20 Fascinating Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Garfield

Garfield, the beloved, lazy, lasagna-loving feline, first appeared 40 years ago, yet he remains just as adored today. From comic strips to a TV series, video games, films, books, and special holiday editions, this cat has become a pop culture staple—along with one unforgettable car window phenomenon. We spoke with Jim Davis, the mastermind behind Garfield, to gather 20 surprising details you may not know about the sarcastic kitty.

1. JIM DAVIS HAD PLANNED TO CENTER THE STRIP AROUND JON INSTEAD.

“I tested out a few early concepts with a local paper,” Jim Davis recalls to Mytour, “to get a sense of how I felt about it, and I initially named the strip Jon. It was centered on him, but there was this clever cat who would always hit him with a zinger. The punchline was always the cat’s, and I shared it with T.K. Ryan—the cartoonist behind Tumbleweeds—explaining how every time I reached the punchline, the cat stole the show. T.K. looked at me and said, ‘What does that tell you, Jim?’” Davis laughs. “The strip should be about the cat. Go with it.”

2. JON STARTED OFF AS A CARTOONIST IN THE VERY FIRST STRIP, BUT THAT FACT WAS NEVER REALLY MENTIONED AGAIN.

“I didn’t want to get too bogged down with the fact that Jon was a cartoonist,” Davis explains. “My biggest concern was making it too niche, something that would only appeal to me or a few peers. I didn’t want to lose readers over that. Also, I gave him a job right from the start, inspired by how The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet never clarified what Ozzie did for a living. He was just always there with Harriet and Ricky and David, without a clear role. So, I decided to give Jon a job to sidestep that question in interviews.”

3. GARFIELD'S NAME COMES FROM DAVIS’S GRANDFATHER, JAMES A. GARFIELD DAVIS ...

... who was named after President James A. Garfield. Quite the connection, right? Now picture a plump, wisecracking, lasagna-devouring cat as the President of the United States. (Sounds like a perfect fit for William Howard Taft!)

4. GARFIELD TAKES PLACE IN DAVIS’S HOMETOWN OF MUNCIE, INDIANA, THOUGH THIS IS USUALLY LEFT UNSAID.

“I want readers in places like Sydney, Australia, to feel like Garfield could live right next door,” says Davis. “The beauty of Garfield is that he’s all about eating, sleeping, and just being a cat—those are universal experiences. As a cat, he’s not tied to any specific gender, race, nationality, or age, which gives me a lot more freedom to explore different humorous situations.” Davis’s childhood farm reportedly had 25 cats, a few of which inspired the character of Garfield.

5. DAVIS HAS COMPLETE CONTROL OVER GARFIELD'S FINAL PRODUCT, BUT HE NO LONGER DRAWS THE DAILY COMIC STRIP HIMSELF.

“I’m currently working on writing the strip,” he shares. “I come up with the gags and collaborate with assistants to get the rough sketches done. Everything passes through me to maintain a unified voice. We often meet in person to work on drawing details like finger shapes, gestures, and facial expressions, so that no matter who draws it, the style remains consistent.”

6. THERE'S AT LEAST ONE LICENSED GARFIELD PRODUCT THAT DAVIS REGRETS.

As reported by Slate, Garfield merchandise generates anywhere from $750 million to $1 billion annually. Davis’s creation has been licensed and adapted more times than one could possibly track. Among all of those items, however, there's one that Davis wishes hadn’t happened. “A few years ago, there was a Zombie Garfield,” he reveals. “It was really gruesome, and I thought, 'This will be fun.' So, I went ahead with it, and it sold decently. It was an interesting experiment. But then, I took a step back and realized, 'This didn’t really contribute to the character’s evolution.' I did it because it seemed cool at the time, but looking back, I didn’t feel great about it. At least those T-shirts eventually went away,” he laughs.

7. GARFIELD HOLDS THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR THE MOST WIDELY DISTRIBUTED COMIC STRIP GLOBALLY.

Garfield is published in over 2,500 newspapers and journals worldwide. The cat also has more than 16 million followers on Facebook. Talk about a massively popular feline.

8. GARFIELD'S DESIGN HAS EVOLVED SIGNIFICANTLY THROUGHOUT THE YEARS.

One thing has remained the same: Garfield has always been—and will always be—overweight. “If he ever lost weight, it would essentially be the end of Garfield as we know it,” says Davis. “Garfield sends an important message by embracing his imperfections. He’s comfortable with who he is. If everyone could do that, we might see fewer issues related to self-image. He’s not perfect—he represents the imperfection in all of us. That’s probably why he’s easier for people to relate to than a sleek, athletic character in comics.”

9. DAVIS LOVED TO SCARE KIDS WITH GARFIELD'S HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE.

“It was a fun challenge to come up with something truly scary, but luckily we had the power of animation on our side—we could combine eerie sounds, haunting music, and chilling visuals to set the tone,” recalls Davis. “It even came down to the voice acting. C. Lindsay Workman, who voiced the old man warning Garfield and Odie about the ghost pirates, was an exceptional character actor. We really took our time building up to the scene where the ghost pirates invade the house looking for treasure. We wanted to pack as many elements as we could into those moments to ensure we could scare young viewers, even if it was just for a little while.”

