Garfield & Friends Jim Davis Cartoonist, Author, Producer, Director, President, Founder, Screenwriter, Playwright, Environmentalist, Philanthropist — all these titles can be used to describe Jim Davis, best-known as the creator of GARFIELD. Jim Davis, 1947 Jim Davis was born July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, and raised on a small farm with his parents, James and Betty Davis, and his younger brother, Dave (Doc). Like most farms, the barnyard had its share of stray cats; about 25 at one time, by Jim's estimation. As a child, he suffered serious bouts with asthma and was often bedridden. Forced inside, away from regular farm chores, he whiled away the hours drawing pictures. Gnorm Gnat In college, he studied art and business before going to work for TUMBLEWEEDS creator, Tom Ryan. There, he learned the skills and discipline necessary to become a syndicated cartoonist and began his own strip, GNORM GNAT. When he tried to sell the strip to a newspaper syndicate he was told, "It's funny, but bugs?

Who can relate to a bug?" After five years of GNORM, Davis crushed the bug strip idea and tried a new tact, studying the comics pages closely. He noticed there were a lot of successful strips about dogs, but none about cats! Combining his wry wit with the art skills he had honed since childhood, GARFIELD, a fat, lazy, lasagna loving, cynical cat was born. Davis says Garfield is a composite of all the cats he remembered from his childhood, rolled into one feisty orange fur ball. Garfield was named after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis. Garfield first appeared in June 19, 1978 The strip debuted on June 19, 1978 in 41 U.S. newspapers. Several months after the launch, the Chicago Sun-Times cancelled GARFIELD. Over 1300 angry readers demanded that GARFIELD be reinstated. It was, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, GARFIELD is read in over 2100 newspapers by 200 million people.

Guinness World Records™, named GARFIELD “The Most Widely Syndicated Comic Strip in the World.” Davis’s peers at the National Cartoonist Society honored him with Best Humor Strip (1981 and 1985), the Elzie Segar Award (1990), and the coveted Reuben Award (1990), the top award presented to a cartoonist by NCS members. Garfield quickly became a sensation in the licensing world, too, inspiring Davis to form his own company to take care of Garfield business concerns. Paws, Inc., founded in 1981, manages the worldwide rights for the famous fat cat, and Davis serves as President. Jim has won four Emmy Awards Garfield’s fame spilled over to television and Davis penned eleven primetime specials for CBS-TV. He received ten Emmy nominations and four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program. Movies were next, and Twentieth Century Fox turned out Garfield: The Movie (‘04), and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (‘06).

Davis also wrote the original screenplays and executive produced three animated features for DVD: Garfield Gets Real (‘07), Garfield’s Fun Fest (‘08), and Garfield’s Pet Force (‘09). Also in 2009. “The Garfield Show” made its debut on Cartoon Network. Today, the CGI animated cartoon is in its fourth season and is seen in 131 countries, including China, where CCTV broadcasts the show daily. Davis’s philanthropy has been directed at educational and environmental projects. He founded The Professor Garfield Foundation in cooperation with Ball State University, to support children’s literacy. A free educational web site is the cornerstone of the Foundation’s work to date. Davis spearheaded reforestation, prairie and wetlands restorations, and built the world’s first all natural wastewater plant for commercial use. He was awarded the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Good Steward and Special Projects Award, and the Indiana Wildlife Federations’ Conservationist of the Year Award. Davis spends his leisure time golfing, gardening, fishing, and enjoying his wife, children, and grandchildren.

In a nod to Garfield’s friends in the comic strip, Davis also keeps one cat, Nermal, and a dog, Pooky. Advertisement Cartoonist Jim Davis-The Man Behind Garfield - American Profile Home Odd Jobs Cartoonist Jim Davis-The Man Behind Garfield Cartoonist Jim Davis-The Man Behind Garfield Odd Jobs, People David Mudd Growing up on a small farm near Fairmount, Ind. (pop. 2,866), Jim Davis figured he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a farmer. But as severe bouts of asthma made that job seem unlikely, the bedridden youngster began drawing to pass the time. It was the genesis for what would become his career as a cartoonist and creator of one of America's best-loved characters-Garfield the cat. "I loved farming but just couldn't do it," says Davis, 63, at his studio complex in the countryside near Albany, Ind. (pop. 2,368). "I kept having asthma attacks. Being asthmatic, I spent a lot of time inside.

