Jon Arbuckle

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Jon Arbuckle
Garfield character
First appearance	January 8, 1976 in Jon[1]
Created by	Jim Davis
Portrayed by	Breckin Meyer (live-action/CGI 2004–06)
Voiced by	Thom Huge (1980–2001) Sandy Kenyon (1982) Wally Wingert (2007–present)
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Cartoonist
Family	Garfield (pet cat), Odie (pet dog)
Significant other	Liz Wilson (girlfriend)
Relatives	Doc Boy (brother), Tony Arbuckle, Long John Arbuckle, Judy (cousin), Tammy (niece), Stevie (nephew), Ned (uncle), Roy (uncle), Bill (uncle), Ed (uncle), Orpha (aunt), Edna (aunt), Trudy (aunt), Zelda (aunt), an unnamed great-great-grandmother
Birthday	July 28[2][3][4]

Jonathan Q. Arbuckle ^[5] is a fictional character from the Garfield comic strip by Jim Davis. He has also appeared in the animated television series Garfield and Friends, the computer-animated The Garfield Show, and two live-action/computer-animated feature films.

A geeky and clumsy man yet caring owner, Jon is the owner of Garfield and Odie.

Development[]

The character of Jon Arbuckle was originally envisioned by Jim Davis as an author surrogate, and was the primary character of the comic strip Jon, created by Davis in 1976 and syndicated locally in the Indiana newspaper .^[6] Jon featured Arbuckle alongside his pet cat, Garfield and a dog named "Spot", who would eventually evolve into Odie.^[6] Davis eventually decided to replace Arbuckle with Garfield as the main character, with the renamed Garfield strip achieving national syndication in 1978.^[6]

Fictional biography[]

Arbuckle told Garfield that he was 29 years old in a December 23, 1980 strip.^[7] However, in the episode "T3000" of The Garfield Show, he is described as 22.^[8]

Jonathan might be of Italian origins since he has an Italian ancestor whose name was Tony Arbuccli.^{[citation needed]}

He and his pets live in Jim Davis' hometown of Muncie, Indiana, according to the television special Happy Birthday, Garfield.

Hobbies[]

In the first strip, Arbuckle is presented as a cartoonist.^[9] Garfield and Friends also shows him several times as a cartoonist. In The Garfield Show, his occupation is as a cartoonist. Also, in the strip from May 2, 2010, Liz tells her parents Jon is a cartoonist.^[10] Jon was also seen doing his work briefly in the August 2, 2015 strip.^[11]

He can play accordion, bagpipes, guitar, banjo, and bongos and sing, though his singing and musical skills are not the greatest.^{[citation needed]}

Family[]

Jonathan was raised on a farm and occasionally visits his mother, father, paternal grandmother, and brother Doc Boy, who live on the farm.^{[citation needed]}

Jon lives with Garfield and Odie, his pets.

Jon acquired Garfield at a pet shop.^{[citation needed]}

Jon acquired Odie when Lyman, an old friend of his (and Odie's original owner), moved in with him and Garfield. After a few years, Lyman disappeared from the strip, never to be heard from again. The book Twenty Years and Still Kicking, which marked Garfield's twentieth year, included parodies of how Lyman left, such as "Had lunch with Jimmy Hoffa and then...".^[12] Lyman does appear in an episode of The Garfield Show, during which Jon sets out to look for him. ^[13] Odie goes back to Lyman, but returns to Garfield at the end.^[14]

Personality[]

Before he met Liz, Jon consistently failed to date any woman. This has been partly due to ridiculous pick-up lines, lack of social skills, his entire wardrobe of incredibly weird, flashy outfits, and his general awkwardness. A consistent running gag is Garfield coming back from a New Year's Eve party and asking how a solitary Jon enjoyed his TV movie and microwave popcorn. Every Friday night, he would invite Garfield to undertake in his Friday night festivities instead of inviting whichever woman he was trying to hook-up with. Otherwise, he would solely stare at his phone, desperately waiting in vain for a woman to call him.^{[citation needed]} Jon's oddness and horrible fashion sense has often been the subject of teasing or outright mockery, usually from Garfield, as one of the major running gags in the series.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Jon has a longstanding crush on Garfield's veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson.^{[citation needed]} Although she has a deadpan, sardonic persona, she finds Jon's outlandish and goofball behavior endearing on occasion. Jon often attempts to ask her out on a date, but rarely succeeds, usually due to his lack of fashion sense, and with Garfield making fun of his failure; however, in an extended story arc from June 20 to July 29, 2006, Liz finally admitted she was in love with him and became his girlfriend from that point onwards.^{[citation needed]} As early as 1982, Davis had suggested he would eventually bring Jon and Liz together as a couple.^[19]

Despite his somewhat timid and honest nature, Jon is sometimes shown to be quite assertive on Garfield And Friends. Additionally, he shows a tendency to be a miser, as Garfield mentions how Jon passes out seeing the rates on a parking meter, and when Jon tried to perform an appendectomy on himself to save money.^{[citation needed]}

Characterisation[]

Many of Arbuckle's character traits are shared with his author Jim Davis, who was likewise a cartoonist, raised on a farm and born on July 28.^[20]

Reception[]

Arbuckle was voted number one on the Best Week Ever blog's list of "The Most Depressed Comic Book Characters".^[21]

Other media[]

Breckin Meyer portrays Jon Arbuckle in the feature film adaptations.

• Jon's first animated appearance was in the 1980 CBS special, The Fantastic Funnies, when he was voiced by Thom Huge. Jon was voiced by Sandy Kenyon in the first animated television special (Here Comes Garfield), before Huge returned to the character in all later specials and in Garfield and Friends. Breckin Meyer portrayed Jon in the live-action/computer animated films Garfield: The Movie and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. In Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest and Garfield's Pet Force, he was voiced by Wally Wingert. Wally also provides Jon's voice for The Garfield Show.
• Similarly, Garfield Minus Garfield removes all the other characters completely and simply features Jon talking to himself. Fans connected with Jon's "loneliness and desperation" and found his "crazy antics" humorous; Jim Davis himself called Dan Walsh's (the author of Garfield Minus Garfield) strips an "inspired thing to do" and said that "some of the strips work better than the originals".^[22][23]
• An Arbuckle Thanksgiving and An Arbuckle Christmas have taken the two holiday video specials and digitally removed Garfield and Odie, leaving Jon as the lead.

References[]

Further sources[]

• Engel, Iris B. (December 2019). "It's Garfield's World, We Just Live in It: An Exploration of Garfield the Cat as Icon, Money Maker, and Beast". Bard Digital Commons. Annandale-on-Hudson, New York: Bard College. Retrieved March 17, 2022.