It seems Jim Davis is divesting himself of everything Garfield except for the comic strip.
Earlier this year Jim donated the Paws, Inc. headquarters to the Ball State University Foundation. Earlier this month he sold off the Paws, Inc. enterprise to Viacom. Now Jim has contracted with Heritage Auctions to auction off his 40 year collection of Garfield original art.
The personal archive of cartoonist Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, will be offered across a series of sales at Heritage Auctions.
Davis’ collection includes more than 10,000 pieces of original artwork, with both daily and Sunday Garfield strips spanning 40 years.
The strips will be sold over the next few years through Heritage’s Signature, monthly and weekly Comics Art Auctions, with the entire collection valued at upwards of $5 million.
Today Davis’ strip appears in more than 2,400 papers, generates close to $1 billion in merchandising each year, and has spawned dozens of books, video games, TV specials and live action films.
There is one Garfield strip up for auction now, with a couple more pieces of original art coming up September 1. More items will be added to other lots over the course of the next few years.
From Fine Books & Collections:
In November 2011, the iconic strip switched to digital production, so the ink on Bristol board Garfield originals offered by Heritage represent all that will ever be created.
More than 10,000 pieces of original art for Jim Davis’ iconic Garfield comic strip, with daily strips valued upwards of $500 each, and Sunday strips considerably more, will be offered exclusively through Heritage Auctions over the coming years in a series of comics, animation and art auctions.
The collection features individual daily and Sunday strips by Jim Davis, the artist behind the most widely syndicated feature in the world, which reaches two million readers daily. Davis created the strip in 1978.
“I’m very excited about my exclusive relationship with Heritage Auctions,” Davis said. “I’ve always taken my responsibility to the strip seriously (go figure), so it’s gratifying to know that I’m reaching the ‘serious’ comic collectors with the help of the fine folks at Heritage.”
It seems Jim is going back to the beginning, giving up being a megamogul
and returning to the simple life as a cartoonist, his first love.
Make no mistake Jim will continue to work on the Garfield comic strip.
That’s amazing!