Garfield Comic Strip (1978 – Present)

The Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis first hit newspapers on June 19, 1978 and is still going strong today.

It began in 41 papers and started winning fans right away. In GARFIELD’S TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION, Davis recounts that the Chicago Sun-Times dropped the strip after three months, but over 1,300 readers protested, resulting in the fat cat’s return.

Once the first book came out in 1980, (collecting the strips from 1978 and early ‘79) Garfield reached greater heights of popularity and would eventually appear in over 2,500 newspapers.

The bestselling books featured a new rectangular shape, designed by Davis, that other comic strips would copy, such as the first ten FAR SIDE books. The publishing industry still refers to this shape as “the Garfield format.”

Here are the books I currently have in my collection.

As you can see, the heyday of my Garfield collecting was the earlier material. Once the 1990s hit, if I needed a Garfield fix, I would usually reread the books I already had instead of getting new releases.

However, as I was getting ready to write this post, I thought it would be nice to include the latest book, so for the first time in decades I bought a new Garfield collection.

I haven’t read it yet, but it has a fun title and I like the cover art, so it’s looking good so far.

The Garfield books of today are larger, square shaped, and every strip is in color. This new format began in 2000 with the release of book #37.

In 2001 they began rereleasing the earlier books in this larger, full color format, beginning with #1. It wasn’t until 2018 that they finally made it up to rereleasing #36 in the new format, giving the complete series this update. The original black and white rectangle editions of #1-36 appear to now be out of print.

In 2003 the “Fat Cat 3-Pack” was introduced. Volume one contains the first three books in the new large, color format. There are now 25 of these Fat Cat volumes, the latest arriving last December, which means you can get the entire run (so far) in this 3-Pack line with the exception of #76 Donut Disturb.

Here’s a size comparison of the larger square format to the original rectangle version.

Let’s take a look inside.

I have to admit the color version looks pretty great, even though the collector in me loves the original release.

Over the years there have been various books based on TV specials, and I have two of them.

Here’s the 20th anniversary collection I alluded to earlier.

This postcard set is a ton of fun, and I never sent any of them because I want to keep them all for me!

Here’s my favorite from the set:

And I got my Garfield socks!

You can currently pick up this LIFE special that is packed with fun and interesting information on all things Garfield. An absolute must-have for any fan of the greatest cat ever.

I’ve been rereading my collection and am very much enjoying it. (Which is why I wanted to do this post.) I think the time is right to add to my collection, beginning with #19, the first one I’m missing. But here’s the question – do I take the easy route and buy the Fat Cat 3-Packs that are readily available and look great in color, or do I satisfy the collector/purist in me by tracking down the out-of-print original releases? Hmm…