Jim Davis was born on July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana. He grew up on his family’s Black Angus cow farm. As a child, he spent
most of his time inside drawing pictures. He went to Ball State University where he majored in art and business.

Jim worked in advertising for two years before landing a job as an assistant to Tom Ryan, creator of “Tumbleweeds”, where he learned the ins and outs of becoming a syndicated cartoonist. Soon, he created his famous cartoon cat Garfield, who he named after his grandfather, Garfield Davis.

Garfield debuted on June 19, 1978 in 41 papers. The strip is now read in nearly 2,600 papers, and has a world wide readership of of over 260 million readers.

There are many Garfield Books that you can purchase through this website.

Jim Davis has won the National Cartoonists Society’s Best Humor Strip award in 1981 and again in 1985, the Reuben Award in 1990, and the Licensing Hall of Fame in 1998. Garfield has won four Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Animated Program category.

He is also founder and president of Paws Inc, a licensing studio.