HERITAGE Auction is now offering examples of the original artwork for the Garfield comic strip, as part of a series of auctions of the Jim Davis Collection.
Both the daily and Sunday installments of the comic strip, which debuted in June 1978 in several American newspapers, are up for sale starting on July 9.
Bids for an individual strip start as low as US$6.
They feature emblematic characters of the comic, including chubby cat Garfield, his owner Jon Arbuckle and Odie the dog.
The auction house will also offer examples from Davis’s other comic strips, including U.S. Acres, which was produced in collaboration with Brett Koth.
The comic strip, which originally ran from 1986 to 1989, was centered on a group of barnyard animals, with the main character being Orson the pig.
As pointed out by The New York Times, these auctions come ahead of the downsizing of the headquarters of PAWS, Inc. located in Muncie, Indiana.
The creative house was founded in 1981 by Davis to oversee Garfield licensing. Over time, technology has changed the way the company operates, with product approvals and creative sessions now conducted online.
“The last strip I did on paper was in 2011,“ Davis told the New York Times.
“Garfield” still remains the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world, appearing in some 2,750 newspapers across the globe.
Over the years, the strip has spawned several animated television specials, two live-action films (Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) and three direct-to-videos movies (Garfield Gets Real, Garfield’s Fun Fest and Garfield’s Pet Force).
Additional information about the Jim Davis Collection and the ongoing auctions of Garfield strips can be found on the website of Heritage Auction. - AFP
