Garfield, Sunday 1-9-1983 comic strip by Jim Davis (1983)

Garfield was one of my favorites as a young child because it was so easy to read, as were most of the newspaper comics. He was funny, relatable, and easy to digest for a young mind. I learned to read pretty early in life mainly so I could read comic strips and comic books myself, straight up. (took a couple more years before I really read many books without pictures lol) My mom loved to read and my dad was into comic books so I was encouraged & taught to read by my mom and I got to read my dad's copies of Miller Daredevil comics, random Spider-man, Superman, and Justice League issues, Marvel Star Wars, etc, and much more. But the daily funnies from the newspaper were something new that I got to read every day and were even better on Sundays, when you got much larger strips and longer stories of your favorites. My favorite strips when I was really young were Garfield and Peanuts primarily, but I always read all of the comics, even the ones I didn't care for like Annie lol. But I'd read them from least favorite to best liked, and Garfield was always the last one I read. :)


I was in Kindergarten when this particular strip came out, and by this point I was reading the strips every day. I can't say that I remember this one in particular since I read them all during this period, but this was definitely my early period where I know I was reading it. Aside from the dailies, I also used to have all the collected issues and special books that they put out with reprint collections and new stories. I just loved Garfield. And in the '80s, Garfield was everywhere, especially with the suction cup feet in the rear window of everyone's cars lol. He had TV specials, eventual movies, and so much merchandise and was literally everywhere. So he was definitely a large part of my childhood and fond memory of those days. While I don't really collect too much in the way of comic strip art, there were some series that I wanted to get pieces from if I ever could. I don't have a huge art budget so for years I have just watched them pass me by at auction. And now I think I missed the bus entirely on a Peanuts original, as those are way too far out of my budget at this point. But while these are getting close to that now too, I was thrilled when I managed to win this one and add it to my collection, especially since it has all 3 of the main characters. This will soon be framed up proper and placed on the Family Room wall at my house where I can see it everyday and let it bring a smile to my face.