Garfield - Created by cartoonist Jim Davis in 1977, (the strip first appeared in print on June 18, 1978) the Garfield character is a selfish, overweight orange and black feline with drooping eyelids who had a mad obsession for lasagna. Davis' inspiration for Garfield probably came from his childhood on a farm near Fairmont, Indiana where he was surrounded by some 25 cats. The Garfield character is named after Davis' grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis. The highly pessimistic, Garfield (Lorenzo Music provided the voice for his thoughts) is a tribute to the lazy person in all of us. His idea of a daily routine is sleeping, eating and occasionally biting a mail man or two just for the fun of it. Garfield is owned by a young cartoonist named Jon Arbuckle who also owned a happy, slobbering little dog named Odie whom Garfield perpetually taunts Garfield, now syndicated in over 2000 newspapers, has been the subject of such prime time animated TV specials as Here Comes Garfield (the first special seen in 1982), Garfield in the Rough, Garfield in Paradise, The Garfield Halloween Adventure, and A Garfield Thanksgiving as well as his own Saturday morning program GARFIELD AND FRIENDS/CBS/1988-95 and the theatrical cartoon (with "Cat-i-tude") Garfield: The Movie (2004). Jim Davis lives and works somewhere off a county road in Muncie, Indiana. Ironically, he no longer has any cats because his wife is allergic to them.