Garfield: Food for Thought

(His 13th Book)
by
Jim Davis

Ballantine, March 1987, 126 pp.
ISBN: 0-345-34129-5

Genre: Comics
Subgenre: Comic Strip / Humor
Reviewed: 5/8/2010

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Comic Strip

Synopsis

Garfield: Food for Thought is the thirteenth collection of Garfield comic strips. All of the comic strips appear in black and white. The last two pages are entitled "The Zodiac According to Garfield" and have twelve images of Garfield as signs of the Zodiac with a description for each sign. The rest of the 124 pages consist of either two daily comics per page or one Sunday comic. Most of the strips are single shots, but a few storylines appears.

This collection contains the following storylines: The Caped Avenger and Slurp, Movie Theater, Little Dogs With Sharp Teeth, Lucky Special Stick, Canopy Bed, Nermal, RX-2 Talking Scale, Garfield's Believe It or Don't, Going to the Vet, Arlene, and Golfing.

This book contains comic strips from 8/5/1985 through 3/9/1986.

Garfield became very popular in the late-1970s and continues on today, although the character now looks a little different. It is seen daily in thousands of newspapers and enjoyed by millions worldwide. Garfield is a quirky cat that is quite fat, lazy and loves his lasagna. He loves to pick on Odie, the dog, and give Jon, his owner, a hard time. He hates diets and loves food...any type of food, especially lasagna.

Review

Garfield: Food for Thought is another entertaining book packed with panels full of America's favorite fat cat. Garfield is up to his usual antics in these comic strips causing Jon a world of stress. Lyman seems to have just plain disappeared from the world of Garfield. I guess Jon stole his dog, as Odie belongs to Lyman, not Jon.

I really enjoyed some of the storylines in this book. I do prefer storylines in comparison to one shots. I just think you get a lot more out of a one or two-week storyline, like when Jon and Garfield went golfing or when Garfield dressing up as the Caped Avenger with Odie dressing up as his sidekick, Slurp.

Garfield comic strips rarely make me laugh out loud. I might chuckle a little, but rarely burst out in tummy-grabbing laughter. While reading this book, I picked four different strips to feature and then let my wife pick the comic strip I would use.  She only chuckled at one of them, so that is the one that is shown above.

Overall, Garfield: Food for Thought is a enjoyable collection of comic strips featuring that well-known orange tabby cat name Garfield. With Jon and Odie as the main supporting cast, and cameos by Nermal, Arlene, and Liz, this book is filled with feline fun for all.