TV wasn't as prevalent in the 1950s, so my mom would shove paper and pencil in my hand to entertain me." Those early stick drawings were so crude that young Jim "had to label what they were," recalls his father, James William Davis, 88. "You couldn't tell if it was a horse or a dog. His people always had belly buttons though." Rural roots During his youth, Davis and his younger brother, David, helped with farm chores and raised Black Angus cattle. Active in 4-H, he won many county fair ribbons with his prize heifer Pepper. "I learned to work through the asthma," Davis says. "When I couldn't breathe, I would grab the headboard of my bed and pull myself up to breathe and let myself back down to exhale. To this day, I appreciate my health, appreciate being able to breathe." A shy child who stuttered, Davis attended a three-room school with two grades in each room. There he met Nellie Barnhardt, a teacher who helped him overcome his stuttering. "She would touch my throat and say, 'The words are in there, you just have to let them out one at a time,'" Davis recalls.

"She taught me to say everything in my head first, to speak slowly, and I still do that today." At Fairmount High School, Davis played football and acted in theater productions. With 65 students in his graduating class, he is grateful that he attended a small country school. "I weighed 100 pounds and was asthmatic, and I still got to start in football all four years. That's the beauty of a small school. You can do so many things." After graduation, Davis attended Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. "I have the distinction of earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the university," he says with a chuckle. "A fellow classmate named David Letterman earned the other one." Creating a cat After college, Davis "lucked into a position" as an assistant to Tom Ryan, creator of the popular Tumbleweeds comic strip. "I saw the discipline and long hours it took to be a success," Davis says. "I started trying to get my own strip syndicated.

It took years of trying, but finally I found a comics editor who saw something in my work." Davis originally created Gnorm Gnat with an all-insect cast, but editors told him insects aren't funny. So he turned his cartoonist talents closer to home, working on an idea about a bachelor cartoonist and his fat cat. The lazy feline kept getting all the good lines, so Davis wisely put the spotlight on the lasagna-loving, coffee-drinking, self-centered, dog-hating cat. Why a cat? "I looked around and there were plenty of strips about dogs, but none about cats," Davis says. "I knew cats. We had 25 at one time on the farm." He named his creation after his grandfather, whom he describes as "a big guy with a dry wit who appeared gruff but deep down inside was a softie." "Garfield is a human in a cat suit," Davis explains. "People identify with him because he says and does the stuff we'd all like to say and do if we thought we could get away with it." Since the orange cat with the attitude waddled on the comic page on June 19, 1978, his popularity has spread.

Garfield holds the Guinness World Record as the most widely syndicated comic strip, with 230 million daily readers. More than 135 million copies of Garfield books-translated into 27 languages-have been sold around the world. The cat also is featured on products from cups to key chains, and bedspreads to leather jackets. The entire Garfield enterprise is administered from Paws Inc., the comical cat's headquarters near Albany. "Staying in Indiana has been good for my work," Davis says. "I'm happy here and, for me, being happy is very conducive to doing humor. I love the people here, the seasons, the trees, the quiet and lack of traffic. If things get hectic, I can go out and take a walk in the woods." The Paws complex is a state-of-the-art studio and business facility with about 60 artists, writers and licensing agents, many of whom have worked with Davis for decades. The Davis home also is on the site. "I hired my wife, Jill; that's how I met her," Davis says with a grin. "She's been here 27 years, and she's the vice president of licensing.

Actually I work for her, which is a good arrangement, because it frees me up for the creative stuff." Jill and Jim have three children: Ashley, 24, who works in the Paws office; Chris, 22, a local police officer; and James, 29, serving with the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. His parents live nearby and often meet their cartoonist son for lunch in the Paws cafeteria. Even today, Davis honors his farm upbringing. "I get up about 4 in the morning," he says. "That's quiet time for me. I love to watch the sun rise." Commuting about 100 yards to work, Davis tries to imagine what antics his witty kitty will reveal that day. "I watch Garfield. He writes his own stuff, really. I don't write. I edit," he says. "Garfield performs in my head. If I tried to make him do something funny, especially something he didn't want to do, it would look forced." Never in his wildest dreams did Davis expect Garfield would become such a success. "I was just drawing cartoons when I was little to make my mom laugh. She is still my best audience," Davis says.

