Saturday, April 08, 2006

What's Garfield's Pantone Number?



Jon got a new mauve telephone, and there wasn't even a strip about it. And he bought a shirt the same color as Garfield's whisker pads.

There's a lot to dislike about having some hacks in upstate New York color everyone's comics. Doubtless, orders from PAWS are that everyone's fur and hair must be consistent, but after that - hey, if the table is pink yesterday and lavender today, who's gonna complain?

I think the monotonous limbo of the Garfield universe would be enhanced if colors were consistent in that undefined room with its unrealistic table. A cool thing about the Garfield and Friends show was how Jon's shirt was always the same blue (yes, VERY cool). That is, assuming the dailies should be colored at all. I was flipping through my trade paperbacks and remembering how ghostly the comic is in black and white, and how exciting the color-explosion was on Sundays. Now they'll just put Jon in a muzzle-color shirt - even though it's obviously drawn as the same shirt he always wears - just to keep things interesting. But a mauve phone? Things like this prevent one from decorating one's house like Jon's. By "one" I mean "me."

Synchronicity: My sister's name is Becky. I ran across a Calling For a Date Garfield yesterday where Jon called "Linda," my girlfriend's name. Somewhere in the deep tunnels of Calling For a Date episodes, Jon must have phoned every woman I know.

I am unclear in this strip if Jon is aware of what happened in his conversation with Becky. Jon is unswayed by rejection in the phone call strips, even though Garfield can deflate his confidence with no more than a withering look. That speaks volumes to how much value Jon puts in his cat's approval.

1 comment:

Gwen said...

Maybe John registers Garfield's emotions and not the women's because he sees women as a less evolved animal.