Jim Davis

My artist hero is Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield. Born on July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, Jim Davis was raised on a small Black Angus farm with his parents, Betty and James Davis, and his brother, Dave (Doc). He had 25 cats in his house when he was born, and suffered asthma in junior high school. His asthma might probably be the reason he had one of the lowest cumulative grade averages in the history of Ball State University.

Before he created Garfield, he created other comic strips such as Gnorm Gnat, Tumbleweed, and Mr. Potato Head. Gnorm Gnat ran for 5 years in the Pendleton Times, an Indiana newspaper, but his wish to get his comic strips into the national comic strip syndicate failed, because an editor rejected him. He said that although it was almost perfect, people cannot relate to a fly.

Garfield had a syndication in 41 newspapers on June 19, 1978, and if the Chicago-Sun Times had not canceled the strip, there would not have been the result of an outcry from 1300 readers. Garfield quickly became the fastest selling comic strip in the world after being reinstated in the newspaper. Right now, it is syndicated in 2400 newspapers, and is read by almost 200 million people. Jim Davis' Garfield earned its place in the Guinness World Records as being the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world. Then, sometime in the 1980s, he created U.S. Acres, a not so popular barnyard-slapstick starring Orson the pig, which was the reason it was called Orson's Farm outside the U.S. Also, with Brett Koth, he also created the 2000-2003 comic strip based on the toy Mr. Potato Head.

He has won many awards, such as the Elzie Segar award in 1985, the Reuben award in 1990, and 4 Emmy awards from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. There are many things Jim Davis does while he is not working on Garfield. One of the things was spending time with James Alexander, his son. Golf, chess, good friends, fishing, and sandwiches are his other hobbies.

Jim Davis is my hero because he never gave up on his dream to create a successful comic. Eventually, his comic, Garfield, even became the most widely syndicated comic strip around the world. He also helped me with thinking up funny things to say when I need to.