So what does Mom think of the feisty feline? "Well, he is very ornery," says Betty Davis, 86, giving her son an affectionate nudge in the side. "If Garfield was my son, I'd have to make him behave." How Garfield is Drawn - YouTube How Garfield is Drawn Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jul 27, 2012 The production of the Garfield comic strip is guided by Jim Davis. Category Jim Davis - Biography - IMDb Jim Davis Biography Showing all 35 items Jump to: Overview (2) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trade Mark (1) | Trivia (22) | Personal Quotes (7) Overview (2) James Robert Davis Mini Bio (1) Jim Davis was born on July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, USA as James Robert Davis.

He is a writer and producer, known for Garfield (2004), Garfield 2 (2006) and Garfield and Friends (1988). He has been married to Jill Davis since July 16, 2000. They have two children. He was previously married to Carolyn Lou Altekruse. Spouse (2) ( 16 July 2000 - present) (2 children) Carolyn Lou Altekruse ( 26 July 1969 - ?) (divorced) (1 child) Trade Mark (1) The creator of Garfield the cantankerous, overweight, orange cat that hates Mondays and loves lasagna Trivia (22) Graduated from Fairmount High School in 1962 First Garfield comic strip appeared on 19 June 1978 On the 22 August 1980 strip, Jon and Garfield are sitting on a hill on Jon's parents' farm. Jon says "You're really getting into this farm thing, aren't you, Garfield?" Garfield says "Yup.

Wanna swap dirt jokes?" The original copy of the strip says "Sheep jokes". It was caught after the proofs came out. The correction was sent, but some papers ran the original. The Garfield book it's in (#4) also printed the original. Garfield's weight is 27 pounds. This is revealed in the 21 January 1986 strip, in a series of Ripley's parodies, when it says "A Jon Arbuckle claims to own a cat", which is Garfield, "who can eat 10 times its body weight. To verify this claim, we offered the cat 270 pounds of lasagna". (The strip ended, saying "The cat only ate 219 pounds of lasagna" and Garfield saying "Things went so well in rehearsal!") Both he and James Dean are born in the same town (Marion, Indiana). The inspiration for Garfield was his grandfather, Jame A. Garfield Davis; cynical, cantankerous and lovable. As well as the 25 cats Jim Davis grew up with on his Montana farm. He is in the record books of Ball State University as having accumulated the lowest GPA in the university's history.

The other student who achieved this feat was David Letterman . Also created the cartoon strip "U.S. Acres," based on his childhood and life growing up on a farm in Indiana. His favorite licensed product of the "Garfield" strip is the Garfield telephone. Beat the legendary Charles M. Schulz 's "Peanuts" as the most widely read and financially successful strip in history.

Winner of the Outstanding Young Men of America Award, 1972; National Cartoonists Society, Reuben Award for best humor strip, 1982, 1986, and 1990, Segar Award, 1985, Cartoonist of the Year, 1990; Golden Plate, American Academy of Achievement, 1983; Marketing Hall of Fame award, American Marketing Association (southern California chapter), 1983; Sagamore of the Wabash Award, State of Indiana, 1984; National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ("Emmy") Award for outstanding animated program, 1984, for Garfield on the Town, 1985, for Garfield in the Rough, 1986, for Garfield's Hallowe'en Adventure; named Volunteer of the Year by Indiana Council of Fund Raising Executives, 1985; Forest Conservationist of the Year, Indiana Wildlife Federation, 1990; Hoosier Pride Award, 1990; Arbor Day Award, National Arbor Day Foundation, 1990; Distinguished Alumnus

 Award, American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Honorary doctorates from Ball State University and Purdue University, both 1991. Was a gymnast until he ruptured a spinal disc. Favorite movie is Airplane! (1980) Favorite song is "Shout!" by Lulu He had breathing problems when he was younger. Despite growing up with cats and drawing the comic strip Garfield, Davis owns no cats today. His wife is desperately allergic. Has one younger brother Dave "Doc". Parents are James and Betty Davis. Has one son James with ex-wife Carolyn. Has two children Ashley and Christopher with current wife Jill. His first strip before Garfield was Gnorm Nat. On advice from "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, changed Garfield's walk from one on four feet to two feet. Personal Quotes (7) When I write the comic strip, it's like watching TV in my head. I put Garfield in a situation--on a diet, camping, something--and I watch him and ask myself, 'What would he do? Where would he go? What would the other characters do and say?' I watch Garfield until he does soething funny, back up three frames and cut it off.

