Garfield, A Happy Cat

Jim Davis is the creator of Garfield. Davis grew up in a farm. His mother loved cats, she had 25. So it's not strange that Davis knows so well the behavior of these little felines. As Jim Davis was asthmatic, he spent long periods of time in bed. And during his convalescence he used to draw. In the beginning he didn't do it too well, but with time he improved. He noticed that his drawing were more fun, and added text to them. This way, he started his passion as a comic drawer. In College, he met his wife Carolyn. He worked for 2 years in an advertisement agency. He also was assistant of Tom Ryan (Tumbleweeds). But he wanted to make his own comic strip, and created "Gnorm Gnat". It was a comic strip about insects. After 5 years of failure, one day Jim Davis, in desperation, took some newspapers. Looking at the comic strips, he realized that most of the main characters were dogs: Snoopy, Marmaduke, Fred Basset... No cats at all. So he started to draw cats, since he got the plump orange cat that we know: Garfield. To create Garfield he was inspired in his grandfather's personality: James Garfield Davis, who had a very acid humor, and a cheeky smile always in his face. Nowadays garfield has 220 million reader, and is published in more than 2500 newspapers in the whole world. This is because Garfield has captivated everyone. He is egoist, greedy, tender, and absolutely lovely. Amongst the protagonists of Garfield there is: Jon, his owner, shy and a bit clumsy; Odie, the silly dog, victim of Garfield's jokes; and Pooky the teddy bear, that Garfield found in one of Jon's drawers, and he liked it so much that he decided to keep it. These days, Garfield is protagonist of merchandising, TV programs, movies, newspapers... he even has an official website. With Garfield, Jim Davis won several Emmy Awards. Jim Davis is not only a sucessful man, he is also a great activist of ecologism. He won a Good Steward Award for his efforts for reforestation. The success of Garfield resides in that Davis reflects as no one did the personality of cats. Those of us who have cats smile, because you may like cats or not, but they are lovely creatures. Although sometimes they make you want to... Loving, fun, wit, prideful, and always looking at you with superiority, like saying "Hey you, ya must know ya'r in this world to please me!!!". -Emma Alvarez- © 2008 by Emma Alvarez. Link to this post without copying the text. Some Related Posts: If you liked this post, subscribe to Emma Alvarez Site or give yourself a gift Stumble it! Add me to your del.icio.us network