10. DESIGNING THE GHOST PIRATES FOR THE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL WAS FAR MORE CHALLENGING THAN YOU'D EXPECT.

“We handled it all in our own art department here at Paws, Inc. because we wanted to get it just right,” the Garfield creator explained. “We used a white, chalky pencil on a rough texture to create a grainy effect. Back then, we were working with real film, so to get that eerie glow, we did something called a double burn. Essentially, we exposed the film twice to overexpose the ghosts, giving them that ghostly glow. We were fully in control of the process, and the results turned out great.”

11. IN 2011, A FULL-LENGTH STAGE MUSICAL CALLED GARFIELD LIVE PREMIERED IN MUNCIE.

The musical was originally set to begin its U.S. tour in September 2010, but it was delayed until January 2011, when it finally debuted in Muncie. Davis wrote the script for Garfield Live, while Michael Dansicker and Bill Meade took care of the music and lyrics.

12. DAVIS WAS THRILLED WITH THE CASTING OF BILL MURRAY AS GARFIELD IN 2004’S GARFIELD: THE MOVIE.

“It was Bill Murray’s attitude that made him the perfect fit,” Davis explains. “It wasn’t so much his voice, but rather the fact that he captured the essence of the attitude that Garfield has always had in the strip. Lorenzo [Music] obviously wasn’t an option since he passed away years ago, and when the producers told me, ‘Bill Murray wants to voice Garfield,’ I thought, ‘That’s great.’ My main concern about doing a CGI Garfield with live action was whether people would accept it as our Garfield—the Garfield we’ve known for all these years. But I knew that as soon as they heard Bill Murray’s voice, they’d get it. His voice would bring that emotional connection and confirm, ‘Yes, this character has the attitude we know and love.’”

13. THERE'S AN INTERESTING CONNECTION BETWEEN GARFIELD'S ORIGINAL VOICE ACTOR LORENZO MUSIC AND BILL MURRAY.

Lorenzo Music voiced Garfield in all of the cat’s TV specials from 1982 to 1991, and during the 1988-1994 run of Garfield and Friends. Music also voiced Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters. Murray, of course, played Venkman in the Ghostbusters films and would later lend his voice to Garfield in 2004’s Garfield: The Movie. “I didn’t realize the Ghostbusters connection until years later,” Davis admits.

14. THE MACY’S PARADE ONCE CLAIMED SHAMU THE WHALE HAD THE LARGEST BALLOON, BUT DAVIS ARGUES GARFIELD WAS EVEN BIGGER.

“In the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, they had announced that Shamu the Whale was their largest balloon ever, with over 18,000 cubic feet of helium,” Davis recalls. “But the fact is, the Garfield balloon was filled with 18,907 cubic feet of helium. So, we can confidently say that the Garfield balloon was, in fact, the largest balloon by volume of gas.”

15. Only three countries in the world don't refer to the famous comic cat as Garfield.

In Sweden, Garfield goes by the name of Gustav, says the creator of the iconic character. He points out that there are only three countries worldwide where the beloved cat isn’t known as Garfield, and all of them are in the Nordic region—Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

16. The ‘Stuck on You’ Garfield plush with suction cups was born from a mix-up.

In the 1990s, it was common to spot Garfield plush toys attached to car windows using suction cups. However, that wasn’t the intended design. According to Davis, the original design featured Velcro on the paws, meant to allow people to attach it to curtains. When the first batch of dolls came back with suction cups instead, he thought it was a mistake. To test it out, he placed one on a window and said, 'If it stays in place for two days, we'll approve it.' Since the suction cups held up, the toy was released as it was. It never occurred to him that people would use them on cars.

17. The Garfield comic strip books have been a massive success.

According to Davis, all 11 of the Garfield comic strip books have topped the New York Times Bestseller List. At one point, seven of them held spots on the list at the same time. This caused a change in the list's methodology due to complaints from other publishers, whose books were being overshadowed by Garfield. Garfield at Large (1980) was number one for an incredible two years, accumulating over 100 weeks at the top. Every compilation title is a playful nod to either food or Garfield's love for food, or his weight.

18. Celebrities like Steven Spielberg and Stephen King are among those who own original Garfield strips.

Both reached out to Davis directly for the iconic strips, and the cartoonist was more than happy to share them.

19. Even though Garfield has been incredibly popular for decades, Davis remains largely unknown to the general public.

As Davis puts it, being a cartoonist comes with a certain level of anonymity. He believes that if you took a handful of the most famous cartoonists and walked them down any street, no one would recognize them. People only recognize their characters, not the creators. He continues to say, 'I just hide behind Garfield.' The only time he’s recognized is during a book tour when publicity is part of the job. Unlike TV or movie stars, cartoonists don't have to deal with overwhelming attention. Living in the quiet countryside of East Central Indiana suits him perfectly.

20. Davis's father had a favorite comic strip that wasn’t Garfield.

Davis's father, who passed away in 2016, was fond of Garfield, but his true favorite was another strip: Beetle Bailey. 'Nobody else knew that until today,' Davis shares.

This article was originally published in 2014.