[on the 'diet week' Garfield strips] When I go on a diet, Garfield goes on one too. [on the PAWS, Inc. studio dedicated to the craft of Garfield] If we take care of the cat, the cat will take care of us. [on the huge worldwide "Garfield" phenomenon] I get to draw cartoons. That for me is the biggest thrill. I always tell people Garfield is a human in a cat suit. [on whether he owned a cat like Garfield] Lord no, I don't make THAT much money. [on why people can identify with Garfield] Garfield is the one who makes you feel better about polishing off the leftover pizza at 3 in the morning.

See also 1000+ images about Jim Davis on Pinterest | Garfield cartoon, Garfield comics and Jim davis Garfield Comic Strip from 3/18/09 Oh my gosh, Garfield <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 See More Famous Cartoonists – List Of Famous Cartoonists Search Famous Cartoonists “98% of the people who get the magazine say they read the cartoons first - and the other 2% are lying.” Cartoons very rarely fail to put a smile across a face. This doubles the job satisfaction experienced by the cartoonists adding their magical touch to every prevailing form of media. Television or print media, cartoons aid in dramatically increasing viewership and readership. Cartoonists that have mastered the art of producing Anime, Manga, Editorial cartoons or 3D can make a tremendous impact on the mass audiences, as long as they infuse talent with soul. This is the formula employed by the famous cartoonists that have changed the lives of millions of cartoon fans. Imagine a world without Homer Simpson or Disney! Laughter would probably be extinct under such horrifying circumstances.

A few elegant strokes of many a cartoonist’s hands coupled with a dazzling imagination has opened a brand new dimension to cinema, television and life in general. Amazing isn’t it? Let’s walk through the profiles of a few famous cartoonists. List Of Famous Cartoonists Berkeley Breathed A budding American cartoonist, Breathed created beautiful comic strips like "Bloom County" and "Outland," wherein he skilfully blended slapstick humor with social commentary. How can anybody skip the brilliance of "Bloom County" and the adorable animated penguin named “Opus”? In 1987, he bagged the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning. Born in Encino, California, he pursued journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Jim Davis Jim Davis was raised in a farm with his parents, his brother and 25 cats. Due to his severe asthma, he spent a lot of time in bed and hence concentrated more on his pencil, paper and imagination! He created pictures and eventually discovered how much funnier the outcome was when accompanied with words. In 1969, he joined "Tumbleweeds" creator Tom Ryan as his cartoon assistant. His very first comic strip was based on a character named Gnorm Gnat.

One fine day, he realized that in the world of animation, more attention was given to dogs and less to cats. On commemorating the existence of the 25 farm cats he grew up with, he conjured the fictional character Garfield, a fat, lazy, lasagna-loving, cynical cat. His faithful fans have grown into millions, and the tubby tabby now appears in more than 2600 newspapers worldwide! For Davis, life with Garfield is very simple: "If we take care of the cat, the cat will take care of us". Matt Groening The mastermind behind the eternal masterpiece that is ‘The Simpsons’ was born in Portland, Oregon, Groening in 1954 . He moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where he recorded his reactions to the city hilariously portrayed in the popular comic strip - "Life in Hell."The Simpsons” is one of the most loved animated family shows on TV that has been successfully running since 1990. Every TV show comes with an expiry date, but TV buffs have their fingers crossed in the hopes that “The Simpsons” will live on.

Bill Watterson A kid who hasn’t stolen a few notorious ploys from “Calvin and Hobbes” has definitely missed out on something. Bill Watterson's outrageous comic strip, "Calvin and Hobbes," revolves around the escapades of a six-year-old brat Calvin and his imaginary tiger friend Hobbes. The strip, first syndicated in 1985, was carried in more than 2,400 newspapers when it ceased publication January 1, 1996. More than 23 million "Calvin and Hobbes" books are in print! In 1986, Bill became the youngest person to win the prestigious Reuben Award for "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year" from the “National Cartoonists Society” and won the award again in 1988! Gary Larson Famous for his offbeat humour, Larson was born in Tacoma, Washington and is proud to have been an avid reader of comics’ right from childhood. His amazing work was first exhibited in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper back in 1979. His syndication contract for a regular cartoon feature called "The Far Side" kick-started soon after.

