Customer Reviews

Garfield at Large: His First Book (Garfield (Numbered Paperback))

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, check out my review for Eats His Heart Out. Now, this book is his very first. You think he's fat now in 1999, check him out 21 years ago!!! It's all from 1978-1979. I would get this book first if you're new to the Garfield book collection.

This book was very funny. I think this book deserves 5 stars

Contains all the daily and Sunday strips June 19, 1978 through January 22, 1979.

This book:

Well, Paws decided to colourize the weekday strips for these new compilations and they look nice. I would have preferred it if they simply left them in black and white and had the Sunday strips in colour, though. The Sunday strips are the same as you would have seen in the newspaper or the "Garfield Treasuries". Except, the colour scheme is modified slightly (not a big deal) and they added the title block (the title "GARFIELD" rising out of the background, with Garfield lying down in front of it) which didn't exist until the early 1980s!

The later collections:

The problem is with the later collections. I noticed that some of these new colour collections which come after "Garfield at Large" have the funny front pages and end pages from the original collections moved around or missing entirely. This may have been a printing mistake, though.

Here is the big problem. The original black and white collections up to and including the sixteenth were missing the title and drop block from the Sunday strips. That is, the title block and the very first block of the strip. This didn't matter for the first few years as these didn't exist. A few years later, the title block mentioned in my first paragraph was introduced and the drop block simply showcased the four major characters, Garfield, Odie, Jon and Lyman. A little later, unique title blocks and drop blocks related to the strip's story were created.

Unfortunately, the new colour collections have the drop block REMOVED in the later collections, yet the unique title block is included. So the strips aren't complete, if you want to read the complete strips, I guess you have to visit the Garfield website.

Still, for the price, it's a great value. The books are printed on high quality paper as usual. Even the new colour "Fat Cat 3-Packs" are printed in higher quality paper instead of that awful "mass market paperback" paper they used to use for the older ones.

It seems every time I pick up a Garfield book I can't put it down. The books are simple, funny and unforgettable. Sure, most of the books have the same type of jokes and plots, but they are always treated differently so they don't get old. It's also neat to see how much Garfield has changed throughout the years. In the first book he is a really big cat, but in the newer books/strips he is much thinner and walking on two legs! I definitely recommend all Garfield books to all people. They're sure to brighten a dull day!

I've a lot of fond memories of this book. I read it multiple times when I was a kid, and I still find it very funny today as an adult. After "Calvin & Hobbes," this is my second favorite comic strip of all time. The book (and comic strip in general) is very funny, and a perfect complement to any coffee table.

The strips are about an overweight cat named, Garfield, who is lazy, sarcastic and mischievous as he constantly stirs up trouble and causes messes for his owner, Jon. My favorite strip in the book is a scene where Garfield and Jon are sitting on a bench in the park and Garfield keeps getting Jon into trouble by whistling at every girl that walks by. Each girl is accompanied by a big guy with bigger muscles. Jon claims to the guys that it's his cat that was whistling, but they don't believe him and end up punching Jon. Another classic strip in the book is when Garfield notices that Jon has a new sofa. Garfield doesn't like the sofa at first, but then he jumps up and down on it with his claws drawn until the sofa is all torn up. With a satisfied look on his face, Garfield relaxes on the sofa and says: "much better!"

I find that the biggest value that comes from this book is the ability to read it over and over again and still get a good thrill out of it every time. I hope you give the book a try.

Darien Summers, author of The Mischievous Hare, a children's book.

Like before, Garfield has once again stole the show. In his first book, Garfield is awesome!

Like every great lasagna, Garfield was born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant on a winter's night in 1978, while outside snow fell like gratd Parmesan cheese. He weighed five pounds, six ounces at birth--that's big for a kitten!--and the restrant owner sold Garfield to a pet store.

Jon Arbuckle then walked in the door.The very first of all the Garfield titles. I remember what a thrill it was to find out that I would be working for the same company that produces the books which made me laugh. It's in this first book that we discover Garfield, the plant eating, food loving (especially lasagna!), mailman terrorizing, furniture destroying, dog hating Red Tabby and his long suffering owner, Jon. Garfield's closest companion, Pooky the teddy bear, also appears, along with Lyman, the roommate and his dumb as a dead catfish dog, Odie. So, grab your Garfield slippers, pull up a chair and dive into some Garfield history!

The rest of Garfield is history sice June 1978.

A man called Lyman gives Jon his dog Odie and it's double trouble for poor Garfield!

Jon tryes to have garfeild declawed and he fails to give Garfield his vitimun pill and then Garfield Rescues a stuffed bear called pooky.

Appeares Garfield is lazy fat and proud!!!!

all 40 books are funny, but the first is in colour!!!!

I loved it!!!!

In my humble opinion, this book is a collection of the funniest stuff around at the time. Now of course, there are more Garfield books, and they are getting funnier every publishing. It's interesting to see how much the illustrations changed from the first strip in the book to the last. Garfield was a baby cynicist in this book, a far cry from his full cynicism today. But of course, this has to be one of the best Garfield comic collections of all.