Here we are, Jim Davis!

This one was fun.  I knew about the Renaissance cartoons from my art history classes, but wasn’t sure what the connection was to “cartooning” as we know it today. Turned out be really fascinating.  And Jim Davis seemed like a really neat person one could get to know.  And he’s also a local to the area I live in.  I live in one of the towns associated with Davis’s upbringing, and my CC chapter meets in another town with another link to Davis’s life. Watching him draw Garfield, or even how his team draws Garfield, was really fascinating.  Certainly touched back on OiLS.

Davis’s influence around here shows. There are Garfields in nearly every village and town around here.  Little fiberglass statues about four feet tall, each one themed to the village it stands in, and it is not at all unusual for people to follow “the Garfield Trail” and photograph each one.

So this was a great story I got to get into, I hope you like it.

The thing about cartooning is trying to tell a story in 1-3 panels.  If you’re telling a joke, the traditional three panels are “Introduction-Build-Punchline”. As you read some of Davis’s work, you can easily see that pattern in the weekday strips.

CC c3Wk18 Jim Davis

CC C3Wk18 Jim davis timeline