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Garfield's Pet Force #1
The Outrageous Origin
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
9 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Jim Davis
2,354 books635 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
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December 20, 2014I 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.)
...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.)
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.
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.
August 15, 2020
Sunday comic stripe meets superhero comic in this fun read.
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.
January 7, 2025
My son really enjoyed reading this together :)
July 19, 2007
An all time favorite of mine. Made for kids but enjoyable to all.
October 27, 2009
Old Children's Book. Liked it as a kid, but haven't read it in years.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews