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Garfield is worth reading again

If you're like me, you grew up reading the funny pages and haven't weaned yourself of that habit, even though 90% of the mainstream comics these days are garbage. How many times can Dagwood run into the mailman anyway? How many already terrible premises can the ham-fisted author of the Born Loser mangle? Is the Wizard of Id guy even trying anymore? And so on.

That's where the internet comes in. Not only can you find thousands of webcomics, but you can find mainstream stuff that has been photoshopped into something that won't melt your eyes out of your head.

For instance, what if Garfield's thought bubbles were removed? What's left is an intimate and sad portrait of a lonely loser named Jon.

Your only friend is a cat that hates you.

Because your only friend is a cat that hates you, Jon.

Like any manic depressive, Jon goes through ups and downs. Mostly downs. But he has his silly moments:

Disco Jon
TMI

Sometimes you get a man playing with his cat:

Ha
I do this to my dog
Stupid cat
Cruel

But dig deeper, you find the madman who has suffered from 50 years of having nobody to talk to other than his cat:


Filbert?
Nice socks
They call them fingers, but they don't fing.
Crazy.
Cheese!

Living that way will not only make you stone cold insane, but you'll probably be pretty bored along the way:

Bored
Killing yourself is fun.

Is Garfield just a mirror for Jon and his psychosis? Is Jon bouncing his thoughts off of his cat to sort through them?

Touching.
Feeling fat, Jon?
Nowhere, chump.
Yes.
Pathetic

The realization must hit him after his "internal" dialogue makes him aware of how pathetic he is. Naturally, he takes it out on his cat.

Jerk
No.

Poor guy.

The best ones though are the surreal, random creations. Say what you want about them, they aren't boring:

Oh my!
Ouch.
Loser.
Wham!
I'd hit him too

Garfield + dark humor is a winner in my book. Poor Jon.