Information about Garfield (character)

Garfield
Garfield in black-and-white
First appearance	Garfield comic strip (June 19, 1978)
Created by	Jim Davis
Portrayed by	Lorenzo Music (voice in all animated appearances) Chafurin (animated, Japanese) Bill Murray (voice in the live-action films) Frank Welker (Garfield Gets Real) Lou Rawls (singing voice in early TV specials)
Information
Species	Orange Tabby cat
Gender	Male
Age	29
Date of birth	May 19 1978(1978--)
Family	Sonja (mother), Raoul (half-brother), Jon (owner) unnamed grandfather

Garfield is a fictional character in the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. He is a lazy, fat, selfish, orange, anthropomorphic tabby cat who enjoys eating, sleeping, stealing Jon's meals, and being mean to Odie by kicking him off the table. He hates Mondays because he suffers bad luck on those days, such as being struck by a pie coming from nowhere, and considers himself to be more intelligent than humans, dogs, or other animals. He also enjoys performing on a wooden fence in the middle of the night, although he is usually booed at and bombarded with various objects by his agitated audience. He hates spiders, and often swats them with a newspaper or whatever may be close to a paw. Sometimes, he shreds Jon's curtains and destroys/eats his ferns, resulting in Jon's becoming very angry at him for it. He is also known for destroying the flowerbeds of Jon and their neighbor, Mrs. Feeny, as well as tormenting her dog. Jim Davis named Garfield after his grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis. According to an interview with Jim Davis in the second Garfield compilation book, , the name "Garfield" makes him think of "...a fat cat...or a St. Bernard...or a neat line of thermal underwear." He "speaks" through thought bubbles, and even though other animals can understand him it is a very low possibility Jon can hear him communicate.

History

Garfield was born in the kitchen of Mama Leone's Italian Restaurant and loved lasagna the day he was born. Ever since then, it always been his favorite food. According to his grandfather, he was born five pounds, six ounces, surprisingly enough, he managed to fit in a tiny bed. Later in his life, Garfield runs across his Mother again one Christmas Eve, accidentally, and meets his other grandfather for the first time. When Jon adopted him, he had to choose between Garfield, an iguana, and a pet rock. According to the strips, Garfield first stood on just two feet on May 17, 1981[1]. However, this contradicts some of the earlier strips. For example, he is shown tap dancing on Jon's head in the strip for May 6, 1979[2]. Also, in the strip for September 16, 1979, Garfield sleepwalks away on two feet[3]. In the TV special Garfield Gets a Life, Jon's car is revealed to have an Indiana vehicle registration plate at the end of the episode, indicating that they live in Indiana. In Garfield Goes Hollywood, while Jon, Odie and Garfield are on Pet Search, the announcer says that they're from Muncie, Indiana. This is possibly because Jim Davis is from Indiana. In his cartoon appearances, Garfield usually causes mischief in every episode. In June 1983, comic strips introduced Amoeba Man, one of Garfield's alter-egos, yet he was only shown in 6 strips (6-20 through 6-25). Amoeba Man is only one of his few imaginary alter egos though, his most common one being the Caped Avenger. It was revealed on July 1st, 1983 that he doesn’t like raisins.^[1] His birthday is 1978-06-19, the day the first Garfield strip was published. ^[2][3][4] Garfield frequently gets into many adventures, such as getting stuck in roll-up blinds, sparring with mice, and getting locked up in animal shelters. In 2005, Garfield and Jon appeared in several comic strips of Blondie in honor of their 75th anniversary.

Garfield was one of the cartoon characters featured in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.

Full Name

Garfield's full name is actually Garfield James Arbuckle. This fact is rarely mentioned in the comics. Though in Garfield's Halloween Adventure he says, "Halloween is my middle name; Gar-Halloween-Field. Oh Well." Indicating that perhaps even he occasionally forgets his full name.

Eating

A long running gag is that Garfield is a ravenous and gluttonous eater. He is almost always shown eating a foodstuff high in fat. Among the spaghetti, pizza, cookies (particularly those from Jon's mother), hamburgers, whole chickens, popcorn, pie, doughnuts, ice cream, and confections he consumes, his favorite food has been stated consistently as lasagna and he may commonly be seen in his trademark eating position with his head arched back, mouth wide open, shoveling food down his throat with a big smile on his face. Although eating is a hobby for him, Garfield is very picky. He is known to detest Cat food (only on occasion, as he can be seen eating cat food frequently), raisins, snails, fruitcake, and vegetables, especially during his occasional diets. These are followed by hallucinations of some of his favourite foods following him around, asking to be ingested.

Subsequently, another running gag revolves around Jon's attempts at putting Garfield on a diet. In retaliation, Garfield will often seek methods to either sneak away food behind Jon's back, or physically harm Jon.

Alter-egos

Garfield has a very wide imagination, and enjoys using common props such as socks or bananas to make himself imaginary secret identities. His most common alter-ego is The Caped Avenger, though others include Sumo Cat, Karate Cat, The Sock, Banana Man, Chicken Man and Judo Cat among many others. Most of these alter-egos only appear for one story arc mainly consisting of three strips.

Other media

• In the two live-action and Garfield Gets Real, Garfield was created using CGI animation, though the Garfield Gets Real version is more closer to his original form than his live-action movie form.
• In the animated series and prime-time specials, he was voiced by Lorenzo Music. In the live-action movies, he is voiced by Bill Murray. An interesting side note is that the two actors also shared the role of Dr. Peter Venkman as well.

Cameo

In , he was brought to the station after being captured in an expedition to find life in other comic strips.

References

External links

• Garfield - The Official Site of Garfield.

Garfield
Characters
Garfield | Jon Arbuckle | Odie | Nermal | Arlene | List of Garfield characters
Television specials
Here Comes Garfield | Garfield on the Town | Garfield in the Rough | Garfield's Halloween Adventure | Garfield in Paradise | A Garfield Christmas | Garfield Goes Hollywood | Happy Birthday, Garfield | | Garfield's Babes and Bullets | Garfield's Thanksgiving | Garfield's Feline Fantasies | Garfield Gets a Life
Video games
Garfield | | | | Garfield Labyrinth | | Garfield's Mad About Cats | | Garfield & His Nine Lives | | Garfield's Nightmare | | Garfield Gets Real
Films
Garfield | | Garfield Gets Real
Other media
Am I Cool or What? | Garfield As Himself | Garfield and Friends | List of Garfield and Friends episodes | Garfield's Holiday Celebrations | Pet Force | | |
Other
Jim Davis | U.S. Acres | Gnorm Gnat | Mr. Potato Head | Comic strip switcheroo