Review – Garfield #1 (BOOM! Studios)

August 7, 2024

2–4 minutes

Publisher: BOOM! Studios (KaBoom imprint)
Writer(s): Ryan Estrada, Sarah Graley
Artist(s): Axur Eneas, Sarah Graley
Letterer: Stef Purenins
Release Date: 7th August 2024

Released to coincide (well, more or less) with The Garfield Movie, which opened in May before limping its way to a $252 million global box office, BOOM! Studios are bringing the grumpy orange cat back to the pages of comic books where he belongs with this brand new four-part anthology-style series.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Garfield just as much as any other forty-something, but his comic book appearances in recent years have all started to blend together somewhat, without much in the way of real creativity or the same level of sarcastic humour that made Jim Davis’ original strips so iconic. That said, I do like the creative teams that have been assembled here, for the first issue at least, so I was more than interested to check this one out.

The first story “Midnight Munchie”, sees writer Ryan Estrada and artist Axur Eneas giving us a little glimpse into Garfield’s night time routine as he desperately tried to find a way to indulge his nocturnal appetites (no, not vampirism). Combatting laziness, a lack of athleticism and general stupidity, he finds himself unable to satisfy his hunger (again, not vampirism) before settling on a fairly obvious solution. I’m a big fan of Eneas’ artwork on this strip, feeling comfortingly reminiscent of Davis’ original style without copying it completely, and Estrada does a solid job with the story, throwing in some neat visual gags. It lacks the real Garfield sense of humour though, and I’m never really a fan of strips where the orange one is the butt of all the jokes, but there’s enough fun, colourful slapstick here to keep younger readers happy.

The second story, “Jon Minus Garfield” from the always sure-handed Sarah Graley, is a bit of a head-scratcher. Firstly, as the name might suggest, it doesn’t actually feature Garfield in it – a questionable choice at best – and instead features Jon dealing with the mysterious disappearance of his feline companion by visiting some of his favourite eating establishments and picking up some of his favourite foods. And secondly, it seems to exist solely as a prologue of sorts to the aforementioned movie, with a “find out what Garfield and Odie are up to in The Garfield Movie” set-up. Which would be fine, except for the fact that the movie is currently no longer in theatres, which feels like a fairly significant fumble in terms of brand synergy. Graley does a good job with what she’s given, don’t get me wrong, and there’s some fun visual comedy on display here, but it all just feels a little flat and, dare I say it, pointless.

Overall, it’s difficult to figure out why this comic even exists. At a stretch, I could see kids who enjoyed the movie potentially wanting to pick it up for more Garfield adventures, but with the grumpy feline barely appearing in half of the page count, I’m not sure there’s much to make them come back. If you’ve exhausted the decades of Jim Davis’ classic strips that already exist then there’s certainly worse things you could read, but there’s not a lot here to get too excited about, unfortunately.

Rating: 2/5

[PREVIEW ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]