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Garfield's Pet Force #1

Garfield's Pet Force #1 The Outrageous Origin

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Meet Emperor Jon, ruler of the Planet Polyester, and his band of faithful warriors--Garfield's Pet Force! Armed with intergalactic powers, they battle the universe's most evil veterinarian.

86 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

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About the author

Michael Teitelbaum

559 books51 followers
Michael Teitelbaum has been a writer and editor of children’s books for more than thirty years. He worked on staff as an editor at Golden Books, Grossett & Dunlop, and Macmillan. In addition to The Scary States of America, Michael’s fiction work includes The Very Hungry Zombie: A Parody, and The Very Thirsty Vampire: A Parody both done with artist extraordinaire Jon Apple, published by Skyhorse. His non-fiction work includes writing Jackie Robinson: Champion for Equality, published by Sterling, and The Baseball Hall of Fame, a 2-volume encyclopedia, published by Grolier. He is also the series editor of Great Escapes, true-life acts of incredible courage, published by Harper Collins.
Michael has always had an interest in the paranormal, despite a rather normal childhood in Brooklyn, NY. These days, Michael lives with his wife, Sheleigah, and two talkative cats in an (as yet unhaunted) 180-year-old farmhouse in the beautiful Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Literary Strawberry.
484 reviews21 followers
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December 20, 2014
I cannot believe I used to own this book.



...also I'm illogically angry because wHY IS THIS THE ONLY COVER OPTION

WHERE IS THE COVER FOR THE ONE I USED TO OWN

garfield was making giant muscles in the middle and the others were doing the superhero poses thing like "booya imma superhero cat" and "WHAAA LEAPING UP WITH MY ARMS SPREAD OUT YET ALSO LOOKING EPIC" and his teddy bear was in a little flying suit in the background and

why is there no validation for that piece of my childhood

Confession time: I used to read Garfield. All. The. Time. It was my favorite comic strip. I read it online, I ordered the collections from the library, I watched Garfield and Friends with my brother on youtube, I was righteously outraged with the new and utterly crappy Garfield Show that came out (is that thing even still on tv?) and yeah. It's not something I'm particularly proud of.

Before I grew away from it, though, my brother and I would read this little gem. More than once. Maybe three or five times. (Hey, it was short and easy and happened to be lying around when I was bored, what can I say?) I have no idea where we even found it; I can at least say with certainty that I paid no money for this. (Actually, I don't know what happened to it. Either we eventually gave it away or it could still be lying around in my brother's room somewhere. Hm. I'll have to investigate that.)

ANYWAY.

So there are alternate universes, see. And in this one particular universe, Jon (the socially inept owner of Garfield and the other pets) is the king, and Garfield and the others are, like, superheroes. And Liz the vet that Jon has a crush on is totally evil. And I seem to remember her wearing leopard print.

So basically everyone in this universe is a lot cooler.

But oh no! Whatever evil plan the evil veterinarian had had (can't remember what it was) actually worked! And the pet force alternate universe garfield and friends superheroes die! All of them! They are NO MORE!

It's tragic.

So of course king jon is like "well we can't have that" so he calls up Binky the Clown (who is like some wizard in this universe so he's actually useful but still just as obnoxious) who manages to find the garfield from the other universe and he pulls them out of the picnic they were having and into this place to be become SUPERHERO PETS

Which is super cool, man.

And then stuff happens, they break into the evil place, there's this super scary Waiting Room of Terror or something, and there's also like this evil giant rat hanging around with Liz the Evil Veterinarian and he has an eye-patch and eats pie a lot so he's called the Pie-rat??

And so they save the day and then get sent back to their own universe, where garfield is all like "wow what a crazy dream" and then he finds the pie-rat's eye-patch and he's like "OR WAS IT" and then it ends

...Okay, so for a kid's book, I guess it wasn't that bad. Heck, I liked it, apparently. But still, it's just... /Why/. this was a comic about a fat cat why superheroes why exactly was this necessary

I don't understand

Oh wait, yes I do. It made money.

I suppose that's as good a reason as any.



(I still remember one of the illustrations where the evil vet is standing with her high heels and leopard print outfit with her teeth bared and her eyes glaring and her ridiculously long hair falling behind her and her fist clenched in a classic "I am EEEEEEVILLLL AND I AM ANGRY SOMEBODY IS GOING TO DIE TONIGHT" pose and it was intense, man.)

(I also remember that Garfield's main superpower was hacking up radioactive hairballs. That was less intense.)
Profile Image for John.
470 reviews3 followers
September 12, 2020
I remember reading this series in 5th grade, and it really jump started my love of books to where it is today! But whenever I told friends about the series, they thought I was crazy, making the whole thing up. I found this by accident in a second hand store going out of business, and I knew I had to pick it up to prove I wasn’t insane!!!

This is a short, cute adventure with the lovable Garfield characters everyone knows. I’m happy to have found this again, and will be happy to share it with my future kids.
49 reviews
August 15, 2020
Sunday comic stripe meets superhero comic in this fun read.
Profile Image for Pete.
Author 1 book14 followers
October 30, 2023
It is Garfield and his friends with super powers. Even Nermal gets powers. If you are thinking about reading this you know what you are getting yourself into.
Profile Image for Jenna.
939 reviews1 follower
January 7, 2025
My son really enjoyed reading this together :)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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