Garfield minus Garfield “an inspired thing”
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The now famous “Garfield Minus Garfield” blog is getting mainstream media attention. The blog, by Dan Walsh of Dublin, takes a Garfield comic strip and removes the main character Garfield to allow readers a different view of Jon Arbuckle.
From the site’s description:
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.
The Washington Post has a write-up regarding the site and contacted Garfield creator Jim Davis for a reaction.
One of Walsh’s occasional readers is 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.”
“Some of the strips were slappers: ‘Oh, I could have left that out.’ It would have been funnier,” Davis says.
Walsh may start having trouble finding the lonely, depressed Jon for his comics. Davis recently created a girlfriend for the longtime bachelor.
“How much humor can you get out of someone’s unhappiness?” Davis muses. “Day after day for so many years — it was getting to me, too.”
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