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Garfield: 20th Anniversary Collection
It's hard to believe that everyone's favorite fat cat has been around for 20 years and is still going strong. This feline festschrift celebrates "Garfield"'s two decades at the top in a host of ways. You can watch the evolution of the characters, take a trivia quiz, or read Jim Davis's top 20 strips. The chubby chap (Garfield, that is, not Davis) even gives a rare interview.
It's always fascinating to look back at an enduring piece of pop culture, and "Garfield" is no exception. In spite of all the changes that have happened since 1978, it's somehow comforting to read this book and realize that those annoying little things that make life such fun haven't changed a bit. Whether he's dabbling in disco (Saturday Night Feline) or gobbling lasagna, life is always cool for this cat. --Simon Leake
186 pages, Library Binding
First published February 1, 1998
91 people want to read
About the author
Jim Davis
2,300 books631 followersJames Robert "Jim" Davis is an American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip Garfield. Other comics that he has worked on are Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, Slapstick, and a strip about Mr. Potato Head.
Jim Davis was born in Fairmount, Indiana, near Marion, where he grew up on a small farm with his father James William Davis, mother Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis, brother Dave, and 25 cats. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of his cartoon character Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birthday on July 28. Davis attended Ball State University. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity. He earned the dubious honor of earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the university, an honor incidentally shared with Late Show host David Letterman.
Davis as of 2007 resides in Muncie, Indiana, where he and his staff produce Garfield under his company, Paws, Inc., begun in 1981. He was married to Carolyn, a singer and elementary teacher whom he met while both were attending college, and has a son named James with her. However, the couple divorced, and Davis since 2000 has been married to Jill, Paws' senior vice president of licensing, who has worked there approximately 25 years.
Ironically, Davis did not own cats when he started Garfield because of Carolyn's allergies, but they owned a Labrador retriever named Molly. With Jill, the family has expanded to include children Ashley and Chris; three grandchildren, Chloe, Carly and Cody; cats, Spunky and Nermal; and a dog, Pooky.
Jim Davis was born in Fairmount, Indiana, near Marion, where he grew up on a small farm with his father James William Davis, mother Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis, brother Dave, and 25 cats. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of his cartoon character Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birthday on July 28. Davis attended Ball State University. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity. He earned the dubious honor of earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the university, an honor incidentally shared with Late Show host David Letterman.
Davis as of 2007 resides in Muncie, Indiana, where he and his staff produce Garfield under his company, Paws, Inc., begun in 1981. He was married to Carolyn, a singer and elementary teacher whom he met while both were attending college, and has a son named James with her. However, the couple divorced, and Davis since 2000 has been married to Jill, Paws' senior vice president of licensing, who has worked there approximately 25 years.
Ironically, Davis did not own cats when he started Garfield because of Carolyn's allergies, but they owned a Labrador retriever named Molly. With Jill, the family has expanded to include children Ashley and Chris; three grandchildren, Chloe, Carly and Cody; cats, Spunky and Nermal; and a dog, Pooky.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 11, 2017
Garfield rules!
LASAGNA FOR EVERYBODY!!!
This is a book celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Garfield comic strip (back then, in 1998) and I was so lucky to find it in a local bookstore.
The book hasn't only re-prints of popular comic book strips, but also it presents different section about the characters of the franchise, the history of how it began the iconic comic strip, the impact of the comic strip in the world, some of its cool related merchandise in different kind of fields, etc...
Also, a cool detail is that the book is published in full color!!!
Definitely this is a wonderful treat to any fan of Garfield (like me!) that I am realizing that next year it will be celebrating 40 years already! Time flies, my friends!
What else can I say but...
GARFIELD RULES!
LASAGNA FOR EVERYBODY!!!
This is a book celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Garfield comic strip (back then, in 1998) and I was so lucky to find it in a local bookstore.
The book hasn't only re-prints of popular comic book strips, but also it presents different section about the characters of the franchise, the history of how it began the iconic comic strip, the impact of the comic strip in the world, some of its cool related merchandise in different kind of fields, etc...
Also, a cool detail is that the book is published in full color!!!
Definitely this is a wonderful treat to any fan of Garfield (like me!) that I am realizing that next year it will be celebrating 40 years already! Time flies, my friends!
What else can I say but...
GARFIELD RULES!
