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| Jon Arbuckle | |
|---|---|
| Garfield character | |
 | |
| First appearance | January 8, 1976 inJon[1] |
| Created by | Jim Davis |
| Portrayed by | Breckin Meyer(live-action/CGI 2004–06