Garfield knows what matters in life --- whether he's stealing Jon's dinner, performing for his favorite audience, or simply pondering the vastness of space. And he must be doing sometjing right, because this is his 20th book and he's still going strong. Live it up, Garfield, and take your millions of fans along for the ride!
James 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.
In my last few reviews of these books, I've been saying that the comics weren't up to the standard set by previous volumes.
Well, I'm happy to say that the Tubby Tabby is back on track. There's multiple series here, and most of the strips are quite funny.
Also of note in this compilation is a sequence that is rather dramatic and not humorous; it almost feels like Garfield fan fiction rather than an official strip. It's one you have to see to believe.
Bueno, qué decir de los Garfields, uno de los compañeros de nuestra infancia (y adolescencia y parte de la vida adulta). Recuerdo haberme encontrado el primero en casa de un amigo y habérmelo devorado de una sentada, con 5-6 años, sin entender varios de los chistes pero disfrutando mucho de los más obvios. Hoy en día, en casa, a los ojos entrecerrados con mezcla de desprecio y aburrimiento los seguimos llamando ojos de Garfield: Esta sensación de saber que siempre iba a encontrar unos cuantos graciosos la tuve durante las dos décadas posteriores en las que Garfield iba apareciendo periódicamente en mi vida. No es una obra culmen de la literatura, pero nos ha alegrado muchos momentos.
All my Garfield reviews are the same. You either get the wonderful humor or you don't. As for me, I grew up reading the hilarious antics of Garfield, Jon, and Odie and years later I still find it funny. It is like a comfortable old friend making me laugh when I need it.
Reading through the Garfield books with my nearly nine year old son. He's a new fan and I'm an old fan. Makes reading before bed at night super fun! We laugh a lot.
Garfield Takes Up Space is 20th collection of Garfield comic strips. Can you believe that? After twenty books, I am still waiting for Odie to talk . . . and he hasn't uttered a peep. I really like Odie and wish that he was featured more in this daily comic strip. He is Garfield opposite. He is always nice, but stupid whiule Garfield is kinda mean and smart. Then Odie shows moments of brilliance. Then not. After all, Odie is just a dog, right? And Garfield is just a cat, right? Wrong! They are so much more.
Jim Davis has now been creating funny stories about Jon, Garfield and Odie for twelve years. I find that quite amazing. I really like the introduction of new characters, even if it is only for a week or two. I always enjoy it when Jon and Garfield visit the farm, or go to the Vet, when Nermal visits, or Garfield hangs out with Arlene. So, when Jon's old school chum pays a visit and calls him Carp Face, I loved it. Wheezer, Jon's friend, brings out the kid in Jon, which is easy to do. I enjoyed this change of pace. I have always felt that only having three main characters is not enough, especially when only two of them can talk. I will continue to hope that more main characters may someday be added.
Overall, Garfield Takes Up Space is another fun-filled book of daily Garfield comic strips I found myself chuckling at a few times, but never laughing out loud. I really enjoy the long storylines and wish that there were more of them. The one shots are okay, but the storylines are what makes me want to read these books again and again.
Garfield is my favorite fat cat -- We even share lasagna as a favorite food, think diets are Die with a t at the end, hate Mondays and Mornings - Garfield got me through my struggles with learning to read as a kid and I still read him everyday. For a time I even had a female Garfield share my life.
Many of these comics were familiar, so they must have been from the time I was reading Garfield in the paper daily. A rather uneven collection, but the ones that were funny were the ones that made me snort/guffaw quite inelegantly.
This is a great book. Fun and entertaining for kids. It is a great book, I really enjoy reading these books. I would highly recommend these books, I still read them over and over again.