Garfield and His 9 Lives

Rating:
Summary: Nine Lives? NO Nine STARS
Review: Having been a serious Garfield fan from the day I could read, this is by far the best Garfield book. Watching him "grow" from the dawn of time (when chickens had teeth) to a "futuristic" Garfield, is fantastic. He even tries his paws at sleuthing. A definite must read for the Garfield fan.

Rating:
Summary: creative, original, wonderful
Review: I was in love with this book when I was a young teenager, and it was one of the things that directly inspired me to become an artist. Kudos to Jim Davis for such open minded creativity. I still admire and enjoy every one of these stories and the many flavors of art that go along with them. It has a permanent home on my bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: Uneasy, Queasy, Somehow Brilliant
Review: I'm not sure who this book was written for, or why it even exists. The book is too scary for children obviously, and not many adults I know read Garfield cartoons. However, any self-respecting fan of graphic novels will probably enjoy the darker aspects of this book. But at the time that this book was written the graphic novel wasn't a fully realized possibility, and so Jim Davis wouldn't have written it for that audience. Who then was this book written for ? Sure, it makes a nice book for kids... at least some sections. I discovered the book in my uncle and aunt's basement when I was five or six and, liking Garfield, tore into it. I had some of the stories read to me. Images from this book have been burned into my mind, and my inner-child still quivers at segments like Primal Self. Before buying this book for children, consider Primal Self. It's the most frightining example of "children's literature" I've ever read, and I have read the original Brothers Grimm. In it, a cat ( who looks quite realistic and nothing like lovable Garfield ) is possessed by an evil spirit. This spirit throws the cat's body against a wall. And then the cat attacks its owner, a gentle old grandmother holding a picture her grandkids drew for her. Try explaining all that to your five year old. It's still a good book, for strong-stomached youth. There are segments like Garfield, the Exterminators, the Viking one, Space Cat, the Garden ( although I was never able to make out the cursive writing when I was a kid ) and pretty much everything else except for the lab animal one. Oh, and the introduction with the Cat-Man ( Glowing eyes of primal fire and suit of spotted orange: half skin, half fur, half suit. What is he and what is he not ? ). It's a nice book. There's still the mystery of why it exists but it shouldn't prevent you from enjoying it. If your kids have watched Harry Potter or Willy Wonka or the Dark Crystal ( especially the latter two ) and didn't have bad dreams then they should be okay.