Garfield merchandise

Jim Davis's comic strip Garfield has generated a large amount of merchandise. The following is a compiled list of selected merchandise based on Garfield.

In the books, there are numerous 'extras' at the front and/or back. For example, in the 10th Birthday book, the beginning has an extract of a newspaper, stating "JIM DAVIS A FRAUD", with Pooky revealing Garfield has in fact been writing the strips. Garfield states "I hired some down-and-out hack cartoonist to take all the credit." denying several criticisms, which accused Davis was actually using ghostwriters, and not working on the strip at all. There was a bonus strip, which features a single panel at the end page of Garfield At Large showing Garfield walking in the sunset. There was also a bonus strip to fill in the book Garfield Gains Weight, which features a single panel with Garfield holding his face down in front of the TV.

These books, generally released twice a year by Ballantine Books, contain reprints of the comic as it appears in newspapers daily. These books were originally printed in black and white, but volumes 37 and later have been in full color. Each book collects approximately six months of comics, including the Sunday comics (in black and white in all except the recent editions).

The titles of these books were styled as double entendres alluding to Garfield's weight (Note: an extra at the end of a Garfield compilation advertised "rejected book titles"). These books introduced the "Garfield format" in publishing, whereby the rectangular books are horizontally oriented to match comic strip dimensions; Davis has recalled having to invent the format in order to better fit the books on store shelves. Volumes 37 and later introduced a new, larger square book in full color, showing the Sunday strips to be formatted in a size as they usually are, instead of shrunken-down to meet the book size. However, this means that the first panel after the logo box (called the drop panel because newspapers can drop it without ruining the point of the strip) is no longer printed in the compilation books.

Each of the original 36 books will be re-released in the new larger format, dubbed "Garfield Classics". So far, the first 30 books have been reprinted in this format.

The Garfield Classics imprint has been in print since 2001, and reprints Garfield's first 36 books in a "remastered" format, with increased page size, bolder lines, and each strip in full-color format. So far, the first 32 have been printed in this format.

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