He played jazz guitar and banjo in local nightclubs and then worked in a music store for several years before focussing on his drawing career. Bill Amend Born in 1962 in Northampton, Mass, Bill’s passion for drawing cartoons was ignited when he joined junior high school at the age of 12 in San Francisco. He began to contribute cartoons to various school publications. Bill majored in physics at Amherst College. His physics background inspired him to write those occasional math-oriented strips which barely three people in the universe think are funny. He worked as an assistant animator and in the movie production but decided to fly solo and to send comic strip submissions to the syndicates every now and then. Finally, "FoxTrot" caught the attention of the editors at ‘Universal Press Syndicate’ and made a grand debut on April 10, 1988, now appearing in over 1,000 newspapers worldwide. Walt Disney Walt Disney was born on 5th December, 1901 in Chicago. His career gained momentum from the time he started sketching horses, cows & bags of feed for farm equipment catalogs.

Later he excelled in the art of animation from the Kansas City Film Ad Co., and moved to Hollywood, California to setup his own studio. Walt Disney became worldwide famous for the Mickey Mouse character which he created in 1928. He is a proud owner of 26 Oscar awards 7 Emmys. RK Laxman RK Laxman is widely recognized as India's greatest-ever cartoonist. He is best known for his creation “The Common Man”. As a child, he was obsessed with magazines such as ‘Strand Magazine’, ‘Punch, Bystander’ and ‘Tit-Bits’, before he could even read! By drawing caricatures of his school teachers on benches, he discovered his passion for drawing. Laxman was the captain of his local "Rough and Tough and Jolly" cricket team and his antics inspired the stories "Dodu the money maker" and "The Regal Cricket Club" written by his famous brother, Narayan. When he was still at the Maharaja's College of Mysore, he had started illustrating the stories of R K Narayan's stories in ‘The Hindu’. He also drew political and satirical cartoons for the local newspapers and for the ‘Swatantra’.

Laxman later joined The Times of India, beginning a career that has spanned for over fifty years. How to Cite Jim Davis Jim Davis Nationality: United States Executive summary: Garfield Jim Davis is the cartoonist behind the Garfield marketing phenomenon. He created the "Garfield" comic strip, featuring Garfield the lazy cat, Odie the dog, and Jon their owner. The strip appears daily in thousands of newspapers. Davis grew up on a farm, and says his childhood asthma kept him inside a lot, so to amuse himself he doodled. As a young man, he worked in advertising for two years, then took a job as an assistant to "Tumbleweeds" creator Tom K. Ryan, where he learned the comic strip business. Davis drew his own strip for several years, called "Gnorm Gnat". When that strip was cancelled, Davis drew a giant foot crushing Gnorm. Davis says he studied other successful comic strips, and noticed that they featured lots of dogs, but few cats. That niche was his inspiration for "Garfield", which began its run on 19 June 1978.

In 1981, Davis founded Paws Incorporated, a licensing company dedicated to maintaining "the quality of the Garfield character that now appears on thousands of products sold all over the world". At Paws Inc., about 20 artists, along with dozens of animators, audio-video producers and support staff all work under Davis, designing endless Garfield products -- coffee mugs, lunchpails, t-shirts, "collectable" plates, backpacks, video games, bed linen, ad nauseam. Davis says he personally inspects the prototype for each licensed product, no matter how small, even key chains and fridge magnets. In the late 1980s, Garfields with suction-cup feet were omnipresent across America, usually stuck to car windows. Davis says "tens of millions" were sold. In 1998, Davis was inducted into the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association Hall of Fame. Garfield merchandise is sold in 69 nations. While drawing "Garfield", Davis was also the creative force behind the comic strip "U.S. Acres", and he drew "Mr. Potatohead" when Hasbro offered him comic strip rights to the familiar children's toy.

