The most popular cats in the world part III

Garfield

He is a lazy, selfish, overweight, orange tabby cat who enjoys eating and sleeping. He hates Mondays because of his consistent streak of bad luck on them. He hates diets because he believes it to be "die with a T" and February because he believes it to be "the Monday of months". He considers himself to be more intelligent than other animals and humans. He also hates spiders, although sometimes he communicates with them. In fact, over time, Garfield has communicated or understood the thoughts of many things, including other cats, mice, rats, dogs, people, alarm clocks, trees, spiders, bathroom scales, squirrels, fish, plants, foods (mostly from the fridge), ants, birds and balls of yarn.

Garfield was born in the kitchen of Mama Leoni's Italian Restaurant and developed a taste for lasagna the day he was born. This was revealed on a Garfield TV special called Garfield: His nine lives. Ever since then, it has always been his favorite food. At birth, Garfield weighed 5lbs, 6oz. Later in his life, Garfield runs across his Mother again one Christmas Eve, accidentally, and meets his Grandfather for the first time. Although, in a series of strips from November 10 to November 22, 1980, Garfield meets his other grandfather, and in a television special called Garfield on the Town, he finds his long-lost mother, and is disgusted to find that they are all "mousers" which is the technical term for mice eaters. Another twist was when Garfield met the rest of his family in the special. Most of them were cousins like Sly, the family's watchcat. The most shocking part was when Garfield met his older half-brother Rauel, who has some hygenic and psychological problems.

At the end of the TV special Garfield Gets a Life, Jon’s car is shown driving away, and his vehicle registration plate says Indiana, indicating that Garfield lives in Indiana. Jim Davis added this is possible because he is from Indiana. It is revealed in the special Garfield Goes Hollywood that he and Jon live in Muncie, Indiana in a contest called Pet Search.In his cartoon appearances, Garfield usually causes mischief in every episode. In June 1983, comic strips introduced Garfield's alter-ego, Amoeba Man, yet he was only shown in 6 strips (6-20 through 6-25). Amoeba Man is only one of his few imaginary alter egos. The Caped Avenger is one of the more common ones. Others include Banana Man, The Chicken Man, The Mummy, Count Cat, and The Sock.

Frequently, Garfield breaks the fourth wall, as seen in this(http://www.listen-project.de/garfield/index.php?strip=750951355) and this (http://www.listen-project.de/garfield/index.php?strip=1029449833) strip.

It was revealed on October 27, 1979 that he doesn’t like raisins. (http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_archives_strip.html?1979-ga791027) This has also been implied in a comic strip where Garfield saves time by making a list of things he doesn't want for his birthday instead of things he does want. The only thing on the list was raisins. His birthday is June 19, 1978 In one strip (http://www.listen-project.de/garfield/index.php?strip=542428279) it shows that he does not like spinach either. James Garfield Davis, who is the grandfather of Jim Davis the creator of the Garfield comic strip, was named after President James A. Garfield. In turn Jim Davis named the character Garfield after his grandfather.

The history of Garfield:

1978 : The Garfield comic strip, penned by cartoonist Jim Davis, debuts in 41 US newspepers.

1979 : Popularity of Garfield spreads. Now in 100 newspepers.

1980 : "Garfield at large", his first book, hits #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list.

1981 : Three Garfield books appear on the NY Times bestsellers list. Paws, Inc. opens near Muncie, IN.

1982 : Garfield in 1,000 newspepers. Has 7 bestsellers books. Here Come Garfield first TV special.

1983 : Garfield appears in 1,400 newspepers, in 22 countries and is translated in 7 languages.

1984 : Garfield balloon debuts in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Garfield & Jim Davis Star in American Express commercial.

1985 : Garfield in the rough wins an Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program.

1986 : Strip is in 1,800 pepers. Named "fastest growing strip on history" Garfield's Halloween Adventure wins Emmy.

1987 : Garfield becomes 3rd strip to ever appear in 2,000 pepers. Garfield's Chistmas airs.

1988 : Garfield and Friends Sat-AM tv show debuts. Stuck-On-You doll debuts and is a big hit

1989 : Garfield's TV special Babes and Bullets wins Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program.

1990 : Garfield appears in Orange Bowl Parade. Garfield Feline Fantasies TV special debuts.

1991 : "Am I Cool Or What?" is first Garfield music cd. Garfield Get a Life TV special airs.

