| Garfield | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author(s) | Jim Davis |
| Owner | Paws, Inc. (Viacom) (2019–2022) (Paramount Global) (since 2022) |
| Website | www.nick.com/garfield www.gocomics.com/garfield |
| Current status/schedule | Running/daily |
| Launch date | June 19, 1978 |
| Syndicate(s) | Universal Press Syndicate/Universal Uclick/Andrews McMeel Syndication (1994–present) United Feature Syndicate (1978–1994) |
| Publisher(s) | Random House (under Ballantine Books), occasionally Andrews McMeel Publishing |
| Genre(s) | Gag-a-day Humor |
| Preceded by | Jon (1976–1977) and Garfield (1977–1978), locally published strips in the Pendleton Times-Post |
Garfield is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as Jon in 1976 (later changed to Garfield in 1977), then in nationwide syndication from 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, Odie the dog, and their owner Jon Arbuckle. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.[1]
Though its setting is rarely mentioned in print, Garfield takes place in Jim Davis's hometown of Muncie, Indiana, according to the television special Happy Birthday, Garfield. Common themes in the strip include Garfield's laziness, obsessive eating, love of coffee and lasagna, disdain of Mondays, and dieting. Garfield is also shown to manipulate people to get whatever he wants. The strip's focus is mostly on the interactions among Garfield, Jon, and Odie, but other recurring characters appear as well.
Garfield has been adapted into various other forms of media. Several half-hour television specials aired on CBS between 1982 and 1991, starting with Here Comes Garfield and ending with Garfield Gets a Life. Also airing on CBS from 1988 to 1994 was the animated series Garfield and Friends, which also adapted Davis's other comic strip U.S. Acres. All of these featured Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield. The feature film Garfield: The Movie was released in 2004 and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties two years later. Both were live-action movies featuring a computer-animated Garfield voiced by Bill Murray. Another animated adaptation for television, The Garfield Show, aired on France 3 in France and Cartoon Network in the United States from 2009 to 2016. In addition, Garfield has been the subject of merchandise, video games, books, and other spin-off merchandise. The strip has also been re-published in compilations; the first of these, Garfield at Large (1980), developed what came to be known as the "Garfield format" for re-publication of newspaper comics in book form.
On August 6, 2019, before its merger with CBS Corporation to become ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global), New York City–based Viacom announced that it would acquire Paws, Inc., including most rights to the Garfield franchise (the comics, merchandise and animated cartoons). The deal did not include the rights to the live-action Garfield films,[2] which are still owned by The Walt Disney Company through its 20th Century Studios label, as well as The Garfield Movie which was released by Sony Pictures under its Columbia Pictures label in 2024.[3] Jim Davis continues to make comics, and a new Garfield animated series is in production for Paramount Global subsidiary Nickelodeon.[4]
- ^ "Garfield Named World's Most Syndicated Comic Strip". Business Wire. January 22, 2002. Archived from the original on September 10, 2004. Retrieved July 26, 2008.
- ^ Mullin, Benjamin (August 6, 2019). "Viacom, Hungry For Hits, Gobbles Garfield". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
- ^ O'Rourke, Ryan (September 16, 2022). "Garfield Release Date Moved to Spring 2024". Collider. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
- ^ Steinberg, Brian (August 6, 2019). "Viacom Acquires Comic-Strip Cat Garfield". Variety. Retrieved August 6, 2019.