I didn't know how much of Jim Davis' motivations were commercial ones. It seems very at odds with folks like Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson: > For years, Watterson battled against pressure from publishers to merchandise his work, something that he felt would cheapen his comic. He refused to merchandise his creations on the grounds that displaying Calvin and Hobbes images on commercially sold mugs, stickers,…
I had a bunch of Garfield books as a kid, too. IIRC they were about 9”x6” and mostly black & white. I found them hilarious, I think for a couple reasons: 1. John was such a clueless loser 2. Garfield got so enraged at Nermal 3. Odie kept bouncing back This was not a deep humor. It’s the kind of humor where you see a dumb, funny video on the internet, snort a laugh, and move on, completely forgetting it ten seconds la…
I liked Garfield because it dead-panned things that otherwise would have been funny. Hated the television cartoon version though.