Black text with the image of Garfield the cat laying on a beach under an umbrella with a drink.
1978 United Feature Syndacate, Inc. Button UP 2011 Austin Troy, MI 48083
Garfield, the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world since 2002, was first published in 1978 (de Bertodano, 20009). Cartoonist Jim Davis decided to focus his comic on a cat to fill what he saw as a hole in the market. Davis was a business major at Ball State and worked in advertising, and always acutely managed Garfield as a brand as much as a comic (Sullentrop, 2004). He recognized the marketability of animal characters and noticed that there were many popular cartoon dogs, but no cats. So he created Garfield, naming him after his grandfather John Garfield Davis, a man Davis said had "a gruff exterior but a soft heart" (de Bertodano, 20009).
Sources:
de Bertodano, Helena. (October 6, 2009). "Jim Davis: the interview." The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6255404/Jim-Davis-the-interview.html.
Suellentrop, Chris (June 11, 2004). "Why we don't hate Garfield." Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/06/garfield.html.