Jim Davis (cartoonist)

Infobox Person
name = Jim Davis


caption =
birth_name = James Robert Davis
birth_date = birth date and age|1945|7|28
birth_place = Fairmount, Indiana, U.S.
known_for = "Garfield" comic strip
(1978-present)
occupation = Cartoonist
parents = Jim Sr. (father)
Anna (mother)

James Robert "Jim" Davis (born July 28, 1945), is an American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip "Garfield". Other comics that he has worked on include "Tumbleweeds", "Gnorm Gnat", "U.S. Acres" a.k.a. Orson's Farm, and a strip about Mr. Potato Head. He has written Emmy-award winning TV specials and was also one of the producers behind the "Garfield & Friends" TV show which aired on CBS from 1988-1995. In addition, he is currently the writer and co-producer of a trilogy of CGI-direct-to-video feature films about Garfield; the first one, "Garfield Gets Real", was released in 2007.

Biography

Personal

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.Fact|date=December 2007

Ironically, considering his fame as a cartoonist who draws a cat, his first wife Carolyn (Altekruse) was allergic to cats"Those Catty Cartoonists," "Time" magazine, Dec. 07, 1981; available online at [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953256-1,00.html Time magazine] website.] although they owned a dog named Molly [http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Jim%20Davis Jim Davis at Everything2.com] ] . They have a son, James Alexander Davis [ [http://www.nndb.com/people/523/000023454/ NNDB profile] , accessed March 15 2008] On July 16, 2000, Davis married his current wife Jill. They have three children: James, Ashley, and Christopher.

Davis as of 2007 resides in Albany, Indiana, where he and his staff produce "Garfield" under his company, Paws, Inc., begun in 1981. Paws, Inc. employs nearly 50 artists and licensing administrators, who work with agents around the world managing Garfield's vast licensing, syndication, and entertainment empire.

Davis and his wife Jill, Sr. VP of Licensing at Paws, have three children and three grandchildren.

Professional

Prior to creating Garfield, Davis worked for a local advertising agency and in 1969 began assisting Tom Ryan's comic strip, "Tumbleweeds". He then created a comic strip, "Gnorm Gnat", that ran for five years in "The Pendleton Times", an Indiana newspaper. Davis tried to sell it to a national comic strip syndicate, but an editor told him, "Your art is good, your gags are great, but bugs — nobody can relate with bugs!"

On June 19, 1978, "Garfield" started syndication in 41 newspapers. Things were going well until the Chicago Sun-Times cancelled the strip, prompting an outcry from 1300 readers. Garfield was reinstated and the strip quickly became the fastest selling comic strip in the world. Today it is syndicated in 2400 newspapers and is read by approximately 200 million readers each day.

In the 1988-1994 cartoon series Garfield and Friends, one episode ("Mystic Manor") has a scene where Garfield slid down a fireman's pole in a haunted house, and Davis has a brief cameo as himself drawing a cartoon.

In the 1980s, Davis also created the barnyard-slapstick comic strip "U.S. Acres", featuring Orson the Pig. Outside the U.S., the strip was known as "Orson's Farm". Davis also created a 2000-2003 strip based on the toy Mr. Potato Head with Brett Koth.

In 2005, Davis appeared in the music video "Lazy Muncie", a parody of the "Saturday Night Live" video "Lazy Sunday".

Most recently, Jim Davis founded The Professor Garfield Foundation, to support children’s literacy. A free educational web site http://www.professorgarfield.org offers content that is engaging and pedagogically sound, and is the cornerstone of the Foundation’s work.

Awards

References

* Kim Campbell, Director of Public Relations, Paws, Inc.
* Bruce McCabe, "The Man Who Put Garfield On Top", The Boston Globe, March 8, 1987.