Garfield Thinks Big

(His 32nd Book)

by
Jim Davis

Ballantine, October 1997, 126 pp.
ISBN: 0-345-41671-6

Genre: Comics
Subgenre: Comic Strip / Humor
Reviewed: 11/14/2011

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Comic Page

Synopsis

Garfield Thinks Big is the thirty-second collection of Garfield comic strips. All of the comic strips appear in black and white. The first page contains Garfield's two lists of Thing We Need More of... and Things We Could Do Without... while the last page of the book displays Signs You're Going to a Bad Veterinarian. This book contains comic strips from 10/13/1996 through 5/13/1997. Most of the strips are single shots, but a few storylines appears.

This collection contains the following storylines: Catch A Mouse, Halloween Masks, Cat in a Tree, Let Me Fencentertain You, It's the Holiday Season, This is War, Time to Diet Garfield, Eat Me, Talking Spider, Those Mice are Too Much, Climbing Tree, and Watching TV.

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 Thinks Big is another collection of humorous comic strips by that master of cat funnies, Jim Davis. Garfield popularity has continued to grow, kind of like the size of his feet (which are huge now), all over the world. With the help of Jon and Odie, Garfield fills these 128 pages with droll and physical humor, usually at the expense of his master and best friend. After all, Garfield is a cat that is fat, lazy, mean, selfish, and always hungry. I guess these are the things that make him entertaining.

Personally, my favorite character is Odie, as I am a dog person rather than a cat person. Sure, he is portrayed as the dumb dog of the house, but is he really stupid? He often has moments of pure brilliance. He has outsmarted Garfield many times, even if he does get kicked off the table by that cat, and can sure take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. As I have said before, I just wish Odie had thought bubbles like Garfield. I bet that would make the comic strip even more entertaining.

Overall, Garfield Thinks Big is a nice collection of Garfield comic strips that made me smile a could of times. There were a few storylines, most of them only lasting one week. I personally like the ones that last multiple weeks, take Jon, Garfield, and Odie out of the house, and stick them in a different environment. We need more of those types of storylines, Mr. Davis.