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Garfield TV Specials #3
Garfield in the Rough
It's off to the woods for Garfield, Jon, and Odie, camping in the great outdoors. But fun turns to fear when a panther escapes from a local zoo -- and heads straight for their campsite! It's the biggest challenge yet for the world's most famous feline and his pals!
64 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1984
About the author
Jim Davis
2,075 books589 followersJames Robert "Jim" Davis is an American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip Garfield. Other comics that he has worked on are Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, Slapstick, and a strip about Mr. Potato Head.
Jim Davis was born in Fairmount, Indiana, near Marion, where he grew up on a small farm with his father James William Davis, mother Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis, brother Dave, and 25 cats. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of his cartoon character Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birthday on July 28. Davis attended Ball State University. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity. He earned the dubious honor of earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the university, an honor incidentally shared with Late Show host David Letterman.
Davis as of 2007 resides in Muncie, Indiana, where he and his staff produce Garfield under his company, Paws, Inc., begun in 1981. He was married to Carolyn, a singer and elementary teacher whom he met while both were attending college, and has a son named James with her. However, the couple divorced, and Davis since 2000 has been married to Jill, Paws' senior vice president of licensing, who has worked there approximately 25 years.
Ironically, Davis did not own cats when he started Garfield because of Carolyn's allergies, but they owned a Labrador retriever named Molly. With Jill, the family has expanded to include children Ashley and Chris; three grandchildren, Chloe, Carly and Cody; cats, Spunky and Nermal; and a dog, Pooky.
Jim Davis was born in Fairmount, Indiana, near Marion, where he grew up on a small farm with his father James William Davis, mother Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis, brother Dave, and 25 cats. Davis' childhood on a farm parallels the life of his cartoon character Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, who was also raised on a farm with his parents and a brother, Doc Boy. Jon, too, is a cartoonist, and also celebrates his birthday on July 28. Davis attended Ball State University. While attending Ball State, he became a member of the Theta Xi fraternity. He earned the dubious honor of earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point averages in the history of the university, an honor incidentally shared with Late Show host David Letterman.
Davis as of 2007 resides in Muncie, Indiana, where he and his staff produce Garfield under his company, Paws, Inc., begun in 1981. He was married to Carolyn, a singer and elementary teacher whom he met while both were attending college, and has a son named James with her. However, the couple divorced, and Davis since 2000 has been married to Jill, Paws' senior vice president of licensing, who has worked there approximately 25 years.
Ironically, Davis did not own cats when he started Garfield because of Carolyn's allergies, but they owned a Labrador retriever named Molly. With Jill, the family has expanded to include children Ashley and Chris; three grandchildren, Chloe, Carly and Cody; cats, Spunky and Nermal; and a dog, Pooky.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 8, 2022
I wouldn’t say I’m a huge Garfield fan, but in the 80’s I loved that cat. I remember watching the cartoons and reading the comic strips. Finding this random comic was amazing. I had completely forgotten about Garfield in the Rough tv special. I picked up the comic and started to read it only to realize it wasn’t a collection of daily comic strips. It was a long form Garfield comic. It was still laced out like a classic newspaper comic strip, but the story wasn’t limited to three panels. It was amazing. Okay amazing might be to much, but it hit me right where it counts, nostalgia. After reading a few pages I started to remember the tv special. It’s been decades since watching it, but I had. This little comic took me back to my childhood. That doesn’t happen much.
This comic probably isn’t the best Garfield story. It might not be a great comic, but it is pure 80’s nostalgia. If you grew up in the 80’s and watched Garfield as a kid, you should pick this comic up and relive this story. It might not be for everyone, but it is a great piece of 80’s nostalgia. I’m probably going to make my kids read it too.
This comic probably isn’t the best Garfield story. It might not be a great comic, but it is pure 80’s nostalgia. If you grew up in the 80’s and watched Garfield as a kid, you should pick this comic up and relive this story. It might not be for everyone, but it is a great piece of 80’s nostalgia. I’m probably going to make my kids read it too.
June 10, 2021
I loved these so much as a kid I’m reading them for nostalgia.
July 7, 2015
a cute book/movie (actually TV special) combo that my sister told me about for our project. I always love Garfield and Odie as they remind me of my pets. This comic book is about their camping trip adventure.
Read
December 13, 2014the book was good but my all time favorite garfield book was Garfield's scary tales.
March 30, 2015
garfield pergi kemping. pulangnya dapat pengalaman baru yang tak terlupakan. sekaligus jadi pahlawan buat Jon.
November 21, 2017
Great comic
January 24, 2018
More like a 3.5. Cute story, but not majorly funny except for the beginning of it.
May 30, 2019
Interesting to see Garfield get out of the house!
April 20, 2020
It's Garfield, what's not to love?
August 17, 2020
Loved this little piece
June 27, 2023
One of my favorites from when I was a kid.
December 20, 2023
Enjoyed the t.v special and now I enjoy this.
July 16, 2019
When I was a kid, eight maybe nine years of age, I was a Garfield freak. I had all the books. I had the twin sheet and comforter set, which still occupies the same bed I had back then. I read the strip in the paper every day. And I had a plan, which sadly never game to pass, of decorating my bedroom — including orange walls with black stripes — totally Garfield. I loved Jim Davis’s illustration style, and did my best to mimic it (I still give every character I draw bulging, overlapping eyes). That Davis was from Indiana was huge for me, too. Hometown boy does good … Larry Bird, David Letterman, John Mellencamp, Kurt Vonnegut, Dan Quayle, Jimmy Hoffa … Err, well, maybe not those last two. Anyway, we Hoosiers gotta stick together.
But I digress. The Garfield bedroom never happened, and, if there had ever been any real chance for it, the window of opportunity was gone by the summer of 1984 when my brother, Nash, was born. The following fall, Calvin and Hobbes took my world by storm. About that same time I finally began noticing Gary Larson’s The Far Side, too. Garfield was suddenly for kids, and at the ripe old age of eleven I had decided I was no longer one of them.
All of this is to say that I haven’t thought much about Garfield in some thirty-five years. But my sister, Maggie, who was born after I left the world’s laziest cat in my rearview mirror, had heard and remembered how big a fan I was as a kid (my fandom being legendary), and for Christmas she got me a copy of “Garfield in the Rough.”
The book was adapted from the television special of the same name, both of which were released in the fall of 1984. That I didn’t own the book at the time and don’t remember seeing it on TV tells me my memories of moving on from the fat cat are pretty accurate. So, it is with a fair bit of fondness and a complete lack of Garfield awareness (I’ve never seen the live action movies with Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield) in the intervening three decades that I read this book before bed last night.
The setup is great. Like “The Wizard of Oz,” the story starts in black and white with Garfield and Jon moaning about how blah life is. Then suddenly Jon announces, “Let’s take a vacation!” and BAM their world turns to technicolor. Garfield imagines trips to Hawaii, Acapulco, and Venice before Jon bursts his bubble with the least Garfieldy of all Garfield vacations: a camping trip. The pace and humor kept a steady hum until about the halfway point when the plot, about a panther that has escaped from the local zoo, actually started to kick in. At that point, the tenor of what makes Garfield funny to me took a backseat to the story. Garfield was caught in a storyline that didn’t feel very Garfield. As a result, he lost his Garfieldness, and I lost my interest. I am reminded of some very un-Garfield movies that follow the same format — Act 1: Setup/Prep/Training; Act 2: The Mission — whose first halves I loved and whose second halves fell apart for me once the story kicked in: “Full Metal Jacket,” “Stripes,” “Armageddon.” It’s possible some things were lost in translation. After all, this book was adapted from the TV special, not the other way around. Music, sound effects, character voices — commercial interruptions — may all have contributed to a better result. I doubt it.
In any event, it can be fun to revisit something important from your past to see if it still resonates in the same way today. Maybe sometimes it does. Mostly it doesn’t. Those things are products of their time and place, like items in a time capsule, and, beyond their nostalgic value, will never carry the same meaning they once did. If they did, like some of my favorite childhood bands — Men At Work, Bryan Adams, and Hall and Oates — they would have been constant companions all these years. So, so long, Garfield. It was nice catching up, but see you in my memories.
But I digress. The Garfield bedroom never happened, and, if there had ever been any real chance for it, the window of opportunity was gone by the summer of 1984 when my brother, Nash, was born. The following fall, Calvin and Hobbes took my world by storm. About that same time I finally began noticing Gary Larson’s The Far Side, too. Garfield was suddenly for kids, and at the ripe old age of eleven I had decided I was no longer one of them.
All of this is to say that I haven’t thought much about Garfield in some thirty-five years. But my sister, Maggie, who was born after I left the world’s laziest cat in my rearview mirror, had heard and remembered how big a fan I was as a kid (my fandom being legendary), and for Christmas she got me a copy of “Garfield in the Rough.”
The book was adapted from the television special of the same name, both of which were released in the fall of 1984. That I didn’t own the book at the time and don’t remember seeing it on TV tells me my memories of moving on from the fat cat are pretty accurate. So, it is with a fair bit of fondness and a complete lack of Garfield awareness (I’ve never seen the live action movies with Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield) in the intervening three decades that I read this book before bed last night.
The setup is great. Like “The Wizard of Oz,” the story starts in black and white with Garfield and Jon moaning about how blah life is. Then suddenly Jon announces, “Let’s take a vacation!” and BAM their world turns to technicolor. Garfield imagines trips to Hawaii, Acapulco, and Venice before Jon bursts his bubble with the least Garfieldy of all Garfield vacations: a camping trip. The pace and humor kept a steady hum until about the halfway point when the plot, about a panther that has escaped from the local zoo, actually started to kick in. At that point, the tenor of what makes Garfield funny to me took a backseat to the story. Garfield was caught in a storyline that didn’t feel very Garfield. As a result, he lost his Garfieldness, and I lost my interest. I am reminded of some very un-Garfield movies that follow the same format — Act 1: Setup/Prep/Training; Act 2: The Mission — whose first halves I loved and whose second halves fell apart for me once the story kicked in: “Full Metal Jacket,” “Stripes,” “Armageddon.” It’s possible some things were lost in translation. After all, this book was adapted from the TV special, not the other way around. Music, sound effects, character voices — commercial interruptions — may all have contributed to a better result. I doubt it.
In any event, it can be fun to revisit something important from your past to see if it still resonates in the same way today. Maybe sometimes it does. Mostly it doesn’t. Those things are products of their time and place, like items in a time capsule, and, beyond their nostalgic value, will never carry the same meaning they once did. If they did, like some of my favorite childhood bands — Men At Work, Bryan Adams, and Hall and Oates — they would have been constant companions all these years. So, so long, Garfield. It was nice catching up, but see you in my memories.
September 3, 2016
Somehow, I got a hold of this before I ever saw the 1984 TV special, when Carlton the doorman was the voice of Garfield. I remember laughing at this but not much else about Garfield's misadventures when he is dragged along on a camping trip. My nostalgia is giving this a 4 though. It's one of the books I used to have as a kid and now miss. Here's a look at the back cover.
January 16, 2017
Simple, lazy Garfield. A character we can all relate to.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews