Garfield Dishes It Out

Garfield #27

by Jim Davis

A new collection of cartoons and comic strips features the cynical and insatiable feline and his adventures with the slobbery Odie, the harassed Jon, the beautiful vet Liz, the obnoxiously adorable Nermal, and an array of disappearing food items. Original.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Graphic Novels, Comic Strips, Fiction, Comic Book, Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

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

[Gary Anderson]

I'm currently reading a book that is really good but also long and sad. Then a couple of Garfield books showed up in our Little Free Library, so Garfield to the rescue!

[Ann L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "Invisible Spider" comic had me in tears! I couldn't stop laughing about that one for a bit!

[Remo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bueno, qué decir de los Garfields, uno de los compañeros de nuestra infancia (y adolescencia y parte de la vida adulta, recuerdo haberlos leído hasta bien después de acabada la carrera). 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.

[Silverscarf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this at a used book store and decided to pick it up. I was a huge Garfield fan a long time ago, but I didn't actually read many of the older comic strips save for the original first book of them. So I picked this up for some laughs and a little bit of nostalgia, and also just to change things up to get myself out of a reading slump. This was a pretty good collection, not all of the strips were winners, but there were some gems that I absolutely loved that definitely made the impulse purchase worth it.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new to me volume in the series. This is still early in the series before Jon starts dating Liz. A good highlight in this volume is Garfield spending Christmas with Jon's family in the farm. Garfield Christmas time comics are always a favorite for me, and this story was very nice and amusing. Overall, another amusing and fun read in the series.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some memorable ones from my childhood in here. Garfield hides a rubber snake in Jon's salad, hours to the farm for Christmas, doesn't come home from a wild New Year's party until January 2nd, saves his snowman in the refrigerator, goes on another diet, and smashes a spider with Jon's drinking glass.

[Helena Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of my favorites. It tells about a hilarious cat that attracts young readers. I’m only in fourth grade so I don’t know how adults feel about this hilarious series, but I think it’s the best.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dishing Out the Jokes with Style

There's absolutely nothing as satisfying as reading a Garfield book. Sure, some other comic strips are also fun to read, but not many have the versatility and wit of Garfield.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. There were some funny and interesting comic strips in this book mixed in with some that were definitely not as good as others but overall I enjoyed reading the comic strips. I would recommend for Garfield fans.

[Bianca Burrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was funny

[Pauline (Polly) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still love Garfield- been a fan for over 40yrs!

[Conan Tigard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garfield Dishes It Out is another collection of comic strips starring Garfield, Jon and Odie. This humorous book follows the world's most famous fat cat as he eats, sleeps, and torments his owner and dog friend. After all, what else is fat and lazy cat supposed to do but live a life of self-satisfaction?

I really like the long storylines, so, when Jim Davis decided to send Jon, Garfield and Odie to his Jon's parents farm for Christmas for three weeks, I was in heaven. I'm not sure why I prefer long storylines, but for some reason I do. Don't get me wrong, I do like the single shots to, but there is something about a long storyline that really grabs my attention and doesn't let me go.

Overall, Garfield Dishes It Out is another fun book full of smiles. Garfield has been a smash hit ever since he hit the newspapers in 1978 and is still going strong. I'm not sure how Jim Davis keeps coming up with new stuff starring only three characters without it going stale, but he does. Still, I would love to see another new character added to spice this comic strip up a little. Whatever happened to Lyman and Nermal? Where did they go? Hey, maybe Jon needs a girlfriend. Wouldn't that be something?

[Alex Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was about Garfield just doing heaps of stuff and at the first part he had this pillow filled with birds and he was gonna eat the birds and they also went to the farm and Garfield didn't like the farm. He thought there was no food on the farm. They went there for Christmas. Garfield left a note for Santa on the chimney.

[Viktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is really good because it is funny and the book has a lot aaf good goks in it.i larned a lot of knew gokes.i really want to read the book again and wood really tell me friend that it is a good book.i really want to raed a nother book of garfield.i think is a really good ather.

[Iggy Igwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garfield claws the furniture.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Garfield.

[Joycetho1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book was very funny. I feel bad for Garfield because he is supper chubby. I wonder when he will explode!

[Dale Rosso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great laughs.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garlfield is always a classic :)

[Guillermo Galvan · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's fat.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was full of awesome sauce. Garfield was awesome because it was full of skits that offered great fun filled laughter for all ages.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is much better than the previous solely due to its longer story-lines and funnier one shots.

[Jono Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

very funny

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was great full of laughs.