50 Fun Facts About Garfield

Who created the Garfield comic strip?

Born in Marion, Indiana, he grew up on a Black Angus farm in Fairmount and had first tried a strip about a gnat.

Under what title did the Pendleton Times run the strip from 1976, before it became Garfield?

Jon first appeared on 8 January 1976, two weeks after Davis's failed strip Gnorm Gnat ended; the archives were rediscovered on microfilm in 2019.

What was Davis's first comic strip, about an insect, which one editor said readers 'can't identify with'?

It ran in the Pendleton Times from 1973 to 1975; Davis then studied the funny pages and noticed dogs were popular but no strip served cat owners.

Garfield was named after whom?

James A. Garfield Davis was 'a large, cantankerous man' whose personality rubbed off on the cat.

Jon Arbuckle's surname came from a businessman Davis heard mentioned in a commercial for what product?

John Arbuckle was a 19th-century coffee magnate; Jon's roommate Lyman was named after a Gnorm Gnat character.

Odie was originally called Spot. Why was he renamed?

The dog belonged to Jon's roommate Lyman before Lyman quietly vanished from the strip.

On what date did Garfield debut in national syndication, in 41 newspapers?

The date is now celebrated as Garfield's birthday; the Chicago Sun-Times briefly dropped the strip and reinstated it after complaints.

Which newspaper dropped Garfield after a test run, only to bring it back after readers complained?

The strip was in 850 papers within three years and over 1,000 by 1982.

Which fellow cartoonist, Jim Davis's mentor and rival, advised the 1980s redesign that put Garfield on his hind legs?

Schulz was also irritated that Garfield's merchandising rivalled Snoopy's; the slimmer design made the cat easier to animate.

Which body certified Garfield as the most widely syndicated comic strip on Earth, at about 2,580 papers?

By 2004 it was in nearly 2,600 newspapers and selling up to $1 billion of merchandise a year in 111 countries.

What is Garfield's favourite food?

He was born in the kitchen of Mamma Leoni's Italian Restaurant and calls it 'nature's most perfect food'; he refuses only raisins and spinach.

Which two foods will Garfield NOT eat?

He will happily eat Jon's houseplants and pet fish instead.

Which day of the week does Garfield famously hate?

Along with diets, spiders and any form of exertion; he shows unusual mercy to mice, and only mice.

Garfield's recurring fantasy is to mail which annoying kitten to Abu Dhabi?

The grey striped kitten torments Garfield about his age; when the post office is closed he simply throws Nermal out the front door.

What is Pooky?

Arlene, the pink cat, is Garfield's on-off girlfriend, and Binky the Clown is his least favourite TV star.

What is Jon Arbuckle's profession?

He is shown at the drawing board in the very first strip; like Davis he grew up on a farm with a brother, Doc Boy.

What is the name of the veterinarian Jon spent decades trying to date?

Irma is the slow-witted waitress at the diner where Jon eats terrible food.

What is the name of Jon's brother, who once watched socks in the washing machine as if it were TV?

Jon's parents live on the farm; his father once drove into town on a tractor with a rooster to wake him.

A famous 1989 storyline, unique in not being meant to be funny, showed Garfield doing what?

It ran the week before Halloween; the panel of a lonely, starving Garfield fuelled years of internet theories.

Davis joked that for years he thought OPEC was what, explaining why the strip avoids politics?

The lack of social commentary was deliberate, and part of the strip's global appeal.

What was the first book collection of the strip, published by Ballantine in March 1980?

Davis devised the wide, short book format so strips could run as they did in newspapers; several hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Which actor voiced Garfield in every TV special and in Garfield and Friends from 1982 to 1994?

Music was also Carlton the doorman on Rhoda and co-created The Bob Newhart Show; he voiced Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters before Murray, who later voiced Garfield.

Garfield's animation debut, voiced by Scott Beach, came in which 1980 CBS special about comic strips?

The strip was only two years old and was introduced as a newcomer.

What was the first half-hour TV special about the cat, aired on CBS in October 1982?

Directed by Phil Roman, it was a ratings hit and drew two Emmy nominations; Garfield Gets a Life in 1991 was the twelfth and last.

Which 1985 special, a pirate ghost story, won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program?

Originally titled Garfield in Disguise, it opens with Binky the Clown waking Garfield up; Odie is conned out of his candy.

Garfield and Friends also adapted which other Jim Davis strip?

Orson the pig led the barnyard cast; Mark Evanier was head writer and nearly every episode was his.