1992 : Garfield starts a campaign to save the wetlands. Works with the National Wildlife Foundation to help schoolyards "go green".

1993 : Comic now in 2,400 papers. Garfield joins First Lady Barbara Bush on ABC radio program "Mrs Bush's Storytime".

1994 : Garfield promotes reading in the Muncie Public Library Bookmobile, the first of many libraries on wheels to use Garfield.

1995 : Comic in 2,500 papers. Sat-AM TV series ends after 7 seasons. Garfield takes magic act to Beijing.

1996 : Garfield and Jim Davis are Grand Marshals for Indianapolis 500. http://www.garfield.com/ debuts.

1997 : Garfield becomes spoke-cat for Literacy Volunteers of America. Garfield stuff catalog debuts.

1998 : Garfield 20th bitthday exhibit at International Museum of Cartoon Art. Garfield joins "got milk?" campaign.

1999 : Garfield join the International Institute of Health's "Sleep well, Do well" campaign for kids

2000 : Garfield finds new cool hangouts at Kennywood & Lake Compounce theme park.

2001 : New website http://www.garfieldgames.com/ debuts. Garfield appears on cell phones.

2002 : Guinness Book of The World Records declares Garfield "Most Wildly Syndicated Comic Strip in the World".

2003 : Garfield 25th birthday party, cruise, book tour, 3-day party in Muncie. First Garfield cookbook.

2004 : Garfield The Movie, his first full-length feature film debuts.

2005 : Professor Garfield launches. All-new free aducational website just for kids.

2006 : 2nd movie, A Tale of Two Kitties debuts. Jim Davis writes and produces Garfield Get Real movie for direct-to-video.

The Changes of Garfield:

1978

1980





1990

2005

And these are the friends of Garfield:

Jon Arbuckle

First Appearance: June 19, 1978

Garfield and Odie's owner. His birthday is July 28, 1951,the same date as Jim Davis', but six years later.He has poor social skills and his attempts at dating have usually failed, (in more modern issues, he has been getting lots of dates from Liz) but Garfield is happy as long as Jon keeps him fed. He has a taste in bizarre attire and has several dull hobbies, including talking to his plants, stamp collecting, playing the accordion, and organizing his clothes.

His mother often refers to him as Jonny, and his full name was revealed on December 6, 2001 to be Jonathan Q. Arbuckle, but he usually just goes as Jon. Jim Davis got this name from an old coffee commercial. He thought the name fit the poor sap who would be stuck with a cranky feline with an overactive appetite.

Even though he introduced himself as a cartoonist in the very first strip, Jon is never seen drawing cartoons, but his job was once referenced, as seen in the 1984 Christmas sequence when Jon left for a cartoonists' convention . (However, Garfield is seen in a couple of strips using Jon's easel and ink, presumably his cartooning tools. In one strip, Garfield draws a cat.)
Jon seems to understand Garfield in some of the later comics, but only sometimes. Garfield's punch lines tend to roll toward the viewer, usually when Garfield answers questions. In the July 13, 1998, comic, he even reacted to Garfield even though Garfield hadn't even thought anything.In recent comic strips Jon has had his first success in love and finally hit it off with Garfield’s vet, Dr. Liz Wilson (following the path of the end of the first movie). Jon does Ba-limp in almost every cartoon.

Odie

Jon’s pet dog (originally owned by Jon’s friend Lyman). Odie is a yellow, long-eared beagle who is always drooling and walks on all four legs. He is very unintelligent and naïve (although he has been shown on rare occasions to be the exact opposite). His birthday is on August 8th and is celebrated once in a strip where Jon says that Garfield didn’t care about Odie’s birthday. Because of his naiveté, Garfield likes to play tricks on him, particularly taking advantage to give him the boot—quite literally—when he is standing on the edge of a table.

Arlene

First Appearance: December 17, 1980

Garfield's female friend. She is a pink cat with a long neck and gapped front teeth. She once wished their relationship would take a few steps, but Garfield does not seem to notice. Garfield once quipped in the early strips that he and Arlene have an apparent love-hate relationship: Garfield loves himself, and Arlene hates that. Garfield loves to tease Arlene about the gap between her front teeth, which also infuriates her. She seems somewhat more clever than Garfield and repays his teasing with witty comebacks.

Nermal

First Appearance: September 3, 1979

"The world's cutest kitten." Garfield hates him and hates especially when he comes to show everyone how cute he is. Nermal especially does this on Garfield's birthdays to remind him of how he is getting older. Nermal is a male kitten, but his voice actress in the cartoon (Desirée Goyette) and long eyelashes have led to some confusion over his gender. He once mentioned that he is going to stay cute and small forever because he's a midget. ("I think small," he once quipped, "and the coffee and cigarettes don't hurt.") However, there is evidence that Nermal preserves his cuteness by mud packing his face. In exasperation and feelings of being degraded for ugliness and advancement in age, Garfield ultimately attempts to ship Nermal to Abu Dhabi, a running gag in the Garfield cartoon.

Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Wilson

First Appearance: June 26, 1979

Garfield and Odie's veterinarian and Jon's biggest crush. Even though Garfield hates going to the vet, Jon often forces him to go. Sometimes the visit is just an excuse for Jon to ask Liz out for a date. Jon and Liz shared their first true kiss on December 19, 1981, though Jon had previously managed to steal a kiss on October 6, 1979. In the past, Liz showed great dislike and little respect for Jon; her attempts to show him that she was not interested in him were generally futile, although she did deliver some pithy comments. During the week of her second appearance, Jon asked her what she would suggest for an animal who is madly in love (referring to himself), and Liz countered with "neutering." They didn't have a lasting relationship until after another kiss during slight dating fiasco on July 28, 2006. A third kiss was shared on September 3of the same year .From this point on, Liz has been Jon's girlfriend (she called him "Sweetie").

Pooky

First Appearance: October 23, 1978

Pooky is Garfield's teddy bear and best friend that Garfield discovered stuffed in a drawer. Despite the fact that Pooky is a stuffed animal, Garfield acts as though he can communicate with him. At one point, Garfield pretended to teach Pooky how to jump through hoops then Garfield turned around to talk to Jon. When he turned back Pooky was on the other side of the hoop. Garfield is generally overprotective of Pooky. Once Garfield thought he lost Pooky so he turned into "The Caped Avenger", a repeating storyline, and tried to find Pooky. It turned out that Jon had just thrown him in the wash.

Lyman

First Appearance: August 7, 1978 Last Appearance: June 19, 1988

Lyman was Jon's roommate and Odie's owner. He stopped appearing in the strip after a few years, apparently because he was considered superfluous. Jim Davis explained how the character was created to give Jon someone to be friends with and talk to, but as Garfield’s character evolved and ended up holding the conversations through his thought bubbles, the conversations became more Garfield-Jon oriented. This made Lyman's character unneeded; thus, Davis stopped including Lyman in the strip with little to no explanation. However, Jim Davis later gave humorous scenarios of what happened in the Garfield 20th Anniversary Book. One clue, supplied by Davis, indicated "Don’t look in Jon's basement!" In the online game "Scary Scavenger Hunt", this clue materialized: Lyman can be found chained in the basement. Although his last in-strip appearance was in April 24, 1983, he makes a cameo five years later in the title panel of the strip that was published on Garfield's 10th birthday.

In the "Garfield Book Nook" section at Garfield's website, Lyman is shown as the clerk.

Mom

First Appearance: February 13, 1980

Jon’s mother lives on a farm and is known to be a great cook (she can make just about anything out of potatoes, proven in a 1980s strip when she creates five dishes of potatoes using five different techniques). She also always has the same expression on her face. Based on Jim Davis' mother Betty Davis, Jon's mother is also known for sending him and Garfield cooked meals in packages. Jon once got mashed potatoes and Garfield got gravy, which started to leak from the corner of the envelope. On one Christmas occasion, after Dad said, "Please tell me they were adopted.", her response "I don't know, I was out at the time" implies she had gone through two Caesarean sections on the days Jon and Doc Boy were born.

Dad

First Appearance: February 13, 1980
Jon's father; lives on a farm, and is completely useless when it comes to modern equipment. Based on Jim Davis' father, James William Davis.

Doc Boy

First Appearance: May 17, 1983
Jon's brother who lives on a farm with his mother and father, and often fights with Jon, calling him a "city slicker". Doc Boy hates being called "Doc Boy" and Jim Davis addresses in a strip once that he did not like the name since he started wearing pants. Based on Jim Davis' brother David "Doc" Davis, who's not nearly as eccentric as his cartoon counterpart.

Spiders

Small spiders appear numerous times throughout the strip (implying that Jon's house may be infested with them), and try to have conversations with Garfield; unfortunately for them, he takes great pleasure in swatting them with a rolled-up newspaper, and does so every time he encounters one. Despite this, being swatted apparently isn't fatal for them as they have been seen getting up and stumbling away or thinking to themselves afterwards. The spiders occasionally show a desire for revenge, but are usually friendly; one particular spider named Lorenzo (possibly named for Lorenzo Music, Garfield's late voice actor in the TV show) makes repeated appearances, seeming to share an awkward friendship with Garfield. The spiders were initially drawn with six legs, although now they are generally drawn with eight.

Mice

Garfield has had many mice friends (and some enemies). Most of them are nameless but there are a few that have been identified. Three mice named Herman, Floyd, and Squeak make occasional appearances. The mice usually get along with Garfield but they also humiliate him sometimes and care very little about it. They know that Garfield is too lazy to chase them (although there have been a few occasions) so they tend to take advantage of their freedom and casually walk around the house, sometimes stealing food from the kitchen. As Jon expects Garfield to catch and eat the mice, he gets disappointed when he has to dispose of them by himself. As Garfield once famously put it, "Show me a good mouser, and I'll show you a cat with bad breath." He sometimes coaxes Garfield into doing his natural tasks by telling him he won't get dinner if he doesn't catch them.

Irma

First Appearance: June 9, 1979 (though not by name until October 19, 1979)
The waitress and manager of a greasy, lowbrow diner (Irma's Diner), Irma takes no shame in the obvious low quality of her establishment, often oblivious to the disgusting foodstuffs she serves Jon and Garfield and the chaos that goes on under her nose. She doesn't seem to be very bright and is very literal in her tasks as a waitress: once, when Jon ordered what the person next to him was having, she simply snatched the plate from the customer and gave it to Jon. She can make Garfield lose his appetite (rare praise indeed). She is prone to calling Jon "Hon" and it is unclear whether she knows his actual name.

Mrs. Feeny

Although she has never appeared physically or with a voice bubble, she and her little dog are constantly tormented by Garfield resulting in her calling Jon and complaining, at one point sending Jon a cake that turned out to be a balloon, splattering Jon with icing when it popped. Although Garfield has tormented the entire neighborhood, Mrs. Feeny is considerably Garfield's biggest target. Mr. Feeny was mentioned in a strip in 2005, but that was the only time he was mentioned. In one strip it is mentioned that Garfield once glued her dog to a cross town bus. When called on this he raised his paw to swear he hadn't, only to find that his coffee mug had become attached to his hand.

Ellen

Of all of the women Jon calls for a date and ends up getting rejected, Ellen is the most common. She was introduced as a blind date for Jon November 9, 1990 After 16 years, Ellen finally dated Jon in the comic on July 17, 2006 and appeared in person on July 20, 2006 after Jon convinced her to go on a date because she had amnesia and couldn't remember how much she despised him. She appeared as a blondie. She was wearing a dress with black and white horizontal lines. This didn't last long though. In the middle of their date, Liz (Garfield's vet) was with another man named Nick. When Jon went over to her she revealed that she liked Jon and since Ellen had amnesia, she didn't even remember that they were on a date together.

Binky the Clown

One of the more recognizable local entertainers in the comic, Binky first appeared outside the context of television or Jon's coffee mug when Garfield ran away to be with the circus. Binky the Clown hired Garfield as an assistant but Garfield left, deciding that the circus life didn't agree with him. In one TV cartoon, he was addressed as "mad," and in another, he was hired by Jon as a handyman after being fired from show biz for a while and was noted that Garfield and Odie were his only fans. The pets weren't good fans, either.

Stretch

First appearance: June 19, 1984; acquired his name the next day.

Last appearance: December 31, 2000

Stretch is Garfield's rubber chicken which he received from Jon for his 6th birthday. He has less "life" than Pooky. He is mainly used to torment Jon, making him regret that he got it. It has been a long time since he has made an appearance. However, he re-appeared in the ill-fated Playstation 2 game.

Wow! There were a lot of stories about him. This lovely fat cat. I wish I could have a cat who look like him.

What do you think about him?

(Thanks to http://www.gardield.com/, http://www.wikipedia.com/, http://www.listen-project.de/garfield/index.php for the informations and pictures)