PHILADELPHIA — Disdainful of Mondays but love lasagna? Chances are you know Garfield, the orange tabby with the low-key world view whose sardonic wit has been a staple among comic strips for more than three decades.
Now fans can get even closer to the cat and his so-called owner, Jon Arbuckle, in a move that blends real photos with creator Jim Davis’ signature art in an era of motion-comics and instant gratification. The series of animated “Garfield” comic strips is available online at and, shortly, on iPhone and iPad. Other mobile platforms are in the works.
The process is simple: Upload a photo of yourself, a family member or a friend and place it in one of several strips already available. Instead of Arbuckle’s or veterinarian Liz Wilson’s head, your photo is the picture.
A four-pack of animated comics costs 99 cents to personalize and can be streamed. Or users can download the finished product and share it for $3.99.
Davis, who created the cat decades ago, said he embraced the opportunity to put readers in his strips.
“It’s really a nod to where the industry is going,” Davis said. “. . . Everything is going online.”
“Garfield” is one of the most enduring strips in the industry. It appears daily in about 2,400 newspapers and has produced numerous books, animated specials and a pair of big-screen films.
