Jim Davis was born July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana. He says he was promptly dropped on his head, explaining his lifelong desire for being a Cartoonist. He had asthma as a kid and spent most of his time in bed. He said his mom would used to shove paper and pencil at him a and urged him to draw to entertain himself. He was so bad he had to label every one of his pictures. His art and writing style improved over the years. Garfield began syndication with only 41 papers on June 19, 1978. But his faithful following of cat lovers and pasta addicts has grown into the millions. The tubby tabby now appears in over 2500 newspapers worldwide!!!