Jon (found prototype "Garfield" comic strip; 1976-1978)
Garfield's appearence in these comic strips, varying greatfully from his appearence today.
Status: Partially Found
By now almost everyone knows about Jim Davis's famous comic strip cat Garfield. However, what is much lesser known is the fact that before Garfield was syndicated into several mainstream newspapers, Jim Davis had published various "Prototype" Garfield comics weekly in the Pendleton, Indiana newspaper, The Pendleton Times. These comics were interestingly titled Jon.
About
Jon centers around the titular character Jon, along with his plain, stripe-less cat, Garfield. Lyman, the character who eventually disappeared infamously with no explained reason in Garfield, also had an appearance here, along with his dog, "Spot." Spot, as you may have guessed, is the prototype Odie in this comic strip. It's unknown why his name was changed, but a likely reason is that the name "Spot" is a very stereotypical name for a dog, which was actually made fun of in one of the comics. This name change also resulted in Davis having to alter the punchline of one of the comics so it would still work in Garfield. Most comics in this series would eventually get slightly altered and be rereleased as Garfield comics when those came out, however there were a few unique comics here, which never got adapted into Garfield.
Name Change
After September 1st, 1977, the name Jon was changed to Garfield. after the cat in the comic strip.
Mainstream Syndication
On March 2nd, 1978, it was revealed to Pendleton Times readers that the newly-named Garfield would be getting syndicated into more Mainstream newspapers. 2 final prototype strips were shown as a farewell, showing designs for Garfield and Jon much closer to how they looked in the first few mainstream Garfield strips.
Availability
Knowing The Pendleton Times was a weekly publication, and that the first Jon comic strip was made on January 8th, 1976 and the last on March 2nd, 1978, we could say at least 104 Jon comic strips exist. However, currently only 38 have been preserved on the internet in a PDF file, with the rest being lost as of now.[1] However, The currently found ones were discovered in a public library in Pendleton, along with several Gnorm Gnat comic strips, Jim Davis's other Pendleton Times comic. So, there's a large chance the lost comics will be found in the future.
Gallery
The Very First Jon comic strip.
Comparison between a Jon comic strip and Garfield comic strip, where the punchline was changed to reflect Odie's name change.
The first comic with the name changed to Garfield.
The last 2 prototype Garfield comics.
External Links
- Video by Quintin Reviews covering these lost comics. (8:55) Retrieved 23 Aug '19