June 14, 2024
"Garfield's 20th Anniversary Collection", despite being published in 1998, will probably still appeal to old school Garfield lovers. I already had the 25th anniversary book which was more of an overall look at the Garfield brand and history. This one, as the title indicates, is mostly a collection of strips from 1978-1997, but there are also little tidbits/"making of" insights from Jim Davis for some of them, along with additional content such as an opening essay by Davis.
Here are some of the most interesting takeaways for me (spoilers, I guess, if you want to be surprised as you read the book):
-The book excitedly mentions a future Garfield theme park. This must be Garfield's Universe, which was being built in Indiana when this book was published in March 1998. Financing for the park fell through that same year and it was eventually scrapped without ever opening. Instead, Garfield theming appeared for some time at Kennywood park in Pennsylvania.
-Jim Davis says he got hundreds of letters for using the word "sucked" in a 1990 strip. Haha! Does anyone else remember when "This sucks" was a scandalous/vulgar thing to say? My parents used to yell at me for saying it. Now they say it.
-A 1980 strip about Garfield visiting Jon's parents' farm had a line that originally referenced "sheep jokes" but was changed to "dirt jokes", but the original sheep version was the one that got sent out by mistake. The dirt joke correction was quickly issued, but some newspapers still printed the "original" sheep jokes strip. The dirt version is in this collection. What's interesting is that the "wrong" sheep version is in the original strip collection (book 5) and also on the Garfield site. So did they decide to keep the sheep one after all?
-There's a collection of birthday strips in here, including the planned 1998 strip which would've been published in June 1998 for Garfield's 20th. However, this strip was replaced with a different strip entirely and as far as I know, the strip shown in this book never actually ran.
-Jim Davis shows some sketches and a sample strip from his original concept for "Garfield" but doesn't mention that this concept was actually a full blown strip originally named "Jon" that ran in an Indiana newspaper for 2 years before a syndicate picked up the strip, at which point Davis reworked it. In recent years, the original Jon strip, which features a stripeless Garfield, was rediscovered and someone published all of the original strips online, if you care to find them. Many of the jokes were repurposed for the Garfield strip we know today.
Here are some of the most interesting takeaways for me (spoilers, I guess, if you want to be surprised as you read the book):
-The book excitedly mentions a future Garfield theme park. This must be Garfield's Universe, which was being built in Indiana when this book was published in March 1998. Financing for the park fell through that same year and it was eventually scrapped without ever opening. Instead, Garfield theming appeared for some time at Kennywood park in Pennsylvania.
-Jim Davis says he got hundreds of letters for using the word "sucked" in a 1990 strip. Haha! Does anyone else remember when "This sucks" was a scandalous/vulgar thing to say? My parents used to yell at me for saying it. Now they say it.
-A 1980 strip about Garfield visiting Jon's parents' farm had a line that originally referenced "sheep jokes" but was changed to "dirt jokes", but the original sheep version was the one that got sent out by mistake. The dirt joke correction was quickly issued, but some newspapers still printed the "original" sheep jokes strip. The dirt version is in this collection. What's interesting is that the "wrong" sheep version is in the original strip collection (book 5) and also on the Garfield site. So did they decide to keep the sheep one after all?
-There's a collection of birthday strips in here, including the planned 1998 strip which would've been published in June 1998 for Garfield's 20th. However, this strip was replaced with a different strip entirely and as far as I know, the strip shown in this book never actually ran.
-Jim Davis shows some sketches and a sample strip from his original concept for "Garfield" but doesn't mention that this concept was actually a full blown strip originally named "Jon" that ran in an Indiana newspaper for 2 years before a syndicate picked up the strip, at which point Davis reworked it. In recent years, the original Jon strip, which features a stripeless Garfield, was rediscovered and someone published all of the original strips online, if you care to find them. Many of the jokes were repurposed for the Garfield strip we know today.
June 20, 2023
Good Nostalgia, Iffy History...
Garfield seems an unlikely icon. Although a cat, he doesn’t behave like one. Doesn’t move like one. Doesn’t even look like one, really—how many felines lack whiskers, pack a pair of bulbous eyes, and sport short, stubby frontal paws?
Garfield is also a creation of irony. His creator, Jim Davis, didn’t even own a cat at the comic’s inception. And though he based the strip on a “cat” due to the animal’s lack of representation in the comic space, another quirky orange tabby—Heathcliff—had already premiered in 1973…a full five years earlier. What’s more, the original Garfield comic wasn’t even primarily about the cat, but about his owner Jon; actually titled “Jon,” this early 1976 version featured Garfield’s owner as the lead. (A fact Jim Davis would inexplicably keep secret for the next forty years.) Considering that the Garfield property was engineered to be as relatable and open as possible, this controversy over his true origin is just a touch counterintuitive.
