Garfield Minus Garfield follow-up. December 8, 2008 1:48 PM Subscribe
As a follow up to this post, I ran into this book at Barnes and Noble last night, and I was pretty thrilled to see it (so saullgoodman, your wish was answered). Apparently, the site was turned into a real, legitimate book with Jim Davis' endorsement. I thought this fact was pretty great, with all of the copyright paranoia going on these days. In the secret wishes of my heart, I'd like to think that Metafilter sent some traffic there that helped make it possible. In the beginning of the book, the author talks about how traffic to his site escalated, leading to this new project being possible.
It's worth noting that it appears that some original criticism of the strip may have been addressed in the book, as some disliked the rearranging of the panels to get the desired effect. From what I saw in the book (although I didn't read the whole thing), the strip panels were kept sequentially in tact, before the removal of Garfield. He does a before and after comparison, to show the changes.
It's worth noting that it appears that some original criticism of the strip may have been addressed in the book, as some disliked the rearranging of the panels to get the desired effect. From what I saw in the book (although I didn't read the whole thing), the strip panels were kept sequentially in tact, before the removal of Garfield. He does a before and after comparison, to show the changes.
Oh good; Jim Davis has found another way to make money off an idea he had thirty years ago without doing any additional work at all.
posted by yhbc at 2:16 PM on December 8, 2008 [3 favorites]
posted by yhbc at 2:16 PM on December 8, 2008 [3 favorites]
Oh good; Jim Davis has found another way to make money off an idea he had thirty years ago without doing any additional work at all.
from one of the Amazon.com reviews:
posted by Joe Beese at 2:32 PM on December 8, 2008
from one of the Amazon.com reviews:
Fast forward to the present, where Jim Davis (the creator of Garfield) has embraced Walsh's work and creativity..."Embraced" as in "parasitically attached", I suppose.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:32 PM on December 8, 2008
Garfield minus Garfield as officially approved was on MeFi last Friday.
posted by skynxnex at 3:28 PM on December 8, 2008
posted by skynxnex at 3:28 PM on December 8, 2008
Man, I totally missed that. Sorry about the duplicate.
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:35 PM on December 8, 2008
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:35 PM on December 8, 2008
Wait, that one was different.
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:41 PM on December 8, 2008
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:41 PM on December 8, 2008
Nevermind. It was the same, just not directly stated.
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:43 PM on December 8, 2008
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:43 PM on December 8, 2008
One time I went into an independent book store in Seattle that had a "staff picks" section for each book category. I was up in the humor section and found that there was a random Garfield collection as a staff pick. Curious as to why someone would single out this book as their pick, I went up and read the description. Swear to GOD, it was funnier than 90% of Garfield comics. It read:
Garfield is funny. I like when he hates Mondays and eats lasagna.
posted by piratebowling at 3:51 PM on December 8, 2008
Garfield is funny. I like when he hates Mondays and eats lasagna.
posted by piratebowling at 3:51 PM on December 8, 2008
Garfield is funny. I like when he hates Mondays and eats lasagna.
One of my co-workers put a cartoon on the staff lounge refrigerator, presumably because it really tickled him or her. The subject of said cartoon was how funny it is that it's easier for children than for adults to remove childproof lids.
IN 2008! AT HARVARD FUCKING UNIVERSITY!!!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:35 PM on December 8, 2008
One of my co-workers put a cartoon on the staff lounge refrigerator, presumably because it really tickled him or her. The subject of said cartoon was how funny it is that it's easier for children than for adults to remove childproof lids.
IN 2008! AT HARVARD FUCKING UNIVERSITY!!!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:35 PM on December 8, 2008
It made my day when Plutor tacked a Garkov to his cubicle wall. Still haven't heard from Jim Davis about whether he loves the idea and is going to drop acid and start posting his own Garkovs at ucomics, though.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:12 PM on December 8, 2008
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:12 PM on December 8, 2008
My local Borders has a table full of blogs turned into books. I love Garfield minus Garfield and Cake Wrecks and all that stuff, but I don't get the whole books thing. (Except for PostSecret.)
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 7:05 PM on December 8, 2008
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 7:05 PM on December 8, 2008
Still haven't heard from Jim Davis about whether he loves the idea and is going to drop acid and start posting his own Garkovs at ucomics, though.
He will if it sells. Quick, someone turn on Jim Davis! This'll be the best internet win ever!
posted by loquacious at 7:06 PM on December 8, 2008
He will if it sells. Quick, someone turn on Jim Davis! This'll be the best internet win ever!
posted by loquacious at 7:06 PM on December 8, 2008
Still haven't heard from Jim Davis about whether he loves the idea and is going to drop acid and start posting his own Garkovs at ucomics, though.
Jim and Paws endorsed this guy because, A) Garfield itself has, for a long time, all but disappeared from the public eye and, B) This was the least offensive version of a popular web meme that they felt comfortable endorsing. Yeah, it's a piggyback move, largely intended to bestow some hipster cred onto an all-but-cold-in-the-grave property.
The sad thing is that had this been created by the staff artists, it would never have seen the light of day.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
Jim and Paws endorsed this guy because, A) Garfield itself has, for a long time, all but disappeared from the public eye and, B) This was the least offensive version of a popular web meme that they felt comfortable endorsing. Yeah, it's a piggyback move, largely intended to bestow some hipster cred onto an all-but-cold-in-the-grave property.
The sad thing is that had this been created by the staff artists, it would never have seen the light of day.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
cortex: It made my day when Plutor tacked a Garkov to his cubicle wall.
It might make your day quite as much, but I've had a Garkov on my wall for a number of months now: overview and detail but I've been too lazy to take a picture. Now enjoy my crappy cell phone photo of it.
And, SpacemanStix, don't take my comment as a compliant, just wanted to make sure people also saw that thread.
posted by skynxnex at 7:21 AM on December 9, 2008
It might make your day quite as much, but I've had a Garkov on my wall for a number of months now: overview and detail but I've been too lazy to take a picture. Now enjoy my crappy cell phone photo of it.
And, SpacemanStix, don't take my comment as a compliant, just wanted to make sure people also saw that thread.
posted by skynxnex at 7:21 AM on December 9, 2008
I've been doing a live action version of this comic ever since it was introduced to me.
I maintain there is an invisible cat who's antics are both hilarious and wince inducing. Or, at least that's what I've been telling people when they catch me talking to myself in non-sequiturs.
Thus far, I remain un-hospitalized.
posted by quin at 7:52 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
I maintain there is an invisible cat who's antics are both hilarious and wince inducing. Or, at least that's what I've been telling people when they catch me talking to myself in non-sequiturs.
Thus far, I remain un-hospitalized.
posted by quin at 7:52 AM on December 9, 2008 [1 favorite]
Has there ever been a Garfield strip that questions WHY he hates Mondays?
I think in Garfield's world, Monday is inherently bad, it's not held as an arbitrary property. It probably taps into the feeling that people have when you link enough weeks of consecutive Mondays together: it's not bad for arbitrary reasons, it just is bad. But this is probably over thinking it.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:25 AM on December 9, 2008
I think in Garfield's world, Monday is inherently bad, it's not held as an arbitrary property. It probably taps into the feeling that people have when you link enough weeks of consecutive Mondays together: it's not bad for arbitrary reasons, it just is bad. But this is probably over thinking it.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:25 AM on December 9, 2008
Perhaps Monday is the environmental manifestation of a malevolent god.
Ooh. Perhaps the world of Garfield is actually hell. Or at least some less-than-wonderful limbo state. A Monday is some kind of generally-incorporeal demon, the general dislike of which is then understandable. Jon, Garfield, Odie are just three dead travelers, confined by metaphysics or perhaps only their own flaws (carried over from life—life in perhaps some significantly different form?) to the spartan, unchanging walls of what we have all this time assumed was Jon Arbuckle's house.
Garfield's occasional ventures out into the larger world are metaphors for his contemplation of this spiritual predicament, and his inevitable return to House Arbuckle is an indictment of his inability to even contemplate, let alone conquer, the forces (internal? external?) that bind him to his stasis.
Odie represents the innocent soul—if this is damnation, he is unperturbed by it or even by Garfield's periodic violence against him, violence no doubt born from Garfield's resentment of Odie's bliss. Who in hell would not hate an angel?
Jon in the meantime is the shattered intellect, not just beaten but broken by damnation, forever (until Liz, at least; O Liz!) unable to connect with other souls, unable to maintain for long even what sparks of confidence he is able to summon.
Garfield stands in the center between the two, sane but unhappy, aware of his damnation but refusing to allow it to shatter him. He is resigned to his fate, and passes the time by indulging in simulacra of those mortal fixations he was unable to resist in life—the lasagna of the glutton, the slumber of the sloth, his wrath at Odie, his envy of Jon's rare happiness with Liz, the bullheaded pride of the fence-top performer, his greedful theft of Jon's meals, his lust for Arlene.
Nermel is probably a demon too.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:46 AM on December 9, 2008 [6 favorites]
Ooh. Perhaps the world of Garfield is actually hell. Or at least some less-than-wonderful limbo state. A Monday is some kind of generally-incorporeal demon, the general dislike of which is then understandable. Jon, Garfield, Odie are just three dead travelers, confined by metaphysics or perhaps only their own flaws (carried over from life—life in perhaps some significantly different form?) to the spartan, unchanging walls of what we have all this time assumed was Jon Arbuckle's house.
Garfield's occasional ventures out into the larger world are metaphors for his contemplation of this spiritual predicament, and his inevitable return to House Arbuckle is an indictment of his inability to even contemplate, let alone conquer, the forces (internal? external?) that bind him to his stasis.
Odie represents the innocent soul—if this is damnation, he is unperturbed by it or even by Garfield's periodic violence against him, violence no doubt born from Garfield's resentment of Odie's bliss. Who in hell would not hate an angel?
Jon in the meantime is the shattered intellect, not just beaten but broken by damnation, forever (until Liz, at least; O Liz!) unable to connect with other souls, unable to maintain for long even what sparks of confidence he is able to summon.
Garfield stands in the center between the two, sane but unhappy, aware of his damnation but refusing to allow it to shatter him. He is resigned to his fate, and passes the time by indulging in simulacra of those mortal fixations he was unable to resist in life—the lasagna of the glutton, the slumber of the sloth, his wrath at Odie, his envy of Jon's rare happiness with Liz, the bullheaded pride of the fence-top performer, his greedful theft of Jon's meals, his lust for Arlene.
Nermel is probably a demon too.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:46 AM on December 9, 2008 [6 favorites]
That sounds like more like an existentialist parody of Christian eschatology authored by Brecht collaborating with Sartre.
"Waiting for Tuesday", containing the famous line, "Hell is other talking animals."
posted by ardgedee at 10:58 AM on December 9, 2008
"Waiting for Tuesday", containing the famous line, "Hell is other talking animals."
posted by ardgedee at 10:58 AM on December 9, 2008
Garfield hates Mondays because it means another 5 days of Garfield strips.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:52 PM on December 10, 2008
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:52 PM on December 10, 2008
I just wanted to remind everyone, it's quite possible that Thorzdad knows of which he speaks.
posted by JHarris at 6:29 PM on December 10, 2008
posted by JHarris at 6:29 PM on December 10, 2008
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posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:06 PM on December 8, 2008