Garfield Eats His Heart Out

Garfield #6

by Jim Davis

Vintage children's book

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Strips, Cats

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1983

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The hilarity continues in this sixth collection of the Tubby Tabby's newspaper strips; Garfield auditions for a cat food commercial, dates Arlene, and loses his mind...all in the name of laughs. These comics made me smile, and you can see how the strip is changing; Lyman is barely even seen in this volume. Detractors of the cartoon fat cat may scoff, but, I had fun with this...just like I always have.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 stars. Book 6 in Garfield's continuing adventure to locate the perfect pan of lasagna (without having to work too hard to get it). Along the way, he torments Odie, Jim, Nermal and the rest of gang in classic Garfield fashion.

[Dustyloup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doing a little Goodreads list housekeeping...
read in french in 2023.
Garfield - les yeux plus gros que le ventre.
Duplicate. it's Garfield so you know, worth a chuckle but a product of its time.

[Mark Austin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't ever remember laughing at Garfield. Reading it was like re-watching an episode of a sitcom you've already seen ten times and know all the plot threads and punchlines. There's a bland comfort to it and, for a stretch in early Middle School, bland comfort was preferable to none.

I consumed all the Garfield books in the Middle School library, idly wondering when something new would happen to shake up the Groundhog Day-esque loop in which they lived their lives, for a character to maybe grow or change. As the library's stock dwindled, so to did my desire to wade through any more of Garfield's doldrums.

In some ways the world of Garfield seems to represent some primal desire to keep everything safe by maintaining the conformity of each new day to the mold fixed by the last, but such a life seems more like death by whimper.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Garfield comics just get sillier and sillier. From the lasagna raids, to the continuous beatings on Odie, to the repeated hatred of "cute" Neurmal, Garfield does not disappoint. I am really beginning to wonder if cats really think like Garfield does!

[Iggy Igwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garfield eats Jon's dinner.

[Sarah Nessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Garfield, another diet, another disaster. Garfield loves to sleep and eat, and beat up Jon and Odie and many other things. Life doesn't get old with Garfield in your life. He is quite amusing!

[Eris Tiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garfield simply eats and eats and eats. Somehow through this gluttony he becomes a ball, abandoned a cat food commercial and goes insane after trying a diet. This book was fun.

[David Allen Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading Garfield since the first strips when I was a young boy in the late 1970s and I recently decided to re-read all of the books in the series. In this 6th volume, which dates from the early 1980s, the characters are now drawn in their current familiar form, improved from the more crude versions of the late 70s and first years of the 80s. John and Garfield are well developed as characters. Garfield gets stuck in a tree, characters like Aunt Gussie, no longer seen appear, and Arlene, Garfield's paramour appears as well as Nermal the kitten. This is a great collection of strips any fan of Garfield will much enjoy and I am glad I re-read it.

[Jess Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Age old humor, survived the test of time

Lots of laughs
As I stated in my previous reviews of the Garfield ship series, I’m going back through the series from the beginning on channel current. This is another reminder of an age old classic humor, which has survived for over 30 years. Granted, some kids didn’t understand the concept of a Sunday newspaper, but they understand the humor of a huge roll of paper knocking someone over. I enjoyed all the humor and the trip down memory lane. I remember borrowing each one of these books from my art and reading them. A lot of good memories.

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bueno, 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. 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.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ova knjizica pretstavlja tacku mog upoznavanja sa Garfildom tamo negde 80tih i od tada mi je on jedan od omiljenih likova, i to ne samo stripu.

A najbolji utisak na mene imo je sam opis sa korica knjige "Der witzigste Kater der Welt: frech, fett, faul & filosofisch" iliti na srpskom "Najsmesniji macak na svetu: bezobrazan, debeo, lenji i 'drveni' fiolozof. Cetiri F prema kojima treba svi da tezimo :)

[Karen Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

There were some really cute and heartwarming comics about Garfield and Jon's relationship as pet and owner which are quite rare for their usual dynamic of long-suffering victim and sadistic cat boss. I really enjoyed this collection. :) Then again, I like all of the Garfield comics!

[Robert Bussie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Kaelin Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book by Jim Davis. Garfield is back again in this hilarious book. The stories are still great and so is the humor. So enjoyable to read.

[Christine Rains · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the Garfield books with my eight-year-old. We both love them!

[Terry Filkohazi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as funny like Garfield usually is but still cute

[Maria Fernanda Fabricio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como sempre, Garfield é sempre divertido de ser lido. Essa edição possui tirinhas muito divertidas.

[Black Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. Made me laugh. A classic cat owner.

[Al Sheinfil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good

[Lemmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garfield is sooooooooo funny!!!!!

[delfi]

ya lo lei y me habia olvidado de marcarlo

[Josh Culbertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgia :)

I fell in love with Garfield when I was around 10 years old, and I enjoy occasionally revisiting the earlier books from time to time!

[Kati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kepeää ja huvittavaa luettavaa.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains one of my absolute favorite Garfield comic strips from when I was a kid, "HONK! SCREEEE!" 🤣 Also very memorable is the salt lick. 😁

[Barbara Mendez Mendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

ganz süß und witzig!

[David Erkale · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small helping of classic Garfield as he fails to climb trees, attempts to star in a TV ad, and gets beaten up by dogs. Wahooie!

[Michael Kiripolsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

And ate he did.

[Conan Tigard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garfield comics are timeless. His comic strips are quick and fun to read. A lot of the comic strips revolve around Garfield and his weight problem. Now, this may not matter to many, but I prefer the older Garfield comic strips when his eyes were still round, not oval like they are today, twenty years later.

Jim Davis does a good job of entertaining the reader with the dry wit of that fat cat and the trouble he gets into, especially on Mondays. Then there is Jon, Garfield's owner. He's not quite the brightest bulb in the box, but he does shine...every once in a while.

So, if you are looking for a bit of history of this famous cat, pick up Garfield Eats His Heart Out.