6314: I want to get away / I wanna fly away / (Yeah, yeah)
| I want to get away / I wanna fly away / (Yeah, yeah) |
 Made by: Wibi |
Explanation[edit | edit source]
This strip fuses elements from two original Garfield strips to frame an alternate-universe narrative detailed in the author's notes; the strip itself makes use of one line of the 1983 character positions, Jon's character elements, and one line of Jon's dialogue, while Garfield's poses are brought in from the 1982 strip.
The alternate-universe narrative hints that all official Garfield material after the stated date of 1983-03-02 never came to fruition with the exceptions of The Garfield Movie and the as-yet-unreleased (as of this writing) Garfield+ television series, and that Square Root of Minus Garfield came to fruition in this alternate-universe narrative but hasn't been updated since 2014 (it is presumed that the author's notes can be misread implying #1718 was where the alternate-universe SRoMG ended); it is unknown if this not-updated-since-2014 resemblance to the real-life fate of fellow mezzacotta feature Awkward Fumbles is coincidental or not (especially given this strip's author remixed three of the four 2014 Awkward Fumbles strips, the finale being the exception, into iToons strips).
The strip's title is a reference to the Lenny Kravitz song "Fly Away".
The author writes:[edit | edit source]
The Garfield comic strip series unceremoniously ended on March 2nd, 1983, with Garfield's owner Jon Arbuckle being "pulled into the heavens by an unseen force", as his cynical orange cat looks on with glee. This ending may have been loosely inspired by a rumor about how Jim Davis's old comic, Gnorm Gnat, ended with the title character being crushed by a giant foot. Davis has refused to comment on the intended interpretation of this strip.
The property would remain dormant and devoid of spinoffs or merchandise until Viacom's purchase of it in August 2019. They currently plan to release an animated movie and a cartoon series. However, the cult-classic comic itself will not be making a return.
As a fun aside, the fan-website Square Root of Minus Garfield hosts over a thousand edited Garfield strips, submitted by its readers, with changes including new punchlines, new characters, and occasionally even new art styles. (The name itself is derived from a common form of edit known as "Garfield Minus Garfield".) These edited versions encompass most of the series' 1,718 strips. However, due to the limited source material and decaying fanbase, it has not been updated since 2014.
Original strips: 1982-03-09, 1983-03-02.
Transcript[edit | edit source]
Jon: Hi, Garfield
{Garfield is annoyed}
{Suddenly, Jon flies into the air}
SFX: Zip!
{Garfield is content}
