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Garfield: The Dark Side
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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If you only knew just how much those warm my soul.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Louisiana
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Originally Posted by subego
From a completely different source, I came across a week of comics from long ago...
I.........
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by Jawbone54
I.........
Require lasagna.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Originally Posted by subego
Oh, lord. That was a really weird time at the studio. We were all "wtf is he thinking???"
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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If it hadn’t been presented to me as a link to the archive on the official Garfield site, there’s no way I’d have believed it was real.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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It always wore on him that so many other strips (Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County, for example) were celebrated as being "deeper" or more genuine, while the image of Garfield was more often that of a crass, shallow sellout and money-grab. Even the industry standard of commercialization, Peanuts, was pretty universally embraced as being far more genuine. There were occasional projects aimed at elevating that image, like the 9-Lives book and a few of the tv specials, but that one week of strips really stands out as the weirdest expression.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Honestly... I thought Garfield was a sellout.
That was the story I heard at least. Davis, who I understand is actually rather edgy, decided to cynically exploit the market he doesn’t have all that much respect for in the first place.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
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Man, the first couple of books of Garfield strips were really great.
Really, really funny.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Originally Posted by subego
Honestly... I thought Garfield was a sellout.
That was the story I heard at least. Davis, who I understand is actually rather edgy, decided to cynically exploit the market he doesn’t have all that much respect for in the first place.
He isn't edgy, really. Just...complicated...I guess that's the best word.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Did you work for the guy?
Edgy wasn’t really the word I was looking for.
More that he isn’t the dumb, stupid, weak, pathetic, white, white uh, uh guilt, white guilt, milquetoast piece of human garbage people make him out to be.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Yep.
No, he's definitely not dumb, stupid, etc. He's actually a nice guy just to hang out with. Pretty strong competitive streak in him, though.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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That’s totally awesome! What did you do?
Not that it makes me any less of an asshole, that last post was me being unable to resist a Rick & Morty quote, rather than trying to take a genuine shot at the guy.
I mean, the proof is in the pudding... if Garfield sucked as much as people like to say it does, it wouldn’t have been successful enough to develop its own snarky meme economy.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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I was the senior graphic designer for about 14 years.
Garfield got big because, in the beginning, it touched on a piece of the zeitgeist of the time...I Hate Mondays, Big Fat Hairy Deal, etc. It also got big because it was heavily pushed into the market by United Feature, the syndicate that owned half the property (Jim owned the other half himself, which was somewhat unique for properties like that at the time) and signed product licenses and sold the strip to papers wordwide.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
it touched on a piece of the zeitgeist of the time...I Hate Mondays, Big Fat Hairy Deal, etc.
I’ll go even farther that that.
He invented cat memes 25 years before cat memes.
(And “Seinfeld isn’t funny” 10 years before Seinfeld)
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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It’s an interesting thing about working in an environment like that. You kind of become immune to the regular stuff sent out to the civilians, and you thrive on (and constantly contribute to) the really off-the-wall, often eggregiously tasteless, stuff that will never, ever, ever see the light of day. Creative sessions were the best part of the job.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: 888500128, C3, 2nd soft.
Status:
Online
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Now *that* is a compilation I'd like to see.
I have the second book (Garfield Gains Weight, from 1981, with the content copyrighted 1979) and love it. It's ugly and grumpy, and really funny.
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Yeah, the early Garfield, where he’s fat and grubby and still walked only on all fours, is far more endearing. More “authentic”, if you will. Kind of Fat Freddy’s Cat’s suburban cousin.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
Oh, lord. That was a really weird time at the studio. We were all "wtf is he thinking???"
I feel I need to mention how I came across it.
It was in a piece of (literal) creepypasta fiction. That week of strips summoned an immortal lasagna with human DNA wearing a Garfield costume. It mainifests to people it sees as a threat to the future of the character and tries to murder them.
The shadowy organization (think Men in Black) tracking the entity interviewed you and all your co-workers.
You had no memory of those strips existing.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Alternate title: subego digs a hole.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Dec 2000
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Originally Posted by Thorzdad
I was the senior graphic designer for about 14 years.
Garfield got big because, in the beginning, it touched on a piece of the zeitgeist of the time...I Hate Mondays, Big Fat Hairy Deal, etc. It also got big because it was heavily pushed into the market by United Feature, the syndicate that owned half the property (Jim owned the other half himself, which was somewhat unique for properties like that at the time) and signed product licenses and sold the strip to papers wordwide.
Did you have anything to do with the Saturday morning cartoon that ran in the late 80s?
Used to love that as a kid.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Bang! Bang!
Status:
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Cape Cod, MA
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Nobletucky
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Originally Posted by CharlesS
Did you have anything to do with the Saturday morning cartoon that ran in the late 80s?
Used to love that as a kid.
No. I believe the Saturday morning show was pretty much entirely the work of the animation producer, Film Roman. Ditto for U.S. Acres. With input from Jim and/or another writer.
I did help storyboard one of the tv specials, though.
(
Last edited by Thorzdad; Nov 6, 2018 at 07:57 PM.
)
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