Both strips were syndicated to hundreds of newspapers, but without adequate marketing of collectibles, both faded away. Garfield and Friends, a Saturday morning cartoon, ran on CBS from 1988-94. Garfield has also appeared in several prime time TV "specials", including such classics as Here Comes Garfield, Garfield on the Town, A Garfield Christmas, and Garfield Gets a Life. In 2004 and again in 2006, Bill Murray provided Garfield's voice for movies that featured a computer-generated Garfield, and Jennifer Love Hewitt . Father: James Davis (farmer) Mother: Anna Betty Carter Davis Brother: David "Doc" Davis Son: James Alexander Davis (b. 3-Jun-1979) High School: Fairmount High School, Fairmount, IN (1963) Jim Davis | Garfield Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Betty Davis (Mother) James Robert "Jim" Davis (born July 28, 1945) is the creator of Garfield . As a cartoonist, he has also worked on Tumbleweeds (as an assistant to Tom Ryan), Gnorm Gnat , U.S.

Acres (Orson's Farm outside the United States), and a strip about Mr. Potato Head. He is the writer of all the CBS television specials and the direct-to-video movies, as well as a producer/executive producer for Garfield and Friends , the DTV movies, and The Garfield Show . He will be an executive producer for an upcoming film . Contents [ show ] Biography Jim Davis was born in Marion, Indiana on July 28th, 1945, and grew up on a small farm in Fairmount, Indiana with his father James William Davis, mother Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis, brother Dave, and twenty-five cats. Growing up, Davis recalled that after finishing his chores he would spend much of free time drawing; however he admitted his childhood drawings were of such poor quality that if he drew a cow he would have to label his drawing "cow", or else he would later fail to recognize his own work. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of his cartoon character Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle , who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birth-day on July 28th.

Davis attended Ball State University. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity. Ironically, considering his fame as a cartoonist who draws a cat, his first wife Carolyn (Altekruse) was allergic to cats although they owned a dog named Molly. They have a son, James Alexander Davis. On July 16, 2000, Davis married his current wife Jill. They have three children: James, Ashley, and Christopher. Davis as of 2007 resides in Albany, Indiana, where he and his staff produce Garfield under his company, Paws, Inc. , begun in 1981. Paws, Inc. employs nearly fifty artists and licensing administrators, who work with agents around the world managing Garfield's vast licensing, syndication, and entertainment empire. Davis is a former President of the Fairfax, Indiana FFA chapter. Career Prior to creating Garfield, Davis worked for a local advertising agency and in 1969 began assisting Tom Ryan's comic strip, Tumbleweeds . He then created a comic strip, Gnorm Gnat , that ran for five years in The Pendleton Times, an Indiana newspaper.

Davis tried to sell it to a national comic strip syndicate, but an editor told him, "Your art is good, your gags are great, but bugs — nobody can relate to bugs!" In the final strip, Davis killed off all the characters by having them get stepped on by a giant foot. On June 19, 1978, Garfield started syndication in forty-one news-papers. Things were going well until the Chicago Sun-Times canceled the strip, prompting an outcry from 1,300 readers. Garfield was reinstated and the strip quickly became the fastest selling comic strip in the world. Today it is syndicated in 2400 news-papers and is read by approximately 200,000,000 readers each day. In the 1988-1994 cartoon series Garfield and Friends , one episode ("Mystic Manor") has a scene where Garfield slid down a fireman's pole in a haunted house, and Davis has a brief cameo as himself drawing a cartoon.

In the intro to one of the Garfield treasuries, there was a mock headline saying "Jim Davis Exposed as Fraud" showing Garfield at the drawing table creating a cartoonized Jim Davis, in which the fake headline reads that Davis is under investigation for plagiarism, as "Garfield himself draws his own strip!" The page shows Garfield drawing Jim Davis who looks like a bald Jon Arbuckle with a pony-tail. It is implied that Arbuckle is a drawing of a young Davis himself. In the 1980s, Davis also made the barn-yard slap-stick comic strip U.S. Acres , featuring Orson the Pig. Outside the U.S., the strip was known as Orson's Farm. Davis also made a 2000-2003 strip based on the toy Mr. Potato Head with Brett Koth. The idea was to do a strip from Davis' native farmland roots. In 1999, Davis authorized Garfield and Odie to be used by Boys Life magazine and the Cub Scouts in order to promote recruiting, where Odie and Garfield are seen wearing Cub Scout uniforms near a campfire or doing other outdoor related activities.

