Apology Garfield Veterans Day Comic Strip

Cartoonist Jim Davis has apologized for a "Garfield" strip which ran on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) that some critics saw as making fun of the holiday honoring those who served in the U.S. military. Jim Davis created the famous comic strip regarding the grumpy lasagna-loving orange tabby cat that appeared in newspapers countrywide on Veterans Day.

Veterans Day Comic Strip shows a spider daring the pudgy orange cat to flatten it. This strip showed a spider caution the comic's featured cat, the lazy and obese Garfield that if the feline "squishes" him, then an annual day of commemoration will be held in his honor. In the series Garfield often crushes spiders, apparently is undeterred and the strip closes with a classroom of spiders being asked why they observe "National Stupid Day."

In a statement posted on his website, Davis said that he didn't know the strip would come out on Veterans Day. He said that almost a year ago it was written and called the publication Thursday "the worst timing ever." Davis said, “It absolutely, positively has nothing to do with this important day of remembrance".

A spokesman for the Indianapolis-based American Legion, John Raughter, looked at the strip as well as Davis' statement after the cartoon was brought to his awareness by a reporter and said an apology was not essential. Raughter said, "We have no reason to doubt his explanation of what happened".

The cartoon strip is the most broadly syndicated in the world, as per Guinness World Records, and appears in over 2,600 newspapers, according to the Garfield Website http://garfield.com/.

Video of Garfield Comic Strips - The first ten weeks from youtube: