Garfield's existential crisis

[flint_marko]

These are the Garfield comic strips from the week of October 23, 1989.












In Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection Jim Davis talked about the storyline:

During a writing session that week, I got the idea for this decidedly different series of strips. I wanted to scare people. And what do people fear? Why, being alone of course. We carried out the concept to its logical conclusion and got a lot of responses from readers. Reaction ranged from 'Right on!' to 'This isn't a trend is it?' 
char: garfield,char: jon arbuckle,char: odie,creator: jim davis,medium: newspaper comic,title: garfield

Comments

[xammax]

This combined with Garfield without Garfield makes me think there are two comics here, the one most people read and the one Jim Davis writes.

[grazzt]

While we're on the subject of Garfield horror, has anyone here ever read "Garfield: His Nine Lives"? It was an anthology of nine stories (plus a sequence where God creates cats), with a couple of scarier stories amongst them.

It got adapted to an animated special, but amongst the changes they cut one of the scarier stories ("Primal Self"). I wonder if any of the Garfield fans here might be willing to post a couple of pages out of it.

[flint_marko]

I've actually ordered that one from my library.

[grazzt]

Nice.

I've only managed to see the special.

[tacobob]

Yeah, we just don't get enough "Garfield Mauling Old Ladies" strips.

[cleome45]

Girl Scouts, too. Don't forget the Girl Scouts.

[tacobob]

(I think this panel is from 'Nine Lives'. It's been ages since I've read it.)

[cleome45]

Whoa. 8) Was this actually from a book about Garfield? Davis drew this?

Reminds me of my treasured copy of The Last Cat Book. Peter Kuper illustrated a Robert E. Howard essay in B&W. I'm glad I haven't had to throw it on the auction block... at least not yet.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I think it was artists and writers other than Davis, but it is an official Garfield book, yes. Some of the segments were changed for the TV special.

[grazzt]

Most of it was written by Davis (although a couple of stories were done by others), but most of the art was done by other artists.

"Primal Self" was written by him and illustrated by Jim Clements, Garry Barker, and Larry Fentz.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Uh, no, that's actually only PART of a panel. A rather small part. It IS from 'Nine Lives', though.

[tacobob]

Yeah, it's just missing the sweet little Grandma that's about to get her face sliced into!

[psychopathicus_rex]

Which is a rather important part, yes.

[q99]

Oh yea! I remember that *way* back in the day, I wonder if I still have my copy...

[khamelea]

I still find the animated version of the "garden of Eden" Nine Lives story to be one of the creepiest.

[stretchdude]

Yeah, I have that book. The animated version of the lab animal one is WAY creepier than "Primal Self," in my opinion.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I've READ it - don't own it, though, so I can't post any of it; sorry. It's pretty interesting, all right, although I think it's kind of a major departure from just what Garfield IS, for better or for worse - 'Nine Lives' is really just a series of stories about cats, some of whom happen to be somewhat like Garfield.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Well, technically "are" Garfield in past and future lives.

I was surprised when they had a curse word ("damn") in Life #2.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, sure, technically they are, but they don't READ that way, at least not to me. I mean, I can't see much of a Sam Spade pastiche in Garfield, can you?

[icon_uk]

Existential angst being the motivating force behind most cats sporadic "let's be nice to the owner" periods doesn't seem that far fetched to me.

[grazzt]

That made me think of the Two Lumps adaptation of "The Catcher In The Rye."

[cleome45]

Steve Willis' comic: "How Cats Got That Way" sent a dog back in time to, er, train cats properly in Human-Feline relations. It's a classic around our house; especially for the scene where Reagan is announcing the beginning of WWIII, only to be interrupted by a cat sticking its butt in his face.

[proteus_lives]

Spooooky.

[cainofdreaming]

We're posting scary Garfield stuff? Well, you brought this on yourselves then.

[leikomgwtfbbq]

...Yeah, that's pretty goddamn creepy. Thanks. D:

[rhythmbandit]

This one's my favorite.

[kamino_neko]

There are some who believe this is the last (or even only) truly canonical Garfield story...the rest has been in Garfield's imagination as he slowly starves to death.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Those people aren't thinking this through. If he hasn't been fed in years, then he starved to death long ago.

[kamino_neko]

If the strip ran in real time, he have been dead before, or not long after, this strip ran, anyway - the strip was 11 years old at the time, and Garfield was clearly a couple years old already, and he's not exactly got a healthy lifestyle.

[rhythmbandit]

Maybe he's been eating dead mice. And Jon and Odie are really a broom and a plant.

[darkblade]

Dreams usually seem to be longer than it physically takes our brains to play them out.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

But if he's dreaming the part where he says he hasn't been fed in years, then that isn't canon, and he could just as easily not have been fed yet that day as be abandoned and starving to death.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So, wait, it's like 'Waking Life', only with Garfield?

[leikomgwtfbbq]

Someone on TVTropes noted this series of comics under the Nightmare Fuel page. I'd been wanting to see it for awhile. And yeah, it's a bit creepy, surprisingly.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

These strips and the speculation of what they mean are discussed with Davis on Boing Boing, and reprinted here for posterity:

I read the ("Death of Garfield?") post a couple of days ago and was intrigued because I was scheduled to have a business meeting with Jim Davis in just a couple of days (I work for Hallmark). Well, I had that meeting at Paws (Davis' company) yesterday and I used the opportunity to ask him just exactly what he had in mind when he wrote those strips. The answer was simple. He was not inspired by any cartoon (though I could certainly see why the other commenter might believe so). Garfield is NOT dead, nor is he starving to death (Jim actually laughed loudly when I suggested these theories). It was simply a week before Halloween and Jim wanted to do something legitimately scary, as opposed to Halloween-scary. "Ghosts aren't scary..." he told me before explaining that before writing the strips he went around to everyone he knew and asked them what truly scared them. The answer he got most often was "being alone" or "dying alone". Just that simple.

I mentioned the post to Jim and he seemed tickled. I told him that I intended to set the record straight and he seemed fine with it. As a matter of fact he was unaware of the many internet-circulated theories about the strips (it took him a moment to even understand which strips I was talking about).

I have to admit that I am more than a little thrilled to have had the opportunity to address (and resolve) something that so many are speculating about. A rare opportunity indeed...

What is it with lonely cats?

[reflectedimages]

These comic scans send shivers up my spine.

They also remind me of Part four of Bruno Bozzetto's Allegro Non Troppo, with the ghostly cat amid the ruins of a decrepit house.

Definitely nightmare fuel.