(#34) / The Ninth Garfield Treasury / by Jim Davis / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

The Ninth Garfield Treasury / by Jim Davis

ISBN-13: 978-0345416704 / Ballantine Books

p. 120 / $11.21 (Amazon)

1997

Body of Content

Summary: The book is a compilation work – of Jim Davis’ famous comic strip.  With the beloved feline at the helm, The Ninth Garfield Treasury follows the cat adventures of the title character and his master, Jon Arbuckle.  The duo is joined by Arbuckle’s pet dog, Odie.  The book is presented in full color – with six frames generated for each individual comic strip.  The book continues some of Garfield’s center themes – the cat’s love of food, naps, and insolence – Odie’s blind allegiance and non-speaking roles – and Jon’s attempt at finding romance.  Other standard themes emerge – like Garfield’s displeasure against spiders – and odd interactions with neighborhood dogs. Overall, the book offers the signature style of Davis – quick, narrative humor with minimal dialogue spoken between characters.        

Critique: I wrote comic strips for school newspapers in college and graduate school – and I can speak from experience that the craft of writing plausible dialogue is difficult – mostly due to the space limitations – for space is, indeed, limited.  In the cartoon strip business, rarely do readers see a frame within the comic where the dialogue exceeds 20 words.  Now, I have seen some horrible comic strips – particular some local entries – where the writer basically performed a data-dump of information.  When a readers starts to see 30-40 words in a frame – the reader can decipher the cartoonist for a novice – or the benefactor of nepotism.

What sets Davis apart from both novice and professional cartoonists is his narrative simplicity.  Davis can deliver a punch line with just a handful of words. Now, part of his scheme is geared towards placing his characters in moving actions – from one room of the house to another – and in this way, Garfield has an action-feel to it – with some levity supplied by physical comedy.

But the hallmark of Garfield is his simple prose – and quick exchanges between Garfield and Jon Arbuckle. Consider the following exchange:

            Garfield: “Sigh …” [Garfield stares out a window]

            Jon: “Pretty dull, huh?” [Jon joins him]

            Garfield: “I’m gonna try another window.”

Jon: “Any better?”

Garfield: [Looking at the same scene, of a circus walking down the street] “… Not really.”

                                                                                                                          (1997, p. 73)

Or consider a similar methodology in another entry:

            Jon: “Garfield!”

            Jon: “Dinner!”

            Garfield [Scooting lazily towards Jon]

            Garfield [Opens mouth – points for Jon to pour it in, while still reclining]

            Jon: “You are incredible.”

            Garfield: “First food, then compliments.”                                                   (1997, p. 103)

Davis has an artistic knack for sparse dialogue that still communicates a comedic delivery.  Such an approach is subtle in wordplay with a higher difficulty for pulling off effectively.  While other comics feature reasonable amounts of dialogue – often contained in sentence-long elaborations – Davis finds a way to say the same amount of verbiage is fewer words. Again, as a novice cartoonist myself, I marvel at Garfield – at the craft of saying more by saying less.     

Teaser:  This compilation work follows the humorous interactions between Garfield, Odie, and their owner, Jon Arbuckle.

Information about the Author: Davis was born in Marion, Indiana – living on a farm – where his parents also raised Angus cows.  As an adult, Davis studied at Ball State University – pursuing courses in art and business.  He broke into the comic business by working with Tom Ryan, who penned the Tumbleweeds strip.  Davis would seek to launch out on his own – and he noticed an absence of cat-themed comics, though many comics revolved around dogs. Garfield hit a handful of newspapers in 1978 – and grew throughout the 1980s.  Currently, the cartoon strip is syndicated in over 2,600 newspapers – making it the most widely distributed comic (Paws, 2011).

Supplemental Material

Genre: Humor / Compilation

Curriculum Ties:  Art Class – drawing techniques, dialogue, writing jokes 

Booktalking Ideas: 1) How has Jim Davis found the hearts of America readers? 2) How does Garfield as a character compare to other adaptions of felines within comic strips?

Reading Level: Garfield is for younger teens – 13-16 mostly.  Adults may side with Jon Arbuckle – but teens register with the lead character – who embodies the stereotypical “teen laziness” in cat form. 

Challenge Issues and Defense: There really is not much objectionable material in Garfield.   

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: This is one of the few newspaper comics that I read daily while in high school.    

Last Thoughts

References:

Paws, Inc. (2011). Garfield: Behind the comic [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://www.garfield.com/about/jim.html

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Soundgarden / Album – “Down on the Upside”