Garfield Minus Garfield

They say that there are dog people and there are cat people, and of course dog people are controlling and dominant whereas cat people are needy and emotional. Oh man, we are gonna get flamed for that! I have absolutely no scientific backing for what I just said… just tons of practical, real world experience. Flamed!

They also say that less is more, but that doesn’t make any sense ’cause more is more, and you can’t take away something from something, and call it more… except in this case. What happens when a guy’s most fulfilling, meaningful relationship comes from talking to his cat? Pathetic, right? Just wait. But what happens when you suddenly, inexplicably take that cat away? It’s comic, it’s tragic, and it’s what happens to John Arbuckle when Garfield gets erased from his own comic strip.

Dan Walsh is the mad genius behind garfieldminusgarfield.net, a website where every day, he puts up a Jim Davis cartoon with the fat cat lipo’ed out… and the result is hilarious! John’s the same social failure he’s always been, but when his little feline superstar vanishes and the spotlight’s on him, it’s a rapid roller coaster descent into the depths of his tortured existence. He ends up being a kind of bipolar, off the deep end, self-conversing schizophrenic that is somehow surprisingly easy to relate to. What does that say about me?

As a kid, I grew up with Garfield comics, but I don’t think I would have found Garfield minus Garfield funny in the 5th grade. It’s a little too noir… but it’s sure funny now! Check out a few examples: [shows Garfield comic with nothing in the first two frames, then John holding a marker saying, "Okay, time to play connect the freckles!" Another comic with John saying, "I have a date tonight and the only thing clean is my gorilla suit." A blank frame, then John turning and saying, "Yeaaaah!"] Now our show could end there. Hey, it’s something interesting, it’s unique, it’s out on the Internet, it’s worth knowing, right? Yes, but there’s more!

Dan Walsh was very naughty. He didn’t get permission from Jim Davis to modify his work or to post it on the Internet, and you’d better believe Garfield’s copywrited, with a big copywrite brand sizzled into his fur on his stripey orange behind. [Sniff sniff] Smell that… it’s like a lawsuit. When Davis found out about it, he thought it was great. What? No cease and desist order? No suing? No rabid lawyers sent out to devour the filthy intellectual property parasites? In a Washington Post article, Davis is quoted as calling Walsh’s work: “an inspired thing to do” and wished to thank Walsh for enabling him to see another side of Garfield. I guess it’s more another side of John though… the depressing, awful, funny side of John.

It makes me wonder what kind of cool stuff would pop up if people were more like Jim Davis and Dan Walsh. It’d be nice to have a little more creativity and a lot less litigation, being creative in the sense of respecting and contributing to a work, not just pirating it. John’s actually a dog and a cat person… I guess that’s why he’s really messed up!

We’d like to say thank you to Jim Davis, which is just another way of saying, please don’t sue us. We’re not really afraid of Dan, I mean, he already broke the law…he hasn’t got a leg to stand on, but we think you’re cool too, Dan.

Transcribed by: Shannon*

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