Garfield World-Wide

(His 15th Book)

by
Jim Davis

Ballantine, March 1988, 126 pp.
ISBN: 0-345-35158-4

Genre: Comics
Subgenre: Comic Strip / Humor
Reviewed: 6/3/2010

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Comic Page

Synopsis

Garfield World-Wide is the fifteenth collection of Garfield comic strips. All of the comic strips appear in black and white. The last two pages shows examples of the right way and wrong way to draw Garfield. This book introduces Bertha, a woman Jon goes on a date with. Most of the strips are single shots, but a few storylines appears.

This collection contains the following storylines: Tiger Shark, Jon Throws a Party, Squeeze Pooky, National Lazy Week, Jon Grows a Mustache, Garfield Gets Amnesia, Garfield Hates Things, More Vegetables for Garfield, Wrong Number Equals Blind Date, Sweety Bird, TV Workout, and Diet Time Again.

This book contains comic strips from 10/13/1986 through 5/17/1987.

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 World-Wide is a smile-filled book about America's favorite fat cat. Garfield hits the ground running acting like a Tiger Shark and ends the book on a diet. Poor Garfield. He is so misunderstood by his owner, Jon. Actually . . . no he's not. Jon knows what Garfield is about. He is a nice cat, but like all cat's, he can turn on you suddenly for no reason what-so-ever.

Jim Davis introduces two new characters that only appear for a week or two. The first is Bertha, a woman Jon mistakenly calls on the phone, likes her voice, and asks her out on a date. Bertha ends up being a very overweight woman with horned-rimmed glasses who is both loud and obnoxious. You know . . . your general stereotype of a fat person. I found this to be rather demeaning. Sweety Bird is a canary Jon buys that Garfield wants to eat. It seemed a little too much like Looney Tunes characters Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird. Maybe that is why Sweety Bird didn't appear in any more comic strips in this book, other than the one week. Warner Bros. might have had something to do with that. Who knows?

Overall, Garfield World-Wide is another jam-packed book of Garfield daily comic strips. I found this collection to be better than some of the previous books. I cannot say why, some of the strips just struck me as being funnier. So, if you are looking for a Garfield book to pick up, then this might just be the one.