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Garfield Minus Garfield

(garfieldminusgarfield.net)
775 points mike1o1 | 3 comments | 10 Apr 25 17:21 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jf ◴[10 Apr 25 17:59 UTC] No.43646481[source]▶
Something that I find delightful about this project is that Jim Davis approves of it!

From Wikipedia: "Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, approved of the project, and an official Garfield book (also called Garfield Minus Garfield) was published by his company. It was mainly edited comics by Walsh, with some comics contributed by Davis."

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xivzgrev ◴[10 Apr 25 18:37 UTC] No.43646856[source]▶
Jim created Garfield for money[1]. It's not surprising that he likes anything that can make him more money, he isn't personally tied to the character.

[1] Garfield was originally created by Davis with the intention to come up with a 'good, marketable character' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garfield

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1. forgotoldacc ◴[11 Apr 25 01:49 UTC] No.43649706[source]▶
Is "man works for money" something that should surprise anyone?

Newspaper comic artists aren't working for free. They all want money. That's why they work.

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2. acomjean ◴[11 Apr 25 03:46 UTC] No.43650328[source]▶
It doesn’t really surprise me, but I’m not sure it changes how I feel about it.

My family were huge Garfield fans growing up and had a bunch of the books (one in German). The side characters were fun Odie, Lyman, the overly adorable kitten (Nermal), some relatives that came from a farm or something.

The “worst” thing was at some point it did seem like Davis was cranking them out for the newspaper without some of the care (though it might be I overdosed and became kind of sick of them). The other characters disappeared or became infrequent.

I don’t begrudge him though.

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3. lazide ◴[11 Apr 25 04:42 UTC] No.43650571[source]▶
Garfield always struck me as having exhausted all available novelty almost immediately. Simpsons at least was able to do 5-10 seasons (depending on your taste), but there is only so much one can do with 3 panels and a handful of characters eh?

I think he kept his slot more out of nostalgia and risk adversion from the papers than anything else.