» About     » Archive     » Submit     » Authors     » Search     » Random     » Specials     » Statistics     » Forum     » RSS Feed     Updates Daily

No. 5555: Garf Sale

First | Previous | 2024-08-03 | Next | Latest

Garf Sale

First | Previous | 2024-08-03 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=5555

Strip by: Josep Nollette

{Jon holds a rolled-up newspaper underarm. He walks by Garfield wearing a jester hat, a bowtie, a tutu and rollerskates and holding a shovel and a tennis racquet. Jon struggles to read his newspaper as he finds himself distracted by the sight of Garfield in the gaudy getup}
John: ALL RIGHT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!
{Even Garfield isn't happy}
Garfield: Please kill me now...
Narration: When the mice asked Garfield how his shift for advertising the Gard'n'Sport store went, he grabbed his paycheck and ran out the door without saying a word.

The author writes:

I thought of taking the 6 September 1998 strip and rewriting the narrative so that Garfield is made to dress in such gaudy attire without the intention of annoying Jon.

The backstory I came up with was that Garfield, desperate to make at least minimum wage, reluctantly landed a job dressing as the mascot of a mouse-oriented store chain called Gard'n'Sport. Further details, such as what the mice were thinking when they had Garfield wear this combination of clothing and "advertise" in his own house, are left to the reader's imagination.

Part of the inspiration came from a story arc from Greg Cravens' Hubris where the character of Lowell dresses a clown during a sales event for Sportsmart. Another inspiration was the scene in the Jimmy Neutron episode "Men at Work" where Jimmy is demoted to wearing a hamburger outfit which he doesn't like.

While much of the humor in vanilla Garfield derives from Garfield annoying Jon, I thought I'd experiment to see if Garfield being just as much a straight man as Jon could be anywhere near as funny, unless it's been done here before.

Original strip: 1998-09-06.