Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=372

Strip by: DanielBT

Jon: Hi, there… I’m Jon Arbuckle.

Jon: I’m a cartoonist.

Jon: And this is…

Jon: my cat, Garfield.

Garfield: Hi, there.

Garfield: I’m Garfield. I’m a cat, and…

Garfield: this is my cartoonist, Jon.

Jon: Our only thought…

Jon: is to entertain you.

Garfield: Feed me.

The author writes:

This is a combination of the first Garfield strip, and the first two pages of the Manga, What’s Michael? by Makoto Kobayashi. Very telling, especially since What’s Michael? is often referred to as the Japanese Garfield.

If the images don’t look familiar, it’s because it’s one of several stories that were left out when Dark Horse picked up the license. I was only aware of it because an earlier English publication showed it. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who published it, save that it had an introduction by Cat Yronwode. AnimeNewsNetwork and even Wikipedia have no clues as to who published What’s Michael? first, but there is some information here.

Original strip: 1978-06-19.

  • m_‮fOPAEnglish
    10·
    4 months ago

    Bonus comics:

    No. 458: Manga Garfield 2 - The End

    Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=458

    Strip by: DanielBT

    Jon: …

    {Jon looks outside to the balcony.}

    {He looks over the balcony, down several floors to the pavement below.}

    Jon: GARFIELD!

    Jon: …

    Jon: …

    Caption: After years of taking Garfield for granted, Jon is shaken by a horrifying vision of the inevitable process called “time”.

    Jon: Only one weapon…

    {Jon wipes the cat paw prints off the balcony railing.}

    SFX: flip! flip!

    Caption: … denial.

    Caption: Locked fast within a time where Garfield no longer exists, Jon grapples with his greatest fear…

    Caption: … Loneliness.

    The author writes:

    The last two pages of the first What’s Michael comic. In the original Manga, the thoughts the cartoonist had during the close-up were:

    “Okay, Okay, don’t come back to haunt me, all right?”

    “So the cartoonist prayed with all his heart…”

    Original strips: 1989-04-10, 1989-10-27, 1989-10-28, 1998-03-06.

    No. 749: Manga Garfield 3: Black Humour

    Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/garfield/?comic=749

    Strip by: DanielBT

    {Jon is sitting at his cartooning table. Garfield is sitting by the window, with his back to Jon}

    Jon: I wonder what would happen…

    {Jon throws a cigarette lighter at Garfield}

    SFX: TUNK!

    Jon: If I hit this kitty at Mach 2.

    {Garfield stumbles and falls out the window}

    Jon: … Hurm…

    Lyman: Hey, did you say something?

    Jon: Uh?

    Jon: No, nothing…

    Jon: Nothing at all…

    Jon: … …

    Jon: Say Lyman, if a cat fell six floors onto a concrete sidewalk, do you think it’d survive?

    Lyman: Huh?

    Lyman: No way! That’s pretty high up, even for a cat!

    Lyman: Why’d you ask that?

    Jon: … Reference…

    The author writes:

    I’m sure that after posting the first two pages of the What’s Michael manga, people may naturally be curious as to why this story was left out of the Dark Horse English translation. Well, the next two pages may be a big clue. I’ve tried to recreate the dialogue as best as I can remember in the 2nd page, with some slight differences. In the last panel, the cartoonist originally said, “No reason…”, but in foreign editions, he just said the silent “…”, similar for most of the comic at the beginning.

    Original strip: 1984-01-30.