Yet, despite his appearance and shaky beginnings, Garfield became a superstar phenomenon almost immediately. Within a decade, his likeness would be everywhere. Garfield suction-cup plushies would be grinning in countless car windows, his beaming face would cover birthday cards and wrapping paper and stationary, kids would carry him to school as lunchboxes and backpacks, and he’d litter TV with a bevy of cartoon holiday specials and a syndicated show. Garfield had become more than a mere hand-drawn cat or, really, a surreal anthropomorphic dwarf. He’d become a commercial and merchandising god.
To celebrate his character’s sensational success, Davis released a 20th Anniversary book in 1998. Coined "20 Years and Still Kicking! Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection," the title is a Garfield-sized mouthful. But any ungainliness its name implies is negated with a quick glimpse inside—turns out, this is an inspired celebration of the fat cat writ large, offering a slick and exuberant showcase of the comic cat and cast’s sometimes startling twenty-year evolution. Naturally, Davis’ provides his own background for both himself and his creation, but the true value of the book comes from its curated collection of the feline’s greatest strips, funniest punchlines, and quirky one-offs too clever to be forgotten.
In addition to simply reprinting the strips with some commentary, the book comes slathered with a host of other extras, including excerpts from many of the yearly Garfield treasuries, every birthday strip up until 1998, and a hand-picked selection of the strip’s best logo boxes. The book’s final pages even depict Davis’ “Top 20” favorite strips (one is shown above) with some added thoughts. These stylized insights and meta-meditations breathe through the book’s 192 pages, and all with the typical “Garfield” bravado and pizzazz. In short, the presentation is incredible and true to form.
If the book has a failing, it’s the strip-only focus. Fans of the Garfield and Friends cartoon show, the video games, and other Garfield media and merchandise won’t find much acknowledgement of them here. And thanks to the advent of YouTube and one dedicated, intrepid fan (plus an observant librarian), readers now know that the story of Garfield’s origin as related here is incomplete. Before “Garfield,” there was the strip known as “Jon,” a fact Davis seemed content to bury (and borderline lie about) until it could no longer be denied. This prototypical work is rightfully seen as an important step in the cat’s creation, but he makes no mention of it here despite even showing a rough image of Garfield taken from one of those early works!
Read in 2023—another twenty-five years later—this twenty-year retrospective seems especially surreal. Davis’ company Paws, Inc. is now owned by Viacom/Nickelodeon, the comic strip is now enjoyed more on the Web than in newspapers, and newer cartoons featuring the feline lack the sharp satirical edge that made the Garfield and Friends show so compelling. And yes, the public now knows about “Jon.” But despite all these changing of hands and platforms, the strip itself has changed curiously little…as if still stuck in 1998. Lyman never returned, Odie still falls off tables, Nermal is still annoying…the greatest change is perhaps with Jon, who has now shed a sliver of his loser veneer to win the fancy of a kinder, gentler Liz, Garfield’s attractive veterinarian. But it general, Garfield as it exists today is almost indistinguishable from his previous decades of escapades.
Does that make him stagnate, or timeless? Fans can debate.
Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection is quality nostalgia cake made even tastier after another two decades of baking. Enjoyed today, it’s a meta-retrospection layered atop a retrospective of a commercial creation that already felt like it had existed forever. It’s like a time capsule reburied and then unearthed again and again.
What can the cat’s fans expect when he hits the big 5-0? A sensational tribute, no doubt, but one that will leave some wondering whether celebrating and contemplating a cat engineered to make money and that never really grows or changes…
…is somehow just silly.
For more thoughtful retrospectives, check out lostnostalgia.com
Garfield seems an unlikely icon. Although a cat, he doesn’t behave like one. Doesn’t move like one. Doesn’t even look like one, really—how many felines lack whiskers, pack a pair of bulbous eyes, and sport short, stubby frontal paws?
