At any given time, the Internet has a number of fads that everyone eventually learns about, and here’s one of them!


GarfieldMinusGarfield is a web phenomenon that posts old ‘Garfield’ comic strips, but makes one big alteration – in these cartoons, Garfield doesn’t exist. What’s the point of a Garfield comic that doesn’t have its iconic Monday-hating cat?

I’ll leave the site’s creator, Dan Walsh, to explain:

“Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.”

Pretty deep huh? When I first learned about the site, I thought it was just a more sophisticated manifestation of the ‘good ol’ days’ when I used to draw silly stuff on top of the funnies. And indeed, most of the strips on the site are emphatically absurd - nothing says parody like making a major character look like a schizophrenic lunatic with an invisible audience.

Still, there are a few strips that manage to paint a haunting picture of futility and loneliness. Even Garfield’s creator, Jim Davis, has praised the site for enabling him and others to ‘see another side of Garfield’.

Don’t let me get too carried away though – at its heart, GarfieldMinusGarfield is pure parody and fully embraces the contemporary form of ‘absurd’ or ‘nonsense humor’. And it works magnificently well!

Give the site a looksee – you’ll be asking yourself how no one thought of doing this before!

"If cartoonists would look at this more as an art than as a part time job or a get-rich-quick scheme, I think comics overall would be better. I think there's a tremendous potential to be tapped" - Bill Watterson