In 2005, Davis appeared in the music video Lazy Muncie, a parody of the Saturday Night Live video "Lazy Sunday". Most recently, Jim Davis founded The Professor Garfield Foundation, to support children’s literacy. Writer Wrote the libretto to Love on a Leash . Quotes “I needed a name and thought of my grandfather James A. Garfield Davis, a big, cantankerous, cynical man. The name seemed to fit the personality and shape of the character.” “The name Odie is really an inside joke. I wrote a commercial for a local car dealership featuring Odie, the village idiot. I liked the name, so I used it again.” “The name Jon Arbuckle came from an old coffee commercial I remember hearing. I’d also used the name as an ‘expert source’ to add ‘credibility’ to my speeches. When I created the comic strip, the name just seemed to fit the kind of poor sap who would get stuck with a cranky cat like Garfield.” “Doc Boy was named after my own brother, Dave ‘Doc’ Davis.

Doc isn't nearly as goofy as his cartoon namesake; he's goofier.” “I actually did have a waitress show me that she hadn’t shaved her legs. You can’t make up this stuff!” Famous Cartoons and Cartoonists Famous Cartoons and Cartoonists This page is dedicated to famous Cartoons and Cartoonists. It will list the famous Cartoonists and their Cartoons in alphabetical order. Berkeley Breathed Gary Larson Matt Groening Breathed, Berkeley (1957- ), American cartoonist, creator of the comic strips "Bloom County" and "Outland," which combine silly humor with social commentary. He won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1987. Breathed was born in Encino, California, and studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. "Bloom County" features a penguin named Opus and a variety of human characters. In 1989 Breathed replaced "Bloom County" with "Outland." Larson, Gary (1950- ), American syndicated cartoonist, known for his offbeat humor. Born in Tacoma, Washington, Larson was an avid reader of comics as a child.

After graduating from Washington State University in 1972, he played jazz guitar and banjo in local nightclubs and then worked in a music store for several years before concentrating on drawing. In 1979 he showed his work to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. This soon led to a syndication contract for a regular cartoon feature called "The Far Side." Internationally popular, Larson's cartoons have been published in more than 17languages. Although he retired in 1995, his previously published cartoons continued to be syndicated. Groening, Matt (1954- ), American cartoonist, creator of the comic strip "Life in Hell" and the cartoon family the Simpsons. Born in Portland, Oregon, Groening moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where he recorded his reactions to the city and to life in the comic strip "Life in Hell." In 1981 the comic went into syndication, after which several collections of his cartoon strips were published. In 1987 Groening created the Simpsons, a cartoon family featuring an outspoken son, Bart, to appear as part of a comedy show. The separate television show entitled "The Simpsons" premiered in 1990.

Jim Davis Bill Watterson Bill Amend Jim Davis was born July 28, 1945, in Marion, Ind., and was promptly dropped on his head, explaining his lifelong desire to become a cartoonist. Jim Davis grew up on a small farm with his parents, his brother and 25 cats. As an asthmatic child, Jim spent a lot of time in bed and with little more than his pencil, paper and imagination, he created pictures, which he soon discovered were more fun when accompanied by words. After college, Davis did a two-year stint with a local advertising agency. In 1969, he joined "Tumbleweeds" creator Tom Ryan as his cartoon assistant. Then he created a comic strip about a character named Gnorm Gnat. The strip ran in one Indiana newspaper, but when Davis tried to sell it to a national comic strip syndicate he was told, "It's funny. But bugs? Who can relate to a bug?" Davis noticed that there were numerous comic strips about dogs, but few about cats -- even though the world is full of cat lovers.

He combined that knowledge with his own memories of the 25 farm cats he grew up with, and Garfield, a fat, lazy, lasagna-loving, cynical cat became his formula for success. "Garfield" began syndication with only 41 papers on June 19, 1978. But his faithful following has grown into millions, and the tubby tabby now appears in more than 2600 newspapers worldwide. For Davis, life with Garfield is very simple: "If we take care of the cat, the cat will take care of us." And, by nurturing and keeping fresh every aspect of Garfield's design, attitude and entertainment quality, Davis has created not only the fastest-growing comic strip in the world, but also dozens of best-selling books that have been translated into 26 languages, a CBS television series and 13 prime-time specials, and a plethora of Garfield merchandise sold in 69 countries. Needless to say, Davis has devoted his life to taking care of the cat. In 1981 and 1986, the National Cartoonists Society named Davis Best Humor Strip Cartoonist of the Year.

