No one mentioned the huge Jim Davis Garfield strip auction at Heritage? 2 2

[batman_fan]

Favorite Calvin and Hobbes (and it is hard to pick).

[Will_K]

1 hour ago, batman_fan said:

If I try to list strips I loved over the years in no particular order

peanuts

bloom county

wizard of id 

hagar

bc

marmaduke

Dennis the menace 

calvin and Hobbs 

Didn't you mean... Peanuts... followed by strips in no particular order??

[Lobstrosity]

For my money, the "king" of strips is actually a triumvirate: Calvin & Hobbes, Bloom County, and Farside. The peak(s) of the artform.

Peanuts is, of course, amazing and a landmark, but for all it's charm, it never made me laugh (or felt as personal) as those three.

Garfield gets a lot of hate, because I think underneath it all, it was an homogenized, mass-produced product - but nonetheless, it did its thing well, and occasionally hit the mark. It's inarguably an important strip, and I think you could do a lot worse.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Lobstrosity

[BuraddoRun]

My favorite comic strip of all time is Garfield. I agree with the above statement about homogeny and mass production/sellout, but I had so many laughs in the 80s and 90s and even the early 2000s with those strips. I'll always love the character from the past no matter how many new things they plaster him on, nor whatever political statements they assign him in the mass market.

My 2nd favorite strip, also awesome as some of you have already mentioned, is The Far Side. Fun Fact: when I was in middle school, way back in my Computer Science class, we were given an assignment to type out a letter to send to a celebrity. We looked through a book (no mass-available internet just yet) to find addresses for agents, and I chose Gary Larson. To both my and my teacher's surprise, I got a response! Gary didn't write me directly, but his publishing company sent me a package with a bunch of cool stuff in it. It had a press release, a newsletter, a book of his collected works (one of the ones you can get at any book store that carries them), and a stack of enlarged, color prints of some of his strips. Those prints were on regular paper, but they came 2 gags per and were still pretty nifty. I've kept them all these years.

[MyNameIsLegion]

On 4/7/2021 at 4:17 PM, Randall Ries said:

And my personal favorite: People who try to embellish on a given strip with their own lousy humor and ideas. Just shut up. It's as though they were never children. I got booted out of the group for setting some of them straight. No. You DON'T want Watterson to sell the rights, you fools! Do you KNOW what they would do to those characters? Turn them into "woke" whining maggots is what. They'd turn Calvin's uncle into a bisexual. Mom would go to work as an architect and Dad would stay home. If a movie was made, it would open the flood gates of bad taste and merchandise. Something I respect Watterson for is he never sold out. Refused any and all licensing proposals. A man who knows he has a good thing and is proud of it. A man who is satisfied with the money he makes. His kids may feel differently when he passes the inevitable torch. I hope I'm dead before that happens.

Aside from maybe Pogo, Calvin and Hobbes was the best cartoon strip in a regular daily series ever done.

Ok Boomer....

The best part of the Garfield portion of the Saturday HA was it gave me and another boardie I was chatting with during bidding to take a break, use the restroom, get a drink, read the mail, feed the cat, unload the dishwasher, any number of mundane choirs more scintillating that watching the Garfield Comic Strip Assembly Line being dismantled and sold off for parts. 

[Randall Ries]

6 hours ago, MyNameIsLegion said:

Ok Boomer....

The best part of the Garfield portion of the Saturday HA was it gave me and another boardie I was chatting with during bidding to take a break, use the restroom, get a drink, read the mail, feed the cat, unload the dishwasher, any number of mundane choirs more scintillating that watching the Garfield Comic Strip Assembly Line being dismantled and sold off for parts. 

You must've been still pooping green when Garfield first came around. No. You probably weren't born yet. You a big "Cathy" fan? Ack?" No one likes your stories either.

[MyNameIsLegion]

27 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

You must've been still pooping green when Garfield first came around. No. You probably weren't born yet. You a big "Cathy" fan? Ack?" No one likes your stories either.

LOL,  Cathy and Garfield came out the same year.  I'm Gen X. I grew up on Blondie, Hagar, Beatle Bailey, Henry, Snuffy Smith, Hi and Lois, Broom-Hilda, Bringing up Father. . Bloom Country is what made the comics section worth reading.

[Jeffro.]

For me, the best thing about Garfield was the Garfield and Friends Saturday morning cartoon. Written/co-written by Mark Evanier. It was very clever and funny. Writing better than most typical Saturday morning fare. 

[MrBedrock]

On 4/7/2021 at 9:35 AM, batman_fan said:

I am going to respectfully disagree on the Peanuts artwork.  Looking at one of Schulz strips up close and seeing his beautiful line work really makes me appreciate the simplicity and truly masterful work he did.  The attached Sunday is just striking in person.

 

[Rick2you2]

15 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

 

I think one of the problems with the Pogo strips overall is they are too windy. Peanuts gets right to the guts of where it is going more quickly and with less verbiage. Pogo was a longer, slower read, not too well suited to more modern taste. But in terms of raw art, I still think Kelly was better, at least if you want to savor the work. If you want to get right to the emotional hit or funny bone, Schultz did a better strip.

 

s

[Bronty]

good way of putting it.   

