Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection: 20 Years and Still Kicking

Garfield seems an unlikely icon. Although a cat, he doesn’t behave like one. Doesn’t move like one. Doesn’t even look like one, really—how many felines lack whiskers, pack a pair of bulbous eyes, and sport short, stubby frontal paws?

Garfield is also a creation of irony. His creator, Jim Davis, didn’t even own a cat at the comic’s inception. And though he based the strip on a “cat” due to the animal’s lack of representation in the comic space, another quirky orange tabby—Heathcliff—had already premiered in 1973…a full five years earlier. What’s more, the original Garfield comic wasn’t even primarily about the cat, but about his owner Jon; actually titled “Jon,” this early 1976 version featured Garfield’s owner as the lead. (A fact Jim Davis would inexplicably keep secret for the next forty years.) Considering that the Garfield property was engineered to be as relatable and open as possible, this controversy over his true origin is just a touch counterintuitive.

Yet, despite his appearance and shaky beginnings, Garfield became a superstar phenomenon almost immediately. Within a decade, his likeness would be everywhere. Garfield suction-cup plushies would be grinning in countless car windows, his beaming face would cover birthday cards and wrapping paper and stationary, kids would carry him to school as lunchboxes and backpacks, and he’d litter TV with a bevy of cartoon holiday specials and a syndicated show. Garfield had become more than a mere hand-drawn cat or, really, a surreal anthropomorphic dwarf. He’d become a commercial and merchandising god.

To celebrate his character’s sensational success, Davis released a 20th Anniversary book in 1998. Coined 20 Years and Still Kicking! Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection, the title is a Garfield-sized mouthful. But any ungainliness its name implies is negated with a quick glimpse inside—turns out, this is an inspired celebration of the fat cat writ large, offering a slick and exuberant showcase of the comic cat and cast’s sometimes startling twenty-year evolution. Naturally, Davis’ provides his own background for both himself and his creation, but the true value of the book comes from its curated collection of the feline’s greatest strips, funniest punchlines, and quirky one-offs too clever to be forgotten. Sadly, without the permission of Davis or parent owner Paramount, only a few examples of these quirky works can be shown here without abusing the Fair Use Doctrine's blessing. But hopefully, that’s still enough to illustrate the genius of Davis and his team when performing at their very best.

In addition to simply reprinting the strips with some commentary, the book comes slathered with a host of other extras, including excerpts from many of the yearly Garfield treasuries, every birthday strip up until 1998, and a hand-picked selection of the strip’s best logo boxes. The book’s final pages even depict Davis’ “Top 20” favorite strips (one is shown above) with some added thoughts. These stylized insights and meta-meditations breathe through the book’s 192 pages, and all with the typical “Garfield” bravado and pizzazz. In short, the presentation is incredible and true to form.

A "birthday" timeline is even provided throughout, sharing historical trivia of each of Garfield's years.

If the book has a failing, it’s the strip-only focus. Fans of the Garfield and Friends cartoon show, the video games, and other Garfield media and merchandise won’t find much acknowledgement of them here. And thanks to the advent of YouTube and one dedicated, intrepid fan (plus an observant librarian), readers now know that the story of Garfield’s origin as related here is incomplete. Before “Garfield,” there was the strip known as “Jon,” a fact Davis seemed content to bury (and borderline lie about) until it could no longer be denied. This prototypical work is rightfully seen as an important step in the cat’s creation, but he makes no mention of it here despite even showing a rough image of Garfield taken from one of those early works!

Read in 2023—another twenty-five years later—this twenty-year retrospective seems especially surreal. Davis’ company Paws, Inc. is now owned by Viacom/Nickelodeon, the comic strip is now enjoyed more on the Web than in newspapers, and newer cartoons featuring the feline lack the sharp satirical edge that made the Garfield and Friends show so compelling. And yes, the public now knows about “Jon.” But despite all these changing of hands and platforms, the strip itself has changed curiously little…as if still stuck in 1998. Lyman never returned, Odie still falls off tables, Nermal is still annoying…the greatest change is perhaps with Jon, who has now shed a sliver of his loser veneer to win the fancy of a kinder, gentler Liz, Garfield’s attractive veterinarian. But it general, Garfield as it exists today is almost indistinguishable from his previous decades of escapades.

Does that make him stagnate, or timeless? Fans can debate.

Garfield’s Twentieth Anniversary Collection is quality nostalgia bait made even tastier after another two decades of baking. Enjoyed today, it’s another layer of retrospection heaped atop a retrospective of a commercial property that already felt like it had existed forever. It’s like a time capsule reburied and then unearthed again and again.

What can the cat’s fans expect when he hits the big 5-0? A sensational tribute, no doubt, but one that will leave some wondering whether contemplating a cat engineered to make money and who never really grows or changes…

…is somehow just silly.--D

Lyman's long gone, but Liz's role has only increased in recent years.

Although Davis never admits to creating the strip "Jon" before retooling it as "Garfield," he does show an early version of the cat clearly cribbed from somewhere in that early series.

Garfield changed a lot in his first twenty years. The next 20? Not so much...

Fun fact! Davis' bio mentions his brother "Doc," who's also a character in the comic.

Mike Peters, the mind behind Mother Goose and Grimm, writes an insightful foreword.