I've always loved cartoons, I grew up watching the Saturday morning specials of Bugs, Looney Toons, George of the Jungle, BatFink, The Pink Panther, Super Friends, Rocket Robin Hood, Spider Man, Rocky & Bullwinkle and many, many, many more. Once the cartoons were over on TV, it was always the Saturday paper with the pull out cartoons section (after Mom & Dad had read it) and I immersed myself into the Wizard of ID, Hagar the Horrible, For Better or for Worse, and the king of the cartoons, Peanuts. After that, I was out to ride my bike, play road hockey, or go throw rocks at girls.
Recently though, I stumbled over something which I found quite fascinating (although that 300,000 other people have seen this already, and has already been the subject of a Washington Post article - so, there goes my argument about me being on the cutting edge of things). It's called GarfieldMinusGarfield.net, and some mad genius somewhere got the bright idea to take those annoying, insipid Garfield cartoons, and erase Garfield completely, leaving his owner Jon Arbuckle to show to us all a very dark, alarming, sad, and (sometimes touching) portrayal of his goofy lovable owner. I quote from the site: "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb."
Yes my friends, it's all true, and weirdly addictive. I've always hated Garfield, as do a lot of comic purists (of which of course I'm not. I only dabbling noodler - albeit daily) but that this unfunny cartoon has been published for 20+ years, and making Jim Davis a shit-load of money, hasn't dampened the disaffection of cartoonists and artists all over the world. He has been decried for selling out his art for the sake of coffee mugs with cute little sayings, stick-on cat-car window puppets, t-shirts, and any other chatzke he could license out to make a quick buck ad nauseum. I know that the great, shining heroic examples of cartooning greats like Berkely Breathed and Bill Watterson especially have made Jim Davis a focal point as to why they don't merchandise, or toe the newspapers company line about shrinking comic space, or such. As a passive comic reader (and I mean VERY passive) I agree with them that this is indeed an art form and selling out for the sake of selling out is well... selling out. (Charles "Sparky" Schulz not withstanding of course, because well, he's like the Beatles).
That being said, One of garfieldminusgarfield's occasional readers is Jim Davis, who heard about the site a few months ago. The cartoonist calls the work “an inspired thing to do” and wishes to thank Walsh for enabling him to see another side of “Garfield.” (Courtesy the Washington Post). That he didn't sue was cool as well. He's still a hack, but a non-litigious hack at least.
Take a look for yourself. It's weird, and it gets quite dark, and weird. And it sort of makes sense sometimes. http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/.
I wish this was the Garfield I had growing up.
Recently though, I stumbled over something which I found quite fascinating (although that 300,000 other people have seen this already, and has already been the subject of a Washington Post article - so, there goes my argument about me being on the cutting edge of things). It's called GarfieldMinusGarfield.net, and some mad genius somewhere got the bright idea to take those annoying, insipid Garfield cartoons, and erase Garfield completely, leaving his owner Jon Arbuckle to show to us all a very dark, alarming, sad, and (sometimes touching) portrayal of his goofy lovable owner. I quote from the site: "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb."
Yes my friends, it's all true, and weirdly addictive. I've always hated Garfield, as do a lot of comic purists (of which of course I'm not. I only dabbling noodler - albeit daily) but that this unfunny cartoon has been published for 20+ years, and making Jim Davis a shit-load of money, hasn't dampened the disaffection of cartoonists and artists all over the world. He has been decried for selling out his art for the sake of coffee mugs with cute little sayings, stick-on cat-car window puppets, t-shirts, and any other chatzke he could license out to make a quick buck ad nauseum. I know that the great, shining heroic examples of cartooning greats like Berkely Breathed and Bill Watterson especially have made Jim Davis a focal point as to why they don't merchandise, or toe the newspapers company line about shrinking comic space, or such. As a passive comic reader (and I mean VERY passive) I agree with them that this is indeed an art form and selling out for the sake of selling out is well... selling out. (Charles "Sparky" Schulz not withstanding of course, because well, he's like the Beatles).
That being said, One of garfieldminusgarfield's occasional readers is Jim Davis, who heard about the site a few months ago. The cartoonist calls the work “an inspired thing to do” and wishes to thank Walsh for enabling him to see another side of “Garfield.” (Courtesy the Washington Post). That he didn't sue was cool as well. He's still a hack, but a non-litigious hack at least.
Take a look for yourself. It's weird, and it gets quite dark, and weird. And it sort of makes sense sometimes. http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/.
I wish this was the Garfield I had growing up.
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