The Secret to Appreciating <em>Garfield</em>
For well over 40 years, a fat orange cat has been a linchpin of American culture. It’s time to accept that.
It’s late August, and I am cracking up as I read . Panel one: Garfield, lying belly-down in his cat bed and wrapped up in a blanket, wears a bored expression as he thinks, . Panel two: Garfield, in the same position but now smiling to himself, thinks, Panel three: Garfield has fallen back asleep, a tell-tale suspended above his head. My appreciation for the comic partly stems from the elegance of the cartooning, the way creator Jim Davis and manage to convey three distinct cat moods (apathy, private joy, sleepiness) in just a few ink strokes. It also has to do with the way I can immediately connect Garfield’s face to that of my wife’s
