2264: Gnorm Gnatfield

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Gnorm Gnatfield
2264.png
Made by: Camwoodstock & Tori


Explanation[edit | edit source]

This strip essentially fuses the first Garfield Christmas strip with the final strip of Gnorm Gnat, which had been published three years prior to the depicted Garfield strip. The author's notes explain the then-scarcity of known information about Gnorm Gnat, with the authors explaining how they managed to observe the original Gnorm Gnat strip for themselves. As information about Gnorm Gnat was then scarce (and information about its successor, Jon, even scarcer), it was unknown at the time this strip first ran that this particular Gnorm Gnat was in fact the final one; it would take the complete archive of Gnorm Gnat--and arguably, also the complete archive of Jon, which began two weeks after Gnorm Gnat ended--resurfacing to reveal this detail.

The original submission did not originally include the image of the final Gnorm Gnat strip; that was added further down the line.

This strip may have helped lead to the entire archive of Gnorm Gnat to eventually resurface, much in the same vein as (and possibly helped by) 3170: Embryonic Garfield did for Gnorm Gnat's successor Jon.

The author writes:[edit | edit source]

Before Jim Davis made Garfield, he actually had a strip called Gnorm Gnat. Information on the internet is currently extremely scarce, and all we really know online is that it exists. What doesn't help was that the only paper that accepted it was the local paper for Pendleton, Indiana.

As a result, scanned strips are incredibly scarce, the only real way to see them being the ones lucky enough that got on the dates you see on microfiche films at the local library there. So, this seems like a lost cause, right?

...Well, I happen to live close to that location.

As a result, I got to see these strips! There was actually a few things to talk about. There was a shady dealer who reminds me of Bubs from H*R, whose name was Lyman. I saw a strip where Gnorm was watching TV and got told he'd be seeing a word from the show's sponsors, and then they'd go back to airing the show. Cue the sponsor saying a word, and they go back. That later got re-used in Garfield. Wonder if any die-hard fans wanna dig up that particular 1975 strip, and then edit it so we get it to use that word?

Either way, because of the scarceness of the strip scans, I can't exactly show the Gnorm strip I used, but I can tell you its date (December 25th, 1975.) Also, I can sure say that the one-newspaper-accepted thing actually made specials that referred to the readers a lot more directly!

(P.S. If this manages to get enough SRoMG readers to try and use the microfiche and see the strips, and it gets in the local paper... I will probably laugh so hard, and both have hopes this will get these strips scanned.)

EDIT: There are now scans of Gnorm Gnat from the microfiche! The one used in this strip is shown below.

2264 1.png

Original Gnorm Gnat strip: 1975-12-25.

Original strip: 1978-12-25.

Transcript[edit | edit source]

Garfield: This is my very first Christmas...
Garfield: I hope you have a loved one to spend today with, because I do.
Garfield: Thanks, Pendleton.
Caption: Merry CHRISTMAS