1848: Garfield Plus Mr. Potato Head

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Garfield Plus Mr. Potato Head
1848.png
Made by: Edwin Chee


Explanation[edit | edit source]

This strip mashes up a Garfield strip and a Mr. Potato Head strip both about their respective lead characters scratching their itches.

The author's notes explain the premise of authors' lesser-known works, comparing some Peyo examples before bringing up Jim Davis's body of work. The mention of Tumbleweeds comes from Jim having worked as an assistant on that strip before striking it big with Garfield; the premise of an assistant later becoming the primary author of another strip would manifest again in the same chain with Brett Koth helming Diamond Lil.

The start of Mr. Potato Head is misidentified in the author's notes as 2000; it actually began in 2001, with the strip used in this Square Root of Minus Garfield strip coming from its first month as later identified when the Garfield wiki on Fandom compiled the strip's run. (The author correctly identified the Mr. Potato Head strip's 2003 ending; it ended in June of that year, meaning the strip did not make it to its second anniversary.) The small batch of strips the author linked is still up as of this writing, but the original Mr. Potato Head strip can also be found on the Garfield wiki on Fandom here.

The author writes:[edit | edit source]

When an artist's work is very popular, their other works would often go unnoticed or forgotten. The Smurfs, for example, is most well known, but Peyo's other works tend to be eclipsed, such as Johan and Peewit. Sometimes, other works by an artist known for their popular work are lucky to get noticed, such as Orson's Farm (or U.S. Acres in America). That comic is noticed enough to have a few appearances on this site.

Jim Davis is fortunate enough to have other works of his remembered, including the aforementioned Orson's Farm (thank Garfield and Friends for that) and Gnorm Gnat (at least, for being the leading reason for Garfield's existence). He had his run with Tumbleweeds, though that was before he became his own comic artist. Perhaps the strip that nobody thought Jim Davis did was Mr. Potato Head.

It was co-authored with Brett Koth, meaning the team not only worked on Orson's Farm, but this one as well. You can say that this mashup is to bring others to attention that there exists another work by Jim Davis.

The basic premise with Mr. Potato Head is that Mr. Potato Head has a family of four (himself, wife, daughter and son). He is a boss of a company. The main thing with Mr. Potato Head is the ability for the characters to detach their body parts. It's basic, and like Orson's Farm, it had a short run from 2000 to 2003.

I imagine that Toy Story's interpretation of Mr. Potato Head is so popular that other interpretations won't go so well.

Here's a sample of Mr. Potato Head strips (which is where I got this comic).

Original Mr. Potato Head strip: 2001-07-28.

Original strip: 1978-07-05.

Transcript[edit | edit source]

{Garfield tries to scratch his itch spot}
SFX: Scratch Scratch
{Garfield struggles to reach his itch spot with his feet}
SFX: Scratch Scratch Scratch Scratch Scratch Scratch Scratch Scratch
{Mr. Potato Head's back itches}
Mr. Potato Head: Oooh, my back itches!
{Mr. Potato Head removes his right arm with his left hand}
SFX: POP!
{Mr. Potato Head scratches his back with his right hand}
SFX: Scratch Scratch Scratch
Mr. Potato Head: Eat your heart out.
{Garfield screams in desperation, shocking Jon, who is reading a newspaper}
Garfield: AARRRGH!