1902: Garfield comic by Skye

|< < Prev Comic #1902 (2014-08-03)

Garfield comic by Skye

Made by: Skye

Explanation

This comic is unexplained. If you can edit this page to provide an explanation, please do!

The author writes:

hi! my name is Skye [surname removed]. I am ten years old. I was playing a Garfield game where you make your own comic and I created a comic. it is original and is the "Garfield comic by skye" that's below. the main idea is that garfield is tired of his daily routine and he say he's going to exercise and eat healthy, but he is actually dreaming.

Admin note:

When I received this submission, I was torn, and it took me several days to decide what to do. As you can see, clearly written on the comic are the words: "Copying and/or distribution of this comic is prohibited." This is attached to all comics produced by the Garfield.com comic strip generator. What we do here at SRoMG tiptoes the line of copyright law, staying (we believe) on the right side by appeal to the parody criterion. But I didn't want to violate a direct instruction embedded in a comic image from Garfield.com. But even more, I did not want to upset a young girl who took the initiative to create something and send it to us for consideration.

As you can see, I decided to publish this comic. I also wrote a letter back to Skye, and I reproduce it in full here:

Thank you very much for sending in a Garfield comic that you made. I would like to use it for the Square Root of Minus Garfield website.

I need to be careful that I only use material from Garfield that counts as parody, or making fun of the Garfield comics. Jim Davis, the writer of Garfield, owns the rights to use Garfield, and also to stop other people from using Garfield if he wishes. This is so that he can sell his Garfield comics to make money (writing comics is his job, so he needs to be paid!).

The comics made on the Garfield.com website, like the one you made, have the text "Copying and/or distribution of this comic is prohibited." This means that normally I would not be allowed to show it on my website. But I think you are making fun of the Garfield comics, and not just copying one of Jim Davis's comics. The law says that if you are making fun of something, then you are allowed to copy some of what you are making fun of. (This is so comedians can have a job and make money!)

So, you have certainly not done anything wrong by sending us your comic. I need to be a little bit more careful, since I will be putting it on a website where anyone can see it. I will do it this time, because I like your comic very much and think other people will too. Also, I think Jim Davis is a very nice man, and he would like to see a Garfield comic made by you too!

But from now on I think I will have to not publish any more comics made using the Garfield.com site, because I don't want to make Jim Davis think that I am not paying attention to his rules about using Garfield.

I would be happy if you sent in more comics, but made in a different way, like editing together different Garfield comics, like most of the others on my website.

Thank you again, and I hope you will be happy when you see your comic on my website!

Best wishes,

David Morgan-Mar.

So there is no misunderstanding: In future I will reject any and all submitted comics produced using the Garfield.com comic strip generator. This comic is a one-off exception, for reasons which I hope are clear to everyone reading this (including Jim Davis and anyone else at Paws Inc., if you happen to read this site).

Transcript

Garfield: I'm tired of the same routine every day.
Garfield: Which is why I'm going to exersize day and night. And eat heathy for the rest of the life!!!!!
Alarm clock: Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Garfield: {in bed} Zzzzz... Whoa!! What a nightmare!!!

Trivia

The link to the garfield.com comic strip generator no longer works as intended, as it was taken down on 2020-06-19 along with the rest of the garfield.com site.