3.92

5

Jun 04, 2013

I've read this one many times, and I love it (and it freaks me out) every single time. My last read-through was maybe 10-15 years ago, and it still holds up (with the exception of "The Garden", the weakest story in the book). This is the best Garfield book, and well worth a read, whether you're a fan or not.

5

Nov 03, 2015

I was alerted to this book by "Family Guy", and then discovered my wife had it in her extensive collection of comics.

It really is something of an opus, stretching from comedy to drama to horror, and is hard to explain without spoiling the pleasure of reading it cover-to-cover.

4

Aug 12, 2011

It's like Jim Davis got his staff together and said, "hey, draw me some fanart, will ya?" I read a review of this somewhere online. Hijinks Ensue, perhaps? In any case, I thought it looked interesting and I got it from my local library. The premise is simple: Garfield in nine different genres, each representing a different 'life,' arranged in loose chronological order. The book was published in 1984 so some of the stories are a little dated at this point.

Two of them stand out. 'Lab Animal' It's like Jim Davis got his staff together and said, "hey, draw me some fanart, will ya?" I read a review of this somewhere online. Hijinks Ensue, perhaps? In any case, I thought it looked interesting and I got it from my local library. The premise is simple: Garfield in nine different genres, each representing a different 'life,' arranged in loose chronological order. The book was published in 1984 so some of the stories are a little dated at this point.

Two of them stand out. 'Lab Animal' reads like an early precursor to Grant Morrison's We3. 'Primal Self' is disturbing in its open-ending-ness. It makes me think of the TV procedural cliche of cats munching on corpses. The representation of Garfield in this stories are so far beyond how we would characterize the orange fat cat of newspaper fame. However, the craftiness and voracious hunger we associate with Garfield today is readily apparent in those stories, which is why they are so interesting.

I'd recommend this book for Garfield fans with an interest in psychology. ...more

4

Jan 14, 2009

It still seems incredible to me that the same guy who has churned out 30 years of a by-the-book, middle-of-the-road daily comic, which long ago sold its soul to the licensing gods, could have ever put out a mainstream graphic novel/comic collection as bizarre and perverse as this. This collection of nine short stories, each illustrated by a different artist, was a late childhood favorite of mine. The stories run the gamut from Argones style adventure comedy, to film noir parodies, psychedelic It still seems incredible to me that the same guy who has churned out 30 years of a by-the-book, middle-of-the-road daily comic, which long ago sold its soul to the licensing gods, could have ever put out a mainstream graphic novel/comic collection as bizarre and perverse as this. This collection of nine short stories, each illustrated by a different artist, was a late childhood favorite of mine. The stories run the gamut from Argones style adventure comedy, to film noir parodies, psychedelic head-trips, and Tales of the Crypt style horror stories. The art is as diverse as the story telling and veers from traditional panel style strips to lush pencil drawings, airbrushed pop style art, and several other distinctive styles.

For any fan of graphic story telling, this is a weird little detour I recommend. Don't let the Garfield name fool you. ...more

4

Dec 10, 2017

I'm not sure what to say about this that hasn't already been said. This book is a brilliant combination of storytelling styles and is a fascinating, slightly bent look at a character we all grew up reading in the funnies. For me, probably because I am also slightly bent, the best part was "Lab Animal" and a possible callback in "Garfield." "Primal Self" is indeed terrifying. All together, it's a weird book with both incredibly dark stories contrasting with the goofy cartoon hijinks we expect I'm not sure what to say about this that hasn't already been said. This book is a brilliant combination of storytelling styles and is a fascinating, slightly bent look at a character we all grew up reading in the funnies. For me, probably because I am also slightly bent, the best part was "Lab Animal" and a possible callback in "Garfield." "Primal Self" is indeed terrifying. All together, it's a weird book with both incredibly dark stories contrasting with the goofy cartoon hijinks we expect from Garfield. My only real complaint was it's so short, though that may be for the best, considering what makes "Self" and "Animal" so creepy is in part their abruptness and open-endedness.

...What makes this really... creepy? is that Jim Davis wrote almost all of these, including "Primal Self" and "Lab Animal." Is there something in the water down there in Muncie? ...more

5

Feb 25, 2018

This was very fun and inventive. The quirky stories and variety of art styles make this book interesting for any fan.

5

Dec 05, 2017

I loved this book as well as the others. It is another work of fine comedy and children will love it. It is a great book .

5

Oct 27, 2018

Never thought I'd give a Garfield book five stars, but this is it.

3

May 17, 2017

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Second book recommendation I've gotten from Family Guy. They were right, that 7th story was pretty nightmarish.

5

Sep 13, 2017

It was a generally great book especially because i love Garfield!

3

Dec 16, 2008

Wow, I dug this out of my kids books and re-read it and really appraised it as something ahead of its time. What this volume is is nine stories about the cartoon Garfield the cat without being explicitly in Garfield's style. Each story is very short but while many are silly, some are downright scary - such as the one about the cat vs primal nature or one about the cat that escapes from the experimental lab. My personal favorites are the Sam Spayed prose story (pulpy noir) and the Vikings (a very Wow, I dug this out of my kids books and re-read it and really appraised it as something ahead of its time. What this volume is is nine stories about the cartoon Garfield the cat without being explicitly in Garfield's style. Each story is very short but while many are silly, some are downright scary - such as the one about the cat vs primal nature or one about the cat that escapes from the experimental lab. My personal favorites are the Sam Spayed prose story (pulpy noir) and the Vikings (a very MAD magazine type of story). This book reminds me of the Bizarro volumes that DC made in which artists were encouraged to use DC's characters in new ways. ...more

4

May 11, 2011

Jim Davis and his pals took some drugs and brought our idea of Garfield to several new levels. We follow our favorite fat orange cat through the stone ages, the time of the vikings, a nice 1940s detective reality starring Garfield as Sam Spayed (loved the pun), a three stooges parody, a fun scientific experiment where a realistic Garfield gets experimented on and hunted down, a psychedelic garden trip, an evil version of the G-Cat, some modern day hi-jinks, and a super fun look into what the Jim Davis and his pals took some drugs and brought our idea of Garfield to several new levels. We follow our favorite fat orange cat through the stone ages, the time of the vikings, a nice 1940s detective reality starring Garfield as Sam Spayed (loved the pun), a three stooges parody, a fun scientific experiment where a realistic Garfield gets experimented on and hunted down, a psychedelic garden trip, an evil version of the G-Cat, some modern day hi-jinks, and a super fun look into what the future has in store.

Overall, this collection was a complete win. Some stories are better than others, but for anyone who likes Garfield, this is a great addition to the collection. ...more

4

Sep 14, 2013

I really loved six of these cute stories, but what I dislike is the time-travel and the 'primal self' cartoon. It was sooooo spooky! But I enjoyed others, like the comic-style pictures. I also despised the violence and horror!!!!! Anyway, the wonderful storylines did not interfere with the clarified manner and meaning of these 8 stories I really thought were interesting.

3

Nov 29, 2007

This book was eventually passed on to my brother, the comic collector. I read this book several times. It shows Garfield in each of his lives. There is a cave man one, a viking one, a scary one, a silly cutesy one, a pulp mystery one, his normal life with Jon, a space one, etc. I believe there was also a TV special of them all too.