield/|title=Newly Discovered – Davis' Pre-Garfield Garfield|date=July 29, 2019|website=The Daily Cartoonist|language=en-US|access-date=October 25, 2019}}</ref> ''Jon'' first appeared in the ''Pendleton Times'' on January 8, 1976, just two weeks after ''Gnorm Gnat'' ended.

In March 1978, [[United Media|United Feature Syndicate]] accepted the strip for national distribution (which had been retitled ''Garfield'' on September 1, 1977), and the last ''Pendleton Times'' strip ran on March 2, 1978. United Feature Syndicate debuted the first strip nationwide in 41 newspapers, starting on June 19, 1978. After a test run, the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' dropped the ''Garfield'' strip, only to reinstate it after readers' complaints.<ref name="BW1" /><ref name="Catty">{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953256,00.html|title=Living: Those Catty Cartoonists|date=December 7, 1981|access-date=June 20, 2020|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref>

[[File:Garfield-comparison.png|thumb|upright=1.35|The appearance of the characters gradually changed over time;<ref name="NYT1">{{Cite news|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/19/nyregion/boldface-names-933295.html|title= Boldface Names|first=James|last=Barron|date=April 19, 2001|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=June 20, 2020}}</ref> the left panel is from the March 7, 1980, strip; the right is from the July 6, 1990, strip]]

The strip underwent stylistic changes, evolving from the style of the 1976–83 strips, to a more cartoonish look from 1984 onward. This change has mainly affected Garfield's design, which underwent a "Darwinian evolution" in which he began walking on his hind legs, "slimmed down", and "stopped looking ... through squinty little eyes" His evolution, according to Davis, was to make it easier to "push Odie off the table" or "reach for a piece of pie".<ref name="NYT1"/> The redesign was in part on the advice of Davis's mentor and erstwhile rival [[Charles M. Schulz]]; though Schulz privately expressed some jealousy at ''Garfield'' overtaking his own strip ''[[Peanuts]]'' and thought Davis's characters were lacking in subtlety and nuance, he provided substantial advice to Davis over the years, particularly in setting the [[Media franchise|franchising]] and [[merchandising]] blueprint Schulz had built for [[Snoopy]], which Davis adopted to great success for ''Garfield''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tardive |first=Ambrose |date=2024-06-19 |title=Peanuts vs. Garfield: Charles Schulz Secretly Considered Jim Davis His Arch-Rival |url=https://screenrant.com/peanuts-garfield-charles-schulz-jim-davis-rivalry/ |access-date=2024-06-21 |website=ScreenRant |language=en}}</ref>

''Garfield'' quickly became a commercial success. By the beginning of 1981, less than three years after its nationwide launch, the strip was in 850 newspapers and had sold over $15&nbsp;million in merchandise. To manage the merchandise, Davis founded [[Paws, Inc.]]<ref name="Catty"/> In 1982 the strip was appearing in more than 1,000 newspapers.<ref>DRD/KT. "Newswatch: Garfield Hits 1000th Newspaper", ''The Comics Journal'' 73 (July 1982).</ref>

By 2002, ''Garfield'' became the world's most syndicated strip, appearing in 2,570&nbsp;newspapers with 263&nbsp;million readers worldwide;<ref name="BW1" /> by 2004, ''Garfield'' appeared in nearly 2,600&nbsp;newspapers and sold from $750&nbsp;million to $1&nbsp;billion worth of merchandise in 111&nbsp;countries.<ref name="slatewhyhate" /> In 1994, Davis's company, Paws, Inc., purchased all rights to the strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature.

While retaining creative control and being the only signer, Davis now only writes and usually does the rough sketches. Since the late 1990s most of the work has been done by long-time assistants Brett Koth and Gary Barker. Inking and coloring work is done by other artists, while Davis spends most of the time supervising production and merchandising the characters.<ref name="slatewhyhate">{{cite magazine|url= https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/06/why-we-don-t-hate-garfield.html|title=Why we don't hate Garfield.|access-date=June 20, 2020|last=Suellentrop|first=Chris|date=June 11, 2004|magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]}}</ref>