My Aunts Birthday is in October and Aunt Sue has always enjoyed reading the Garfield Cartoon. The other day when David and I was in Waldenbooks picking out a children’s Chapter Book for Charlie pointed out Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0. Charlie let me know he wouldn’t mind having a copy of Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0 for himself as well.
I was thinking I might pick up Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0 up for Aunt Sue. As we was walking around I let Charlie know I planned on purchasing Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0 Charlie was excited as he thought I was getting him Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0 because I forgot to let him know it was for my Aunt. Although when Charlie isn’t with me I do plan on going back and picking up a copy of Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0 for Charlie for Christmas.
You see Charlie is like my Aunt and Charlie loves Garfield just as much as my Aunt Sue does. When Charlie was small we had one Garfield movie and we ended up watching it over and over until we wore it out. As I sit her typing this I now know which movie I would like to get Charlie for Christmas.
Although back then I looked for ever to find a copy of our Garfield movie to replace it with but couldn’t find one. Until one day when I was in Walmart and found a Garfield movie by accident. Which we have and Charlie still watches this copy of Garfield when he isn’t feeling good. Because I know there has to be more than just one version of Garfield.
With Charlie having to read 30 minutes a day for school I can’t wait until we get Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0. I am just waiting to see if Charlie actually sits down and reads Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0 what he thinks of Age Happens Garfield Hits The Big 4-0
![Age Happens: Garfield Hits the Big 4-0 by [Davis, Jim]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Vub8qnhvL.jpg)
Celebrate forty years of Garfield with this lavish collection featuring classic strips, guest cartoonists, fan art, and a foreword by lifelong Garfield lover Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Pulitzer Prize–winning creator of Hamilton!
The big year is finally here! Garfield, the original party animal, is aging disgracefully and celebrating wildly! Hey, what do you expect from the mischievous fat cat who is so good at being bad?
Join the party, as celebrity cartoonists and fans alike pay homage to the famous feline. Even Broadway legend Lin-Manuel Miranda gets into the act by composing the book’s foreword.
This commemorative collection of birthday comic strips—plus a ton of other festive fun—is a gift for Garfield fans of all ages!
Biography
Jim Davis was born July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, and raised on a small farm with his parents, James and Betty Davis, and his younger brother, Dave (Doc). Like most farms, the barnyard had its share of stray cats; about 25 at one time, by Jim’s estimation. As a child, he suffered serious bouts with asthma and was often bedridden. Forced inside, away from regular farm chores, he whiled away the hours drawing pictures.
In college, he studied art and business before going to work for TUMBLEWEEDS creator, Tom Ryan. There, he learned the skills and discipline necessary to become a syndicated cartoonist and began his own strip, GNORM GNAT. When he tried to sell the strip to a newspaper syndicate he was told, “It’s funny, but bugs? Who can relate to a bug?” After five years of GNORM, Davis crushed the bug strip idea and tried a new tact, studying the comics pages closely. He noticed there were a lot of successful strips about dogs, but none about cats! Combining his wry wit with the art skills he had honed since childhood, GARFIELD, a fat, lazy, lasagna-loving, cynical cat was born. Davis says Garfield is a composite of all the cats he remembered from his childhood, rolled into one feisty orange fur ball. Garfield was named after his grandfather, James Garfield Davis.
The strip debuted on June 19, 1978 in 41 U.S. newspapers. Several months after the launch, the Chicago Sun-Times cancelled GARFIELD. Over 1300 angry readers demanded that GARFIELD be reinstated. It was, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, GARFIELD is read in over 2400 newspapers by 200 million people. Guinness World Records, named Davis peers at the National Cartoonist Society honored him with Best Humor Strip (1981 and 1985), the Elzie Segar Award (1990), and the coveted Reuben Award (1990), the top award presented to a cartoonist by NCS members. Garfield quickly became a sensation in the licensing world, too, inspiring Davis to form his own company to take care of Garfield business concerns. Paws, Inc., founded in 1981, manages the worldwide rights for the famous fat cat, and Davis serves as President.
Garfield’s fame spilled over to
television and
Davis penned eleven prime time specials for CBS-TV. He received
ten Emmy nominations and
four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program.
Movies were next, and Twentieth Century Fox turned out
Garfield: The Movie (‘04), and
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (‘06).
Davis also wrote the original
screenplays and executive produced
three animated features for DVD: Garfield Gets Real (‘07), Garfield’s Fun Fest (‘08), and Garfield’s Pet Force (‘09). Also in 2009,
“The Garfield Show” made its debut on
Cartoon Network. Today, the
CGI animated cartoon is in its fourth season and is seen in 131 countries, including China, where CCTV broadcasts the show daily.
Davis’s philanthropy has been directed at
educational and environmental projects. He founded
The Professor Garfield Foundation in cooperation with
Ball State University, to s
upport children’s literacy. A
free educational web site www.professorgarfield.org is the cornerstone of the Foundation’s work to date. Davis spearheaded reforestation, prairie and wetlands restorations, and built the world’s first all natural waste water plant for commercial use. He was awarded the
National Arbor Day Foundation’s Good Steward and Special Projects Award, and the
Indiana Wildlife Federations’ Conservationist of the Year Award.
Davis spends his leisure time golfing, gardening, fishing, and enjoying his wife, children, and grandchildren. In a nod to
Garfield’s friends in the
comic strip, Davis also keeps one cat, Nermal, and a dog, Pooky.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
