4790: Lyman's Revenge

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Lyman's Revenge

Made by: Trevor

Explanation

One iconic character from Garfield's early days is Lyman, who joined the main cast alongside Odie in August 1978. He was retired from the comic in 1983 without a proper sendoff, leading to Odie becoming Jon's second pet. Because he was never mentioned in the comics since, it's unknown what happened to him in canon. Numerous inconsistent explanations were made in the franchise, such as the "Long Lost Lyman" four-parter from The Garfield Show, which suggests that Lyman disappeared in Australia while doing work as a wildlife photographer.

This strip settles for a darker explanation based on a joke made by Jim Davis to explain Lyman's absence: "Don't look in Jon's basement!". Using that joke for reference and elements from six different Garfield strips (including Lyman's debut appearance), we're given an original story where Jon is revealed to have kidnapped Lyman and held him prisoner in his basement for 39 years (which would place the strip's present year as 2022, as Lyman disappeared in 1983). After escaping, Lyman returns to the Arbuckle house to take revenge on Jon by imprisoning him (and Garfield) in the basement.

The author writes:

Mark Evanier (a writer for Garfield and Friends and The Garfield Show) wrote the latter show's episode "Long Lost Lyman" as his own "amateur story" on Lyman's fate. I decided to go with Jim Davis' (joke?) remark "Don't look in Jon's basement!" as a reference. I know, I can be twisted sometimes.

Original strips: 1978-08-07, 1998-03-15, 2000-10-30, 2000-11-01, 2001-11-28, 2020-11-15.

Transcript

{A monochrome title panel (with two of the sections in red and another showing Garfield's face) shows the title "GARFIELD: Lyman's Revenge" in the same fonts used in the logo for The Garfield Show}
{Cut to Jon reading a newspaper with Garfield lying next to him}
{Cut to a shot of the newspaper: above is the headline "LYMAN FOUND INSIDE JON'S BASEMENT: Missing since 1983", a picture of Lyman, and the text "We never thought this would happen. After almost 40 years, a man by the name of Lyman was discovered inside the basement of cartoonist Jon Arbuckle. Lyman was Arbuckle's roommate from 1978 until his 1983 disappearance"; the last word is cut off}
{Cut to Garfield, having seen this headline, looking shocked as Jon casually reads the paper; how did Jon not even read said headline? Or maybe he assumed Lyman wouldn't be any serious threat, who knows}
{Cut to a monochrome flashback from 1978 of Jon and Lyman meeting}
Jon: Lyman
Lyman: Jon
{Cut to Garfield walking to the door as it makes a "DING DONG" noise}
{We see that Garf has opened the door, and a long pair of legs is shown, which belong to Lyman; Jon must have done something to make Lyman's legs so long}
Lyman: Garfield! How ya been? Jon's gonna pay for locking me up for 39 years!
{Cut to a suspiciously-amused Garf and an angry Jon (with his face in his stomach, in a bit of Cronenbergian body horror) in Lyman's dark basement, which is shown in monochrome}
Jon: You have betrayed me, Garfield
Garfield: Ain't I a stinker? {Garf even looks at us, the readers, as he says this}