Garfield is also a creation of irony. His creator, Jim Davis, didn’t even own a cat at the comic’s inception. And though he based the strip on a “cat” due to the animal’s lack of representation in the comic space, another quirky orange tabby—Heathcliff—had already premiered in 1973…a full five years earlier. What’s more, the original Garfield comic wasn’t even primarily about the cat, but about his owner Jon; actually titled “Jon,” this early 1976 version featured Garfield’s owner as the lead. (A fact Jim Davis would inexplicably keep secret for the next forty years.) Considering that the Garfield property was engineered to be as relatable and open as possible, this controversy over his true origin is just a touch counterintuitive.
Yet, despite his appearance and shaky beginnings, Garfield became a superstar phenomenon almost immediately. Within a decade, his likeness would be everywhere. Garfield suction-cup plushies would be grinning in countless car windows, his beaming face would cover birthday cards and wrapping paper and stationary, kids would carry him to school as lunchboxes and backpacks, and he’d litter TV with a bevy of cartoon holiday specials and a syndicated show. Garfield had become more than a mere hand-drawn cat or, really, a surreal anthropomorphic dwarf. He’d become a commercial and merchandising god.
To celebrate his character’s sensational success, Davis released a 20th Anniversary book in 1998. Coined "20 Years and Still Kicking! Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection," the title is a Garfield-sized mouthful. But any ungainliness its name implies is negated with a quick glimpse inside—turns out, this is an inspired celebration of the fat cat writ large, offering a slick and exuberant showcase of the comic cat and cast’s sometimes startling twenty-year evolution. Naturally, Davis’ provides his own background for both himself and his creation, but the true value of the book comes from its curated collection of the feline’s greatest strips, funniest punchlines, and quirky one-offs too clever to be forgotten.
In addition to simply reprinting the strips with some commentary, the book comes slathered with a host of other extras, including excerpts from many of the yearly Garfield treasuries, every birthday strip up until 1998, and a hand-picked selection of the strip’s best logo boxes. The book’s final pages even depict Davis’ “Top 20” favorite strips (one is shown above) with some added thoughts. These stylized insights and meta-meditations breathe through the book’s 192 pages, and all with the typical “Garfield” bravado and pizzazz. In short, the presentation is incredible and true to form.
If the book has a failing, it’s the strip-only focus. Fans of the Garfield and Friends cartoon show, the video games, and other Garfield media and merchandise won’t find much acknowledgement of them here. And thanks to the advent of YouTube and one dedicated, intrepid fan (plus an observant librarian), readers now know that the story of Garfield’s origin as related here is incomplete. Before “Garfield,” there was the strip known as “Jon,” a fact Davis seemed content to bury (and borderline lie about) until it could no longer be denied. This prototypical work is rightfully seen as an important step in the cat’s creation, but he makes no mention of it here despite even showing a rough image of Garfield taken from one of those early works!
Read in 2023—another twenty-five years later—this twenty-year retrospective seems especially surreal. Davis’ company Paws, Inc. is now owned by Viacom/Nickelodeon, the comic strip is now enjoyed more on the Web than in newspapers, and newer cartoons featuring the feline lack the sharp satirical edge that made the Garfield and Friends show so compelling. And yes, the public now knows about “Jon.” But despite all these changing of hands and platforms, the strip itself has changed curiously little…as if still stuck in 1998. Lyman never returned, Odie still falls off tables, Nermal is still annoying…the greatest change is perhaps with Jon, who has now shed a sliver of his loser veneer to win the fancy of a kinder, gentler Liz, Garfield’s attractive veterinarian. But it general, Garfield as it exists today is almost indistinguishable from his previous decades of escapades.
Does that make him stagnate, or timeless? Fans can debate.
Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection is quality nostalgia cake made even tastier after another two decades of baking. Enjoyed today, it’s a meta-retrospection layered atop a retrospective of a commercial creation that already felt like it had existed forever. It’s like a time capsule reburied and then unearthed again and again.
What can the cat’s fans expect when he hits the big 5-0? A sensational tribute, no doubt, but one that will leave some wondering whether celebrating and contemplating a cat engineered to make money and that never really grows or changes…
…is somehow just silly.
For more thoughtful retrospectives, check out lostnostalgia.com
April 11, 2012
Pretty much sums up everything I loved about Garfield. A great addition for a fan, with lots of "insider" comments and snippets about the creative process behind America's favorite fluffy feline. Too bad Jim Davis has handed off so much of the work to his staff...the strip just hasn't been the same since around compilation issue 37.
May 19, 2009
I've grown up a little since reading this book in 4th grade. At the time, however, I adored it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews