Whatever you make of Garfield Minus Garfield, you have to hand it to creator Dan Walsh; within a year, his derivative comic strip has already earned him plenty of attention, the support of Garfield creator Jim Davis and a book deal with Davis’ publisher, Ballantine Books. And all he had to do was erase a few Garfields. (I take it back: you don’t have to hand it to Walsh – you can go ahead and despise him for thinking of this before you did.)
With Garfield escorted out of the picture, Walsh leaves us with a comic that is focused exclusively on one thing: Jon Arbuckle. Poor, lonely Jon Arbuckle. Who knew such a seemingly innocuous cartoon could yield so much existential angst?

I almost feel guilty that I allowed Garfield and his antics to distract me from ever recognizing Jon Arbuckle’s cries for help. I want to buy Jon a beer and tell him that everything’s going to be okay, and yet this makes me laugh; apparently it’s making a lot of people laugh, including Jim Davis. Creating something completely depressing out of intended lightheartedness is definitely funny, though I have to wonder whether some disconcerting undercurrent of the original Garfield has also been revealed here…