In 1985, the NCS gave him the Elzie Segar award for outstanding contributions made in the cartoon industry, and in 1990, the NCS bestowed upon Davis the prestigious Reuben award for outstanding strip of the year. Davis' time and energy have not been devoted exclusively to cartooning and Garfield. He is also an active environmentalist. In 1990, the National Arbor Day Foundation awarded him the Good Steward award for his efforts in reforestation in his native state of Indiana. Davis is also involved with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a campaign promoting the restoration of wetlands, as well as The National Wildlife Federation's "Build a Schoolyard Habitat" campaign. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities awarded Davis the Distinguished Alumnus award for 1985 for his promotion of higher education. In 1991, both Ball State University and Purdue University awarded Jim honorary doctorate degrees. When Davis isn't at the drawing board, his hobbies include golf, fishing, chess, sandwiches, good friends, and spending time with his son, James.

Bill Watterson's comic strip, "Calvin and Hobbes," is the engaging chronicle of a six-year-old's psyche. The strip, first syndicated in 1985, was carried in more than 2,400 newspapers when it ceased publication January 1, 1996. "Calvin and Hobbes" clearly has gained worldwide appeal: More than 23 million "Calvin and Hobbes" books are in print, and each of the 14 book collections has been a million-seller within the first year of publication. The most recent collection, "The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book," was published in the fall of 1995 by Andrews McMeel and rose to number one on the New York Times best-seller list. It remained on best-seller lists across the country for weeks after publication. In 1986, Bill became the youngest person to win the prestigious Reuben Award for "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year" from the National Cartoonists Society. He won the award again in 1988, and also was nominated for the honor in 1992.

In a letter to newspaper editors announcing his retirement, Watterson stated: "This is not a recent or easy decision, and I leave with some sadness. My interests have shifted, however, and I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises. I have not yet decided on future projects, but my relationship with Universal Press Syndicate will continue." Bill Amend (rhymes with "Raymond") was born in 1962 in Northampton, Mass. Bill's early childhood was spent principally in and around New England, with an especially memorable three years in Newton, Mass. This was when Bill first started drawing cartoons and spent every penny of his allowance on comic books and Mad magazines. These were his "Jason Fox" years, and he thinks back to them often in the course of writing his strip. At age 12, his family moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where Bill attended junior high and high school. It was during this time that he began to contribute cartoons to various school publications, not always to great fanfare.

His high-school paper wouldn't run one cartoon of his, for example, which featured as its punch line a puppy being thrown into a pit of hungry lions. The school counselor took a special interest in young Bill from this point onward. In addition to cartooning, Bill played tuba in the school band, made weird little super-8 movies (culminating in the epic 45-minute "Trek Wars," which boasted scenes so chock-full of homemade explosives that Bill really should have been arrested or killed) and, for a brief time, was president of the school math club until he was impeached. He was also an Eagle Scout and was active in his church, especially after the aforementioned brushes with explosive death. Bill attended Amherst College, where he majored in physics. This is, as you might imagine, not the traditional course of study pursued by cartoonists, but it has allowed Bill to write those occasional math-oriented strips that maybe three people in the universe think are funny. In fact, he has a side-splittingly clever Schrodinger-equation joke lined up for this year's Mother's Day.

While at Amherst, Bill drew editorial cartoons for the twice-weekly paper, co-published his own newspaper his junior and senior years, drank a lot of beer and began to think about pursuing a career in cartooning. Whether the beer played any role in these thoughts is unclear. So, when senior year came and all of his classmates were stressed out preparing resumes and grad-school applications, Bill spent his days merrily doodling away. Despite his plans to the contrary, however, the merriment didn't last long. Bill's early comic strip attempts were cruelly greeted by rejection letters from syndicates, and he spent the first couple years after college living with his parents and with no clear job prospects. It was very pathetic. He worked briefly as an assistant animator for a small company until he made the mistake of erasing and re-drawing a lead animator's work. Then he worked for a time at a movie production facility in San Francisco until he met a visiting Leonard Nimoy and figured the job could only go downhill from there. He continued to send comic strip submissions to the syndicates every now and then and eventually, after about four incarnations, "FoxTrot" caught the attention of the editors at Universal Press Syndicate.

"FoxTrot" debuted April 10, 1988, and now appears in more than 1,000 newspapers worldwide. Bill lives in the midwest with his wife and two children.

Question: What is the name of the famous cartoon strip drawn by Jim Davis?
Answer: Garfield