Garfield, American newspaper comic strip featuring a fat, lazy cat with a dry sense of humour. Garfield became the most widely syndicated comic strip of its era.
Garfield is a round-bodied, orange and black tabby cat who frequently stands on two feet and communicates via cartoon “thought bubbles” (as opposed to “speech balloons,” which are understood to be heard out loud). He loves eating fatty foods—especially lasagna—and causing trouble. His bland human companion, Jon Arbuckle, often acts as a straight man for Garfield. The other animal in the house is Odie, a small yellow beagle who is energetic and lovable but dim-witted (at least as far as Garfield can tell).
Cartoonist Jim Davis (born 1945) created Garfield in 1978, after serving as an assistant to Tumbleweeds cartoonist Tom Ryan and writing his own series, Gnorm Gnat, for a local Indiana newspaper for five years. In Garfield Davis avoided topical humour, adhered to a highly readable art style, and developed characters to whom anyone could relate. Garfield, for instance, expressed a common human desire to simply stay in bed on a Monday morning when one is expected to get on with life.
The strip quickly achieved widespread popularity, spinning off a series of animated television specials; of these, Garfield on the Town (1983) and three subsequent programs won Emmy awards. A long-running animated television series, Garfield and Friends, debuted in 1988. Live-action movies featuring a computer-animated Garfield include Garfield: The Movie (2004) and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006). Davis eventually established his own licensing company to manage the tremendous array of Garfield merchandise.