Surreal

[WesDavid]

Garfield Minus Garfield

I owe a lot to Garfield.  Some 25 years ago, Garfield was hip, cutting edge and sharp.  Now, the has regressed into... well... whatever it is now.  G-G is a collection of Garfield strips where Garfield and his dialogue have been edited out.  The results can be far more interesting than the original.



While I'm on the subject of Garfield, I'd like to thank guys like Breathed and Watterson who quit the game when they felt their idea had run its course.  They moved on once they began to get dissatisfied with their product, disillusioned with it or were otherwise done with their idea.

I look at the early days of Garfield and can actually notice the wit behind much of what Davis was doing.  In 5th grade, I wanted to write my "favorite author" report on Jim Davis.  Back then, Garfield was a cynical Generation X spokesman long before Generation X became trendy.  But, for whatever reason, it devolved from being what it was originally into what it is now, vapid and otherwise inspirationless.  From what I understand, Davis doesn't even do the comic himself anymore; what you see as Garfield today is the product of a company or group or something.

It would be one thing if today's Garfield were simply unfunny.  It's worse when today's Garfield is just irrelevant.