Good site. I actually own the Garfield 20th anniversary book which is basically a big collection of the comics from 1978 - 1998. Jim Davis (Garfield's creator) made a side note on this particular set of strips saying that he made them for something close to Halloween. He wanted to incorporate a fear that most people have into the normally light hearted strip. The fear was being alone. So, Garfield never died nor has he ever. It was just Jim Davis doing something different with his successful strip.
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