Thursday, July 28, 2005

Happy Birthday Jim Davis!



Despite my great affection for Harry Potter and company I believe that two other book series have done more for childhood literacy than the boy wizard. They are Captain Underpants and Garfield the Cat.

My insight on Garfield occured while driving and listening to a backseat conversation on the topic of Garfield. One child began to recount a favorite strip from memory and soon each kid was reciting a Garfield cartoon. The astonishing thing was how many times the punchline was delivered in unison by the whole car. Many of the comments began, "Hey, remember in Garfield 7 when Jon says..." or "Remember when Odie...in Garfield 9?"

Their knowledge of the strips and books was encyclopedic. Their enjoyment was unending.
A spot check of any library shelf will demonstrate the cat's popularity because ALL the Garfield books are checked-out.

Thank you and happy birthday, Jim Davis!

Garfield and Friends Official Site

2 comments:

Michele said...

I was very fond of Garfield as a student in my early 20s, but it's been many years since I read the Fat Cat cartoon strips. I had lots of the books, Garfield t-shirts and once even a pair of summer trousers with Garfield pictures on them - sartorial nightmare ! However the Fat Cat still makes me smile (and I still quote things like "I hate Mondays", "I'm not overweight, I'm undertall", or "Close, but no banana"), so belated birthday greetings to Jim, from me !

Flu-Bird said...

Next time garfield can used a jar and gift wrap it