raeloganthesonic06fangirl:

werewolforeo:

raeloganthesonic06fangirl:

raeloganthesonic06fangirl:

raeloganthesonic06fangirl:

bell-biv-dafoe:

mousathe14:

raeloganthesonic06fangirl:

raeloganthesonic06fangirl:

ipomoea-alba-quinn:

Not saying he wouldnt do this but SOURCE?????

Oh, boy, this is a fun bit of trivia.

See this book? This was published in 1998. I got it when I was 8 from my school bus driver for being really helpful on the route map for her first day, so this book has been in my possession for 19+ years. It’s very battered, but all the pages are still there, taped together, because the binding glue didn’t react well to the environment I lived in at the time.

Page 32 has a special “Bonus” spot for Lyman, with “updated” (for 1998) profile art

Closer look at the page

JON, WHAT DID YOU DO?

Oh, and also, if you know your Garfield Lore, then Lyman was Jon’s roommate until 1983, then left for an unknown reason, leaving Odie behind. He did appear in a Logo Box for Garfield’s 10th Birthday strip in 1988, as a cameo, but for the most part, Lyman has been absent for so long, they have continually rewritten how exactly Jon obtained Odie, ranging from adopting him from the same shop as Garfield, to adopting Odie a couple years into owning Garfield.

Except for

The popular 90s Garfield flash game, “Garfield’s Spooky Scavenger Hunt”, in which you can find Lyman chained up in a basement as a hidden eastern egg. He begs Garfield to give him some muffins to eat, then disappears after you leave the room and come back.

Garfield Lore is pretty messed up when you dig around.

….. what the hell

Reminder that Garfield once considered suicide as an alternative to living under Jon

The scary thing is, that was not the last time Garfield expressed such thoughts. D:

Remember that time earlier this year when I caused a disturbance in the Garfield Fandom?

Yo, remember when I single-handedly destroyed the perceptions of yet another franchise using something I thought was common knowledge but it just turned out to be a lesser known publication?

Thank goodness I didn’t reveal the nightmare fuel that is one of his past lives where he got possesed by a cat shadow and killed an old lady, hmm? Man, who remembers getting spooked by that one, huh??

Whoa, wait. One of his what now?

“Garfield: His 9 Lives”

A compilation book of nine short stories, all drawn in different styles, that present 7 previous lives, his current life and the one in the future.

They’re actually pretty creative and there’s a lot of charm to some of the ideas, but “Primal Self” is one (his 5th life) is particularly notable for being not only scary, but it implies that one of Garfield’s former lives included him actually murdering his owner after being possessed by the ancient spirit of the wild or whatever

Anyway, the whole idea behind “His 9 Lives” was actually a pretty good and artsy experiment overall, and needless to say, the “Primal Self” story wasn’t one of the ones adapted into the TV Special version of the book (for example, the Sam Spade, Private Eye segment of the book was omitted from the special and expanded on being its own half hour long special that’s a fun film noir parody under the name “Garfield: Babes and Bullets”)

The TV Special adaptation itself is a pretty good entry into the franchise, as it was animated with the same cast and main style as the 80s cartoon “Garfield & Friends”, and it has quite a few good parts to it

For example, the animated adaptation of Life No. 7 (“Lab Animal”) is so good artistically and I’d totally be down for an entire movie with this premise. It’s only 4 mins long, but wow, I love the art style and animation to this one.

“Diana’s Piano” (Life No. 6) is also such a beautiful story, and is probably the only life of Garfield’s where he wasn’t an orange cat. I always cry when this one comes on

One thing lost in time about this one is that Diana lives to be about 14, which was basically life expectancy back in the 80s for cats, but nowadays, cats are living longer and healthier because of better quality of life now (my own cat is currently 15 years young)

Garfield and His 9 Lives - Life No. 8

YouTube

Life No 8, which is the main canon, is also a good one. You get one of the few animated appearances of Garfield’s mother, and there’s some great moments with Odie (although it completely erases Lyman from canon??), and does set up for one of the best bits of the franchise, his future 9th Life

I should note that the animated adaptation has Odie’s ancestors appearing throughout Garfield’s lives, and this particular life, Garfield is canonically screwed over on his final life and ends up going before the all knowing creator (or God, whatever you interpret).

The part that gets me about this one is that Garfield manages to get himself an extra 9 lives after pleading his case… He also got Odie (a dog) an extra 9 lives so they could be together for the rest of thier existences

WHICH GIVES ME THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE THIS AWESOME JAM ON GARFIELD’S 90s JAZZ ALBUM THAT I RIPPED FROM MY PERSONAL COPY

To this day, I assume this song is inspired by Garfield and Odie’s friendship. 😭

The point I’m going for is yes, there’s some rather dark and messed up moments in Garfield (like that “Garfield is actually dead and his ghost is haunting house as he holds onto memories of life” theory that happened because of a spooky week of comic strips meant to be an experiment), but there’s also a lot of good heart and sweet bits to it that seem to get overshadowed by the 40+ years of content that exists now. Yes, Garfield isn’t what he used to be, but the 80s and 90s run of stuff was ripe with some really fun, creative, and inspirational stuff that I will forever adore.

After all, Garfield (alongside “Calvin and Hobbes”) was what I learned to read with (I was 3 back then), so I have a real soft spot for that particular era…