13 Garfield Characters Who Built the Lasagna Empire

The protagonist. An orange tabby cat with a sarcastic worldview, a deep hatred for Mondays, an obsessive love for lasagna, and a complete refusal to do anything that resembles physical exercise. Garfield was based on Jim Davis’s grandfather (also named James A. Garfield Davis), who was known for being grumpy and stubborn.

The character is the comic strip’s perfect comedic engine — he’s lazy enough to do nothing, but smart enough to make biting commentary about why doing nothing is actually correct. He’s been voiced by Lorenzo Music in the original animated series, Bill Murray in the 2004 live-action film, and Chris Pratt in the 2024 animated movie.

The Lorenzo Music vs. Bill Murray connection: Bill Murray reportedly took the 2004 Garfield role partly because he confused the project with a Coen Brothers film (the screenwriter was Joel Cohen, not Joel Coen). Lorenzo Music, the original Garfield voice, had also voiced Peter Venkman in The Real Ghostbusters, a role Bill Murray originated in live-action. Music essentially became Murray’s animated voice double before Murray took over Garfield. Genuinely strange Hollywood casting karma.

Garfield’s owner. A bumbling, single, perpetually unlucky cartoonist (yes — Jon’s profession is “cartoonist” in-strip, making him a meta-joke about Jim Davis himself). Jon spends most of the comic strip’s run as a lonely bachelor with terrible fashion sense, an inability to get a date, and a deep dependence on his cat for companionship.

In later strip arcs, Jon finally starts dating Dr. Liz Wilson (the vet). They’re now in a long-term relationship, which represents some of the only character development the strip has ever allowed.

The dog. A yellow beagle-ish creature with a permanently lolling tongue, no apparent intelligence, and infinite loyalty. Odie is the slapstick foil to Garfield’s deadpan. He gets kicked off tables. He gets pushed off porches. He keeps coming back for more because he loves Garfield (apparently) despite all evidence that this love is not reciprocated.

Odie was originally introduced as the pet of Lyman, a character who later mysteriously vanished from the strip (more on him below). After Lyman’s disappearance, Odie just… stayed. The comic never explained this. Nobody ever asked. He’s been Jon and Garfield’s housemate for over 40 years and nobody discusses how he got there.

The world’s cutest kitten. Nermal is a small gray cat who shows up to torment Garfield by being adorable. He’s introduced as Jon’s friend’s cat (Jon’s friend is mentioned but rarely shown), and his entire personality is a smug awareness of his own cuteness.

Garfield’s running gag with Nermal is threatening to mail him to Abu Dhabi. This is a real recurring joke that has been in the strip for decades. Nermal is, technically, still living somewhere, and the threat of being shipped to a Middle Eastern country has hung over him since the 1980s.

The Abu Dhabi joke is genuinely weird now: The “mail Nermal to Abu Dhabi” gag dates from a pre-globalization era when Abu Dhabi was Jim Davis’s shorthand for “somewhere very far away.” Modern readers, who definitely know where Abu Dhabi is, sometimes find the joke unintentionally hilarious for entirely different reasons than Davis intended.

Garfield’s on-again, off-again girlfriend. A pink cat with a gap-toothed smile and a sharp wit that more than matches Garfield’s own. Arlene is one of the few characters who can actually win arguments against Garfield — she’s smart, sarcastic, and refuses to put up with his nonsense.

Their relationship is a recurring strip element. They argue. They flirt. They break up. They get back together. Arlene is one of the few characters who treats Garfield as an equal rather than a tyrant, which is probably why their dynamic has worked for so long.

Garfield’s teddy bear. Pooky is, technically, an inanimate stuffed bear. Functionally, Pooky is one of the most important characters in the entire strip. Garfield’s relationship with his teddy bear is the rare moment when the cynical, sarcastic cat shows genuine, undefended affection.

Pooky has been a fixture since 1978. The strip will occasionally have entire arcs about Garfield losing Pooky, looking for Pooky, or worrying about Pooky’s well-being. Through it all, Garfield’s love for the bear is treated as the one sincere thing about him. It’s a small, lovely piece of character writing in a strip that doesn’t usually allow itself sincerity.

Garfield’s veterinarian and Jon’s eventual girlfriend. Liz started as the unattainable woman Jon could never date — she’d refuse him every time he asked her out, providing endless comedic fuel. Then in 2006, the strip finally let them get together, and Liz has been a recurring character ever since.

She’s smart, professional, and (it’s eventually revealed) just as geeky as Jon. The pairing actually works once they get over the “she’s out of his league” framing. Liz brought genuine character development to a strip that almost never allows it. She was played by Jennifer Love Hewitt in the 2004 and 2006 live-action films.

The biggest Garfield mystery: Lyman was Jon’s housemate and Odie’s original owner from 1978 to 1983. He had a mustache, glasses, and a reasonable amount of dialogue. Then around 1983, Lyman just… stopped appearing in the strip. He was never mentioned again. Odie stayed. No explanation was ever given. For 43 years now, fans have speculated wildly about what happened to him.

The Lyman mystery has become one of the most famous “lost character” mysteries in comic strip history. Jim Davis has addressed it occasionally — he’s said in interviews that Lyman was simply hard to write and didn’t add comedic value, so he was phased out. But fans have built elaborate fan theories ranging from “Jon murdered him” to “Lyman went off to find himself” to “Lyman is actually still living in Jon’s basement and we just never see him.”

Lyman briefly appeared in the 2007 direct-to-video film Garfield Gets Real, but he hasn’t been in the daily strip since 1983. He’s the most famous missing person in cartoon history.

The neighborhood mailman. Herman is one of the strip’s most reliable victims — Garfield ambushes him on every mail delivery, leaving him traumatized and increasingly reluctant to approach Jon’s house. The running gag is that Herman’s life has been ruined by having one cat on his route.

The mailman-versus-cat dynamic isn’t original to Garfield (it’s a comic strip cliché going back decades), but Garfield’s specific commitment to terrorizing Herman became part of the strip’s identity. By the 1990s, mailman Herman had become so iconic that real-life US Postal Service workers used Garfield merchandise as workplace decoration.

One of the weirder recurring Garfield characters. Binky the Clown is a local TV clown personality who is permanently in “performer mode” — he can’t speak below a screaming volume, can’t move below maximum hyperactive energy, and seems to never break character. He’s basically a parody of Bozo the Clown and other 1980s kids’ TV personalities.

Binky was introduced in 1985’s Garfield’s Halloween Adventure TV special and quickly became a recurring strip character. His catchphrase is “HEY KIDS!” delivered at full volume regardless of context. He’s terrifying. The joke is that he’s terrifying. Garfield finds him insufferable, which is one of the few cases where the audience completely sides with Garfield.

A recurring mouse character who lives in Jon and Garfield’s house. Garfield, as a cat, theoretically should be chasing mice. He doesn’t. Squeak and Garfield are actually friends — Garfield is too lazy to chase him, and Squeak is friendly enough that they’ve reached a peace treaty.

Their dynamic is a running joke about how Garfield fails at the most basic cat duties. Other cats would catch the mouse. Garfield gives him snacks. It’s part of why Garfield as a “cat” character is funny — he’s almost entirely non-feline in his behavior.

The 2024 movie addition: The Garfield Movie (2024) introduced Vic, Garfield’s biological father, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. The film’s premise hinges on Garfield reuniting with his estranged dad and going on a heist to repay an old debt. Whether you accept Vic as canonical depends on whether you accept the 2024 movie as canonical — most longtime Garfield fans have mixed feelings. But for newer audiences who know Garfield primarily through the recent movie, Vic is a real part of the franchise now.

Samuel L. Jackson playing Garfield’s dad is one of those casting choices that should not work and absolutely does. The movie was a commercial success even if critical reception was mixed.

Jon’s neighbor. She’s not a major character, but she appears regularly enough to count. Mrs. Feeny is known for her elaborate garden, which Garfield consistently destroys. She’s the suburban-neighbor archetype — slightly elderly, slightly grumpy about the cat, and a regular victim of Garfield’s chaos.

Her garden is the recurring set piece. Garfield rolls in it, sleeps in it, eats from it, and uses it for elaborate pranks. Mrs. Feeny’s relationship with Garfield is “long-suffering tolerance.”