Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb.
It's an idea that's equal parts brilliant and insane. I mean, who would ever have the thought "I wonder what this comic would be like if we took out the main character?" It works though, in its own bizarre way.
The results are usually hilarious:
Often non-sensical:
Occasionally worrying:
And, more often that you'd suppose, poignant:
Major, major props to whoever does this (I can't figure out who it is from the Tumblr page). Now I'm curious what other comics, or even movies or TV shows would b like, if you removed one of the characters. I wonder what Batman would be like without Robin, talking to himself, occasionally saving himself from danger...
4 comments:
I'm amused that this thing has gotten so huge. Someone did this months and months (if not longer) ago, but instead of cutting Garfield completely, they just cut his word bubbles.
While still quite funny this way, the ones with Garfield but no bubbles were almost a little better. Something more amusing about Jon having a cat, made him a little more real or something.
Interesting. I can see why a guy talking to a cat like that would be funny as well. Personally, what intrigues me so much about this is all that empty space.
There are some of these, like the "not my lucky hat" one that are mostly empty panels. That's something most comics would never do (I don't know that it would ever occur to me), but it gives it a very interesting, contemplative feel.
I especially like the one where John contemplates a movie based on his life. It really strikes a chord with me. Honestly, if I could get a good quality version of that in a frame I'd hang it up right next to the computer here.
Really, these Garfield-less strips are quite good. The movie one is great, and I also like the last one you posted.
For reference, i did a little searching, and I found this great article I read some time ago, talking about recontextualization in strips.
http://wondermark.com/tcsd/stripdoc_12.html
It should be noted, some of the language in the recontextualized strips isn't exactly safe for work, although I suspect that's not a huge concern.
Halfway through the article, he starts talking about the Garfield randomizer, and then links to a forum where a ton of people posted the chat-less Garfield strips, where Jon still talks but Garfield's bubbles are pulled.
The Garfield ones are quite entertaining, and I highly recommend at least reading the latter half of the article, enjoying a few of the randomized strips for the awesome craziness they are, and then visiting the forum to enjoy some of the best Garfield I've read in awhile.
Ooh, great article. Thanks for the link, I didn't realize this sort of thing was going on, at least not in any real volume.
Come to think of it, I did something like this as a kid. My cousin and I spent an afternoon tracing images out of Garfield comics and making our own strips. They were terrible, sure, but I remember thinking then that it was interesting how you could re-purpose images like that.
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