U.S. Acres launched in 1986 in an unprecedented how many newspapers?

Most papers ran only the Sunday strip beside Garfield; internationally it was called Orson's Farm.

Who voices Garfield in the 2004 and 2006 live-action films?

He later claimed he took the job thinking writer Joel Cohen was Joel Coen of the Coen brothers; the co-writer disputes that.

Who played Jon Arbuckle in Garfield: The Movie?

Carrey, Stiller, Ferrell, Jack Black and Hugh Jackman were all considered; Jennifer Love Hewitt played Liz.

Garfield: The Movie was a hit despite bad reviews, grossing about how much worldwide on a $50m budget?

The 2006 sequel took the gang to Britain, where a lookalike cat named Prince has inherited a castle.

Which 2004 movie villain, a TV host allergic to cats, kidnaps Odie?

Stephen Tobolowsky played him; his brother Walter is a news reporter.

In Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, the gang travels to which country?

Garfield swaps places with Prince, a royal lookalike, whose castle a scheming aristocrat wants to turn into condos.

Who voices Garfield in the 2024 animated feature The Garfield Movie?

Samuel L. Jackson voices his long-lost father Vic; Mark Dindal directed and DNEG animated.

In The Garfield Movie, Garfield resents his father Vic for what?

Vic had actually gone to fetch food and returned with an anchovy to find Jon feeding the kitten in an Italian restaurant.

The 2024 movie grossed roughly how much worldwide against a $60m budget?

Reviews were poor but a sequel is in development; the studio was Sony's Columbia with Alcon.

Who created Garfield Minus Garfield, which deletes the cat to leave Jon alone, in 2008?

Davis approved and Paws published an official book; Walsh said 'If Jon is happy, my strips don't work.'

Which company did Jim Davis found in 1981 to handle Garfield's licensing?

Long based in Muncie, Indiana, it was sold to Viacom in 2019 and now sits under Nickelodeon on the Paramount lot.

Which media company announced in August 2019 that it was buying Paws, Inc. and most Garfield rights?

The deal excluded the 2004-06 live-action films, which stayed with Fox and hence Disney, and the 2024 movie.

Which Muncie school, where Jim Davis later taught, co-created the ProfessorGarfield.org educational site?

He joined the Muncie faculty as an adjunct in 2006, lecturing on the creative and business sides of comics.

The Garfield Show, a CGI series, was co-produced by Paws and which French animation company?

It premiered in France in December 2008 as Garfield & Cie and reached Cartoon Network in November 2009; Frank Welker voiced Garfield.

Which 1984 anthology book tells the cat's story across nine incarnations from Cave Cat to Space Cat?

The current Garfield is his eighth life; the ninth, 'Space Cat', is set in orbit.

A 1984 Garfield game for which console was cancelled when Jack Tramiel balked at the royalties?

A ROM was later released with Davis's blessing; Sega's Garfield: Caught in the Act followed on the Genesis in 1995.

Which racing game series, launched by French publisher Anuman in 2012, became a cult favourite?

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing followed; the cat is also a fighter in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl.

A Garfield-themed ghost restaurant serving pasta and 'Garfuccinos' opened in 2018 in which city?

GarfieldEATS added a Toronto branch in 2019 and closed in 2020 amid the pandemic and a rent dispute.

Which budget lodging chain named Garfield its first 'Chief Pet Officer' in April 2024?

The tie-in came with Garfield-themed rooms for the release of The Garfield Movie.

Which comics publisher launched a monthly Garfield comic book in May 2012?

Mark Evanier wrote the first issue and Davis's long-time assistant Gary Barker drew it.

The stage musical Garfield Live premiered in January 2011 in which city?

Its opening number is 'Cattitude'; A Chorus Line producer Joseph Papp had once discussed a Garfield musical that never happened.

Who was cast to voice Garfield in the Nickelodeon series picked up by Paramount+ in 2026?

He is the fifth major voice of the cat after Scott Beach, Lorenzo Music, Bill Murray, Frank Welker and Chris Pratt.

Since the late 1990s, most of the drawing on the strip has been done by which two long-time assistants?

Davis still writes and roughs out the gags and remains the only credited name; Koth was even given co-creator credit on U.S. Acres.

What is the name of Garfield's girlfriend, a pink cat?

The strip's setting is rarely named, but the special Happy Birthday, Garfield places the cat in Jim Davis's hometown of Muncie, Indiana.