1588: Lasagnas & Litterboxes

==Explanation==
The original Garfield strip centered around Garfield getting stuck in a tree after playing superhero. This edit samples the original strip, and makes it into a campaign comic, depicting the world as a custom tabletop RPG campaign. Although DM of the Rings by Shamus Young is the forebearer, Darths & Droids (a subset of mezzacotta) is among the best known - in fact, this strip was made in the vein of the latter comic, from which a chain of similar strips with similar author's notes to this strip originated. A key difference, though, is that those strips' notes are connected to the comic in some way; as such, the references all relate to the Garfield mythos or to cats in general in some fashion. To break all the references down:
*Serious documentary: Exactly what it sounds like - in this case, the "documentary" in question is Hairballs, which, in the real world, is a comedy short film.
*Poorly-selling computer games; Futurama: In this case, the actor is Breckin Meyer, who played Jon in the live-action Garfield films.
*Mostly-known for their role in...: Describes a notable role for an actor in the product it is parodying. In this case, Jennifer Love Hewitt and her breakout role in I Know What You Did Last Summer is brought up; Hewitt played Liz in the live-action Garfield films.
*Nerdy guys: "Nerdy guys" are described doing one thing instead of another, due to the absence of the media being remixed. In this case, the line makes reference to the infamous pudding pops strip of .
*[X] was never made. [X] fans never had it so good. This is more-or-less usually a jab at something. In this case, it is a jab at Cats, the 2019 film adaptation of which is infamous for its negative reception; Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats is the source material that was adapted into the Broadway musical that the film is an adaptation of.
*...And it sucked: Describes something that "pervades all of Western culture [...] despite it never being much good," and is rebooted into something with massive improvements, only to end up "sucking" (which is a common opinion on many reboots). In this case, the subject is Heathcliff, which has been frequently compared with Garfield even within the latter's own mythos.
*Hollywood blockbusters: Describes an actual or notional trend in movies during a specific time frame.
*The Comic Irregulars exist: The big reveal, which links to the next comic in the chain. In this case, it links to a Comments on a Postcard strip with a similar setup.
Also of note is that the squirrel's dialogue is unchanged from the original Garfield strip.
==The author writes:==
In the universe the players inhabit, Garfield does not exist. That's the premise of this entire comic, after all. But other things that we know and love do, albeit modified by the absence of Garfield:
*Hairballs is a serious documentary about vector fields on the sphere.
*Breckin Meyer is known (barely) for doing voiceovers for poorly selling computer games, but gains widespread fame after his appearance in the first Futurama movie.
*Jennifer Love Hewitt is known primarily for her role in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
*Nerdy guys make YouTube videos of themselves playing the highland bagpipes instead of making frozen pudding pops.
*Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats was never made into a musical. T. S. Eliot fans never had it so good.
*The major cat-based comedy background that pervades all of Western culture is Heathcliff, despite it never being much good. The original cartoon was remade recently into a new, updated television series with a bigger budget, high-tech computerised special effects, and edgy writing. And it sucked.
*Throughout the 1980s, all the greatest Hollywood blockbusters were big-budget fly-on-the-wall docudramas.
*The Comic Irregulars exist and are making a screencap comic based on Postcard.
Original strip: .
==Transcript==
{Garfield, wearing a cape, hanging by his forepaws from a branch next to a squirrel hole in a tree.}
{beat}
NPC Squirrel: Why don't you just let go?
Garfield: My ring of feather fall is in my other cape.
GM: It's only 1d6 falling damage.
==Trivia==
This strip would go on to be the "next strip in the chain" in iToons 319: Sunburns & Serendipities.
Category:unstattedCommoner
Category:Cartoon references
Category:Comic strip references
Category:Film references
Category:mezzacotta references
Category:Tabletop game references
Category:Theater references