- Not to be confused with Jon Arbuckle, a major character in the Garfield comic strip.
Jon was a weekly comic strip created by Jim Davis, first published by the Pendleton Times from January 8th, 1976 to March 2nd, 1978. Originally the prototype for the comic strip Garfield, Davis later adapted some of the strips for Garfield.
History
After losing interest in his comic strip Gnorm Gnat, Jim Davis decided to do a comic strip called Jon, and had the strip run from January 1976 to March 1978. The strip centered around Jon Arbuckle, a cartoonist and his cat, Garfield. Supporting characters included Lyman, his dog, Spot (renamed "Odie" for Garfield, resulting in a rewrite of one the adapted strips featuring him), Irma, and Liz, originally depicted as a server at Irma's Diner.
Although Jon was still considered the main character, Garfield's role in the strip gradually expanded, and on September 1st, 1977, the strip was renamed to Garfield. On January 24th, 1978, Garfield was picked up by United Feature Syndicate to go national, and in March of 1978, Pendleton posted its last comic. Garfield would soon premiere nationally on June 19, 1978.
Quinton Review's Finding
On July 28, 2019, YouTuber Quinton Reviews uploaded a video by the name of Finding Lost Garfield Comics. In it, he reveals that he was initially looking for the original Gnorm Gnat comics, and contacted the town historian of Pendleton. After receiving a couple of Gnorm Gnat strips, the historian sent him the strip of Jon.[1] He eventually posted all strips that were scanned. [2]
Characters
Rough Sketches
