Sad: We're Thrilled That A Content Creator Isn't Suing Over A Derivative Work

from the a-sign-of-the-times dept

A friend of mine sent me to Garfield minus Garfield a few months back. It's a slightly bizarre and surreal showing of Garfield comic strips where the lead character, Garfield the cat, is removed from the cartoon, leaving only his owner Jon Arbuckle. The result is that it totally changes the meaning of some of the strips, leading to a sort of... existential despair. The NY Times wrote a story about it this week, which I read -- but perhaps the most interesting point is noted by Mathew Ingram: Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield isn't bothered by it. In fact, he seems to enjoy it, having thanked the creator of the site, and noted that it made him go back and look at the entire body of Garfield comics in a very different light. What's somewhat sad about this is the fact that a content creator not reacting angrily or threatening to sue (or just filing suit) over a derivative work is considered so rare to merit mentioning. Clearly, we still have a long way to go.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copyright, derivative works, garfield, garfield without garfield, jim davis


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 3 Jun 2008 @ 2:42am

    *Sigh*

    What a depressing site. What next--LOLcats without the cats?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    PaulT (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 2:51am

    That's great to hear. With the controversially redesigned Dilbert site encouraging remixing and recaptioning of cartoon, at least one area of the entertainment biz is thinking...

    As for the strip, that's weird but there's another one I liked more. I don't have a link but rather than removing Garfield entirely, it just removed Garfield's speech bubbles. Somehow, a man going nuts in front of his cat rather than alone seemed even more poignant...!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    MadJo (profile), 3 Jun 2008 @ 4:45am

    Re: *Sigh*

    Invisible lolcats? Has already been done:
    http://lolcatz.net/144/invisible-lolcat/

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    ehrichweiss, 3 Jun 2008 @ 6:09am

    bizarre

    Those are incredibly weird. Glad to hear that Davis understands this a bit better than most.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Eliot, 3 Jun 2008 @ 6:20am

    Jim Davis is a sellout...

    Jim Davis understands the business very well, but it's because he's an unapologetic sellout. Realize, I say this with no malice, the guy knows precisely how to sell stuff and make Garfield bankable.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Dan, 3 Jun 2008 @ 6:48am

    Re: Jim Davis is a sellout...

    Exactly. Try doing "Garfield Minus Jon and Odie" and see how many seconds it takes before Davis sues you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Me, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:02am

    Wow

    I find those cartoons rather creepy. They are slightly funny until I recall my sisters constant struggle with depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and mania. Then they make me sad. So good looking out tech dirt on depressing me before 7am.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    TheDock22, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:21am

    Love Them

    I have been reading Garfield Minus Garfield for months. I think they are great!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:39am

    I am pretty sure this was thought about by Something Awful forum members for a thread, I remember reading it awhile back. It's a funny concept.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    www.custompcmax.com, 3 Jun 2008 @ 7:42am

    This is really interesting. I read a bunch of these and I feel depressed. I find it so facinating that these strips still work, albiet a completely different tone, without the main character. I wonder if there is anything to be said about Jon Davis's mind in this. Is he Jon...?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Yup, 3 Jun 2008 @ 8:25am

    Re: I was thinking the same thing

    Davis is a sick puppy, thats my conclusion.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Nasch, 3 Jun 2008 @ 9:37am

    Interesting

    There seems to be an almost universal agreement that the strip is depressing without Garfield. Personally, I find them far more amusing than the real Garfield strip. I'm not sure what that says about my sense of humor...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Another Bad Idea, 3 Jun 2008 @ 9:42am

    Dibs on the movie rights

    Coming soon to a YouTube near you
    It's that loveable zany cat like
    you've never seen him before,
    or at all, at least in this movie...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Nightmare, 3 Jun 2008 @ 10:07am

    it's awesome

    I found out about the site a number of months ago through Penny-arcade.com. I have the site in my RSS feed and I check it out every day. It's always good for a laugh.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2009 @ 1:01am

    Re: *Sigh*

    Isn't that what Garfield is?

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.