Jon (comic strip)

Not to be confused with Jon Arbuckle, a major character in the Garfield comic strip.

Jon
Creator	Jim Davis
Artist	Jim Davis
Publisher	The Times-Post
Launch date	January 8, 1976
End date	March 2, 1978

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 bachelor 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.

In anniversary books such as 20 Years & Still Kicking! and Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead, installments from the strip would appear in sections describing the development of Garfield, although they were referred to as sample strips from Davis' sketchbook. However, Davis has said at least once that the strip did run in a local newspaper.

Square Root of Minus Garfield

The first Jon comic surfaced to the public was the one from June 9, 1977. Submitted by author Muchacho1994 (who did not know where he found the image), it was published on parody webcomic Square Root of Minus Garfield under the title "Embryonic Garfield" on January 22, 2018.

Quinton Review's Rediscovery

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. He eventually posted all strips that were scanned. After a later trip to Pendleton and Indianapolis, Quinton recovered the entire history of the strip and spent time restoring each one. He finally unveiled the results of his work in another video on June 5th, 2020 and uploaded an archive of the restored strips.

Due to no copyright notice on all of the strips (except for some later ones), the strips have fallen into the public domain.

Characters

• Jon Arbuckle
• Garfield
• Spot
• Lyman
• Irma
• Liz

Rough Sketches

Sketches for "Jon"

Garfield

A rough sketch of the January 5, 1978 strip. From 20 Years and Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection.

Garfield dancing. From 20 Years and Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection.

Excerpt from ''Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Early sketches of the October 7, 1976 strip. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

A sketch of Garfield sitting on a chair. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

A version of the sketch of Garfield sitting with more horizontal content.

Graded submissions from the late-1970's, featuring the June 9 and July 28, 1977 strips. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

A set of poses for the Jon version of Garfield, from Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Other Characters

A sketch of Jon's design starting in September 1976.

Another sketch of Jon's design starting in September 1976.

A sketch of Liz's design starting in September 1976.

Another sketch of Liz's design starting in September 1976.

A sketch of Lyman's design.

A sketch of Lyman's design starting in October 1976.

Sketches of Spot's design starting in October 1976.

Redesign Sketches of Garfield (c. 1977 - Early 1978)

Garfield lying down. From 30 Años De Risas y Lasaña : Ida y Épocas De Una Gorda y Peluda Leyenda!

Garfield preparing. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Garfield pouncing toward a mouse. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Garfield scratching. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Garfield walking off. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Garfield in a sink. From 20 Years and Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection.

Garfield in a quadruped stance. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Garfield from the front. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Miscellaneous

Sketches of what would become the July 30, 1978 strip, using the Jon version of Garfield. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

A sketch of a comic strip that refers to Odie as Spot. From 20 Years and Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection.

An early photo of Jim Davis working, with a set of sketches of Garfield's redesign behind him. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Another early photo of Jim Davis working. From Garfield at 25: In Dog Years I'd Be Dead.

Colored version of the sketch of Garfield lying. From 20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection.

Colored sketch of Garfield smiling. From 20 Years & Still Kicking!: Garfield's Twentieth Anniversary Collection.

References

For a pdf of the complete Jon & Gnorm Gnat comic strips edited in the style of the classic Garfield books from the 1980s, go here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-D81UjjacSFH2Jo4W3glNM4DhUTkD2Yz?usp=sharing