13 Years Later, Garfield's Best Official Comic Is Still This Existential Nightmare

Published Sep 18, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

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For nearly 50 years, Jim Davis has been delighting readers with the daily happenings of Garfield. The classic gag-a-day comic strip is one of the most popular strips of all time, putting Davis in league with legends like Charles Schulz and Ernie Bushmiller. Garfield is so popular that the lasagna-loving cat has been the star of his own TV shows and movies, as well as becoming a merchandising machine selling countless shirts, toys, and window hangers.

While Davis has gotten strange, or even dark, with Garfield from time to time, the artist usually keeps his strip clear of anything challenging, instead giving readers a quick laugh. But for some, the Garfield comic strip is too simplistic. There are people out there who desire something deeper, something that fills them with the kind of existential dread Franz Kafka was looking for. One of those people may be Dan Walsh, the creator of Garfield Minus Garfield.

Garfield Minus Garfield Lets The World See A Man Lose His Connection To Reality

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In his Garfield Minus Garfield strips, Dan Walsh recenters Jim Davis' work on Jon Arbuckle. In the usual strips, Jon serves as the straight man to Garfield's dry humor, always stuck having to do what his big orange cat wants and constantly struggling to believe in himself. Walsh takes Davis' work and removes Garfield, leaving Jon as the sole figure in the strips. Jon is no longer a young, depressed man who can't get a date and is going broke buying endless lasagnas for his cat. Instead, he is a man who has lost his mind, speaking to himself or just sitting in silence, staring at nothing.

To see the life of Jon Arbuckle without his pets is to see a man who lives a truly isolated life. It seems possible that poor Jon has no friends or family. Or, perhaps even more nightmare-inducing, Jon could very well be the last living human in a world that suffered a cataclysmic event. It could be that, in Walsh's version of Davis' creation, Jon Arbuckle is living inside a bomb shelter after a nuclear war, never knowing if anyone else is alive out there, or how long he can last alone in his confined space before he can no longer take the solitude and just walks into the irritated world without protection. But, for the reader, all of it is quite funny.

Jim Davis Is A Big Fan Of Garfield Minus Garfield

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While some creators, like Alan Moore, get very upset when someone else plays with their toys, Jim Davis is apparently quite happy to see others build on what he created. The Garfield creator told the Washington Post he thought Dan Walsh's work was "inspired," going on to say, "Some of the strips were slappers: 'Oh, I could have left that out.' It would have been funnier."

Davis so enjoyed what Walsh had created that he agreed to publish a book of Garfield Minus Garfield strips that would put Walsh's version next to the original strips, letting readers see both of Jon Arbuckle's realities and deciding which one is sadder (or funnier). David even took a stab at creating his own Garfield Minus Garfield strips that are included in the book. Sadly, the Garfield Minus Garfield book is out of print, but it is available as a digital release. And Walsh's original Garfield Minus Garfield site is still active, though it has been a while since he last updated it. Hopefully it is because Walsh is living a fulfilling life and not sitting at a counter at home talking to himself.