The death of Garfield?
Created on: August 2nd, 2006
An examination of a really f*cked up series of Garfield cartoons from 1989. These are 100% legit.
EDIT: ok, thanks to everyone confirming the veracity of these strips.
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I wrote to Jim Davis a year ago about these. This is his reply:
It was Halloween, and I wanted to play with everyone's biggest fear,
being alone...I felt that, that was scarier than ghosts and rattling
chains.
Also, if you go back and look at other years, he sometimes does themed weeks for Halloween and other holidays.
I remember these from a collection I read while growing up, I never understood and truly didn't read the last two because they were just not funny nor interesting. However Jim Davis said he found the idea of Garfield imagining future strips while starving to death laughable: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/09/death-of-garfield-my.html
GARFIELD IS DEAD........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................LANDO IS NOT
I'm writing to the past. Dear 2005, Gas prices will climb to four dollars a gallon. Heath Ledger and Anna Nicole Smith will die from a drug overdose. Transformers will suck. Remember Democratic vice presidential hopeful John McCain? He's a running as a Republican now. Britney Spears and Tom Cruise will go batsh*t. YTMND will be purchased by Viacom and become YTMNV. Stamps will last forever. Jesus comes back... also c*cks
HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPAT HTPA
I can confirm they are real, I remember reading them in the paper :D But wow, Wikipedia is WRONG. I followed Garfield untill the mid 1990's when it started to suck, and let me enlighten all: In the beginning, Jim Davis tried to run his comic like For Better or For worse, and have various plots to follow, subtle meanings, ect... Remember Nermal? Layman? Ed? Garfield's mom? Anyway, early in the series, Garfield runs away from home, and really does come close to starving to death, but he just happens
to meet his mother and father, who take care of him, and Garfield Mentions how his week of starvation has changed him forever... And he eventually gets home, and every once in a while after that untill Jim Davis turned into a pathetic sell out, if you watch closely you can see he tries to allude back to Garfield and his trauma, and that's what this is, except the most blatant... Davis was trying to get people to realize how important the things we take for granted- food, water, loving family, really are.
I remember this strip, saw it in one of the compilations. I don't believe that Garfield is dead. I do believe however that this strip was trying to do something with the Garfield series it hadn't done before and that was to humanize Garfield. It showed a deeper side to the orange cat and not only did it point out his greatest fear, but it did point out one of the largest problems apparent in the cat population, being abandoned.
It was a great strip and I wish Jim Davis didn't let his strip get so mediocu
f*ck you for saying "nobody likes Garfield" (yes, the movies were godawful, I didn't waste my money, but the comic strips could be rpetty neat. And the children's novels about them being a superhero team). Interesting though, and nice presentation, even if it is a little too fast. Unvoted for the sh*tty smack at Garfield at the beginning, though. Or else this would get a 4 or a 5 I guess.
I have the local papers kept from that series. However, just because Jim Davis wanted to explore a new story and theme...Garfield did not die. I love the style he used. Much better inking than what you see now. Garfield in the 80's was extremely popular...it just has had it's time pass like nearly all entertainment does.
TOO BAD THIS THEORY IS FALSE. The comic strip even says that noone has lived in the house for years and Garfield confirms that must also means he hasn't lived there either. So if he was completely non-existant during this time, then how could he have starved to death. It's a dream fools. But this would be nice if it was true.
Amazing find. I can't believe these strips slipped by me as a Garfield crazed kid. On the contrary I'd have to say that these comics represent a "birth" of Garfield in the sense that they're so unique and interesting - even poignant. Y'know, aside from that whole "starving to death" theory. (which is misconstrued IMO) Jim Davis was onto something, he should attempt angles like this again.
I think that bit at the end, about how your imagination can be a dream or a nightmare, thats what Davis leaves you with. Depending on who you are, you either see his lonliness as a nightmare, or his waking up from it a dream. Either the good is a delusion or the bad is. Thats why these are so cool. I'm morbid, so he's totally dead.
Here's what I think
Garfield has been being lazy and sitting around most of his life just grubbing around there and eating. He realizes that eating is not as important as spending time with the people he loves. Therefore implying to us that we should spend more time with our own family because time is ticking away and they will be gone soon or later.
When I was younger, I used to read the Garfield archives in those fat paperback copies - I read a bit over 10 years, until Davis got less involved and it sucked, I remember that strip - to me, as a kid, it was somewhat humorous, kind of parodying the Twilight Zone - has nothing to do with death, it's just placing Garfield in his house years after they're all gone, in order to show him what life would be like alone - or to show what will eventually become of his family, so he doesn't take it for granted.
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