[szav]

Somebody is a big fan of Liz.. although I don't think 5 figures will impress this crowd much.  https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/jim-davis-garfield-daily-first-appearance-of-liz-wilson-comic-strip-original-art-dated-6-26-79-united-feature-syn/a/40168-82003.s?ic4=ListView-Thumbnail-071515

[aokartman]

56 minutes ago, szav said:

Somebody is a big fan of Liz.. although I don't think 5 figures will impress this crowd much.  https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/jim-davis-garfield-daily-first-appearance-of-liz-wilson-comic-strip-original-art-dated-6-26-79-united-feature-syn/a/40168-82003.s?ic4=ListView-Thumbnail-071515

Really quite remarkable considering the abundance of strips being made available all at once.  David

[delekkerste]

On 4/15/2021 at 8:06 PM, szav said:

Somebody is a big fan of Liz.. although I don't think 5 figures will impress this crowd much.  https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/jim-davis-garfield-daily-first-appearance-of-liz-wilson-comic-strip-original-art-dated-6-26-79-united-feature-syn/a/40168-82003.s?ic4=ListView-Thumbnail-071515

I was going to say that Garfield is just about the only thing that's still affordable in comic art...but, it looks like that might not even be true anymore too.  

[DeadpoolJr.]

On 4/15/2021 at 9:05 PM, aokartman said:

Really quite remarkable considering the abundance of strips being made available all at once.  David

Is that her first appearance? If so I can understand the price with her being in tons of Garfield media from kid books, cartoons, and movies. 

[vodou]

11 hours ago, delekkerste said:

I was going to say that Garfield is just about the only thing that's still affordable in comic art...but, it looks like that might not even be true anymore too.  

Nonsense! I spent more $$$ on more pieces last year than I have since 2004. Total feeding frenzy! All great pieces (no bs) some recent, many vintage, and my per piece cost was well under $500 per. You just gotta seriously work the thing (which has always been true) and...be okay not buying Ditko, Kirby, Wood, Buscema, etc. I mean...1981 is my Marvel year, but must I be a slave to it? Nope  

[exitmusicblue]

https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Courtesy of a Garfield-loving fellow CFA-APA member.

[BuraddoRun]

So, I have a theory. Regardless of who does the finished strip, Jim Davis is quoted in the NY Times article floating around from 2019 (here it is: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/arts/garfield-art-auction.html ) that he does all the writing. As such, wouldn't it stand to reason that those rough prelims out there are actually hand-drawn by Jim? So with that in mind, and this recent forum Garfield talk, and my unabashed love of the strip and desire to own at least 1 actual Davis piece, AND the fact that a lot of the prelims go for cheap...I bought one. It's not a favorite or anything, but it's cute, and has a gaffe that's the sort of behind-the-scenes stuff we collectors like that the public doesn't see in finished work. So yeah, I like it. Eventually I'll add 1 or more published finished strips to my collection, but this is a start and it counts as something I can cross off (at least partially) my wish list! I'll attach the pic of the prelim and a photocopy of the finished strip that came with it.

[romitaman]

On 4/19/2021 at 9:57 PM, BuraddoRun said:

So, I have a theory. Regardless of who does the finished strip, Jim Davis is quoted in the NY Times article floating around from 2019 (here it is: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/arts/garfield-art-auction.html ) that he does all the writing. As such, wouldn't it stand to reason that those rough prelims out there are actually hand-drawn by Jim? So with that in mind, and this recent forum Garfield talk, and my unabashed love of the strip and desire to own at least 1 actual Davis piece, AND the fact that a lot of the prelims go for cheap...I bought one. It's not a favorite or anything, but it's cute, and has a gaffe that's the sort of behind-the-scenes stuff we collectors like that the public doesn't see in finished work. So yeah, I like it. Eventually I'll add 1 or more published finished strips to my collection, but this is a start and it counts as something I can cross off (at least partially) my wish list! I'll attach the pic of the prelim and a photocopy of the finished strip that came with it.

Totally agree!!

[comicwiz]

I enjoyed reading the strips when I was younger, I even have the paperbacks and a hardbound somewhere of the coloured strip Garfield on the Town that I actually picked up at a thrift shop a few years back just to reread some of them. I also watched the cartoon on television regularly. As an adult, it's not as pressing a need for me to own a strip, and I'd sooner gravitate to owning a Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes, because those are two strips which I have a far greater nostalgic pull toward.

Sorta of off-topic but years back I used to listen to a talk radio show where the host had a voice that I just couldn't put my finger on. Sounded so familiar, but drove me a little nuts that I couldn't figure it out. Let's say the radio hosts name was Sam. Over many years of listening, I began seeing this unusual quip develop where a certain caller would call in, then near the end, he'd call the host "Jon" - and immediately afterward, the host cut him off. And he'd say "alright, next caller...

After a few times, I realized it wasn't a mistake, or the name of another host on the radio that the person confused him for - and then it hit me, the radio host sounded exactly like the voice of Jon Arbuckle from the cartoon series. I don't know why, but whenever this guy would come on and say that name, it would set off the radio host.  Maybe a bit of history there between the two, or he hated the show, who knows, but after this happened a few times, I recognized the guys voice and knew it was coming, figured the host could have done the same.