Garfield's Comic Strip Syndication

Date: June 19, 1978 • Location: New Delhi, India

Garfield's first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication.

Garfield is an American comic strip and media franchise created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as Jon in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield, a lazy, gluttonous, and sarcastic cat, along with a dim-witted dog named Odie and their human owner, Jon Arbuckle. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals; the comic held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. Though the strip's setting is rarely mentioned in print, the television special Happy Birthday, Garfield states that Garfield lives in Muncie, Indiana, the hometown of the creator Jim Davis. The strip frequently focuses on Garfield's appetite, laziness, and interactions with other characters.