Jim Davis
Jim Davis is best known for being the creator of the comic strip Garfield. Davis grew up on a farm, which, like most, had a number of stray cats. Davis didn't go straight into drawing cats though. He attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. There he majored in art and business, and after his graduation he spent two years working for an advertising agency before assisting Tumbleweeds creator, Tom Ryan. With Tumbleweeds Davis learned how to be a full-time cartoonist and eventually launched his own strip, Gnorm Gnat. Gnorm wasn't particular popular though, and after five years in an Indiana newspaper Davis squashed Gnorm with a giant foot which crashed down from the sky and ended Gnorm's comic career. Davis wasn't finished though. He knew he wanted to keep drawing comics, though he began to realize that a gnat wasn't the most personable of main characters.
When Jim Davis looked over the standard crop of Sunday comics, he realized that there were a number of great strips about dogs. Peanuts was still going strong with Snoopy as perhaps its most recognizable character, and Marmaduke was still getting into trouble. Despite all of the goofy dogs in the comics, Davis couldn't find any strips about cats. So Garfield was created, the well known, lazy, lasagna-loving, Odie-tormenting kitty cat familiar to us all. The inspiration for Garfield came from all of the cats of Davis' childhood all rolled into one, which perhaps doesn't say much for cats on the whole. The name came from Jim's grandfather, James Garfield Davis.
Garfield was launched in 1978 in 41 U.S. newspapers. The fat cat's fame snowballed, and Garfield is now the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world, reaching over 263 million readers. Davis' paperback collections have also sold well; when the first collection was published it reached the bestseller list and stayed there for 100 weeks. Accolades include four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program, induction to the Licensing Hall of Fame, awards from the National Cartoonist Society including Best Humor Strip, the Elzie Segar Award, and the Reuben Award.
Jim Davis has aggressively marketed Garfield, and the orange cat's likeness has appeared on coffee cups, sweatshirts, license plate covers, and almost anything else his face could fit on. Though some cartoonists have attacked Davis for selling Garfield out, the lasagna-loving feline has nonetheless become one of the most visible multimedia figures in comic history.
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