Jon Arbuckle

Describing Jon Arbuckle in utter sense of detail would be literally impossible if we do not describe him from the outside first. He is a dorky 30-year old man, has brown curly hair, and most common wears long-sleeved Oxford shirts, mostly the ones colored powder-blue. When he is drawn by Jim Davis, he is given a nose which is just a straight line, nothing else. This nose is connected to his mouth by a long philtrum. Jon comes from the small town of Muncie of the Indiana State. You can celebrate his birthday on the 28th of July, 1950 (no really).

Jon is an incompetent loser. His misfortune would most commonly be attributed to his cat, and his decisions. He does not even know how to cook stuff! Instead, he cooks literal garbage that even Garfield would repulse at. Jon's affinity for disco music forces others to leave and move away from him from his sight, even him dancing to disco. And he can not sing in a mellifluous tune, so to make up for it, he plays polka music on his accordion. That, too, repels others. Look! Even his presence alone can repel women away from his sight!

Jon Arbuckle is hated or snarked at by his pet feline, Garfield. He suffers from scratches, or beatings coming from the rotund orange tabby cat. Worse, he often falls into tricks set by the clever cat, who did this just to amuse himself. But this is not the case for Jon's pet dog, Odie, who genuinely loves him to his heart. Jon has an extensive family who loves him dearly. A family consisting of his mother and father, his grandmother, his only brother Doc Boy (who does not want to be called Doc Boy), his aunts, his only uncle, his cousins, etc., etc. Most of Jon's family members especially the first three listed, live on a farm, far away from his residence. Once, on Christmastime, Mr Arbuckle told a Binky the Clown story to his two sons, Jon, and Doc Boy, even though they are too old for that. This proves that Jon shares his childish manchild traits with his brother.

Concluding this introductory group of paragraphs that is meant to introduce this article about an underrated comic strip character, Jon can be described as a "repulsive dork" who acts too childish and too dense for his age. Though, he might be a little bit smart, say, on Christmas Eve or so, Jon prepares fake presents to fool Garfield into thinking that he has gotten a new present.

It all started when Jon Arbuckle was introduced as a minor off-screen character in Gnorm Gnat, a seventies comic strip by Jim Davis, who would later go on to bring Garfield to life. Portrayed as a poet laureate (First name back then "John" instead of "Jon") in this comic strip which ran from 1973-75, he wrote the poems "My Buddy" and "A Tragic Tale". These poems were later investigated by a talking worm named Dr Morton Rosenwurm. That is all I know before Garfield ever existed in this universe. Oh, and anyway, did you know the continuities of Garfield and Gnorm Gnat are linked together?

Then in the eighth of January, 1976, Jon was properly introduced in his eponymous comic as a cartoonist, owning his only pet, Garfield. This titular comic was discovered by a man named Quinton Hoover in the twenty and first century. Lo and behold, Jon Arbuckle himself even took the protagonist totem before his cynical feline did! Jon was suitably portray as a bachelor who has average qualities. Jon was suitably attract to women, even before the official debut of the Garfield comic in June 19, 1978.

The fossil of what would be known as a prototype Garfield comic also introduced a young lady with blonde hair in the date of February 26, 1976. That lady was cute, no lipstick, has only bead eyes with eyelashes. Later on, she dyed her hair black, applied lipstick permanently in the 23rd of September, then she introduced her self as "Liz". She gained a status as waitress in Irma's diner, before shifting to veterinarian in the syndicated Garfield strip.

Wait! That page we are reading right now is about Jon Arbuckle, NOT his steady girl! Am I shifting my focus? No? Let's move on.

As humans evolved in the Garfieldverse, their eyes bulge, their proportions be exaggerated, their four-finger hands puff up. Jon Arbuckle was one of them. This, where it got to the point when the evolved humans were featured in the Garfield animated adaptations. Jon was given a voice: by Thom Huge (pronounce Hoo-Gy), who also voiced an anthropomorphic jokester rooster from a quite obscure 80s comic drawn also by Jim Davis. Huge had an astounding vocal performance, Jon usually sung offkey, but this is not the case for this voice actor! Thom Huge can sing! So, "Hello charge card, money in the bank bye-bye" something like that. But before Huge did his voice, there is Sandy Kenyon who did Jon's voice in Garfield's first animated television special.

We then interrupt this speech to bring you an example of the misfortune of being Jon Arbuckle. Please look closely, you might be able to see how Arbuckle's days are in every day of his life.

See? If you don't know the context of this animation I just showed you, Jon is being tortured by his pet cat. Poor Jon is not being allowed to eat his usual meal! Garfield snatched it before he can even take a bite out of it! Garfield is going to let poor old Jon Arbuckle starve to death, is not that right? Sure!

But even so...

...as shown by another animation (the one to the left), Jon and Garfield can also sympathise very deeply with each other! They even cry and bawl their eyes out (see the salty-tasting whitish-blue tears coming out of their egg-shaped eyes?). So that makes them, poor Jon and poor Garfield?!?! By the way, this clip was taken from another ant episode from the Garfield and Friends Saturday morning cartoon.

We have had enough of these animation proofs about Jon and Garfield's empathy. Now. we will draw further in to the present times. Poor Jon Arbuckle. After the failures which are the live-action Garfield film and its royalty-focused sequel, the trilogy of three-dimension Garfield films that were only released on digital versatile disc, the three-dimension Garfield television series which takes cues from the prior Garfield film trilogy, and so on and so on, his role is often demoted to semi-minor in current Garfield media (outside of the comics) and merchandise. It is unknown whether his role would be as prominent as Garfield in future media, especially in the up-and-coming three-dimension Garfield film coming soon to theatres.

Speaking of these failures before the twenty-and-tens, one of which is the three-dimension Garfield series, his traits often exaggerated and became weird-looking, thanks to the "cutting-edge" CG technology that could revolutionise the television and film industry of the world. The series is not very good. What they call "animation", it is just cheap computer-generated imagery that looks like it was made in a sweat shop. Jon in that series (plus the CGI films) was given a more prominent nose, making it spherical instead of just a mere line on his face. Though, it makes him look even more uncanny in this uncanny wacky zany world.

So, that's it for this lengthy Arbuckle article. Stay unlucky, and have an unlucky day! Toodles!

This where it all began

Jonathan Quincy Arbuckle

Arbuckle gallery (disclaimer all illustration and gif shown here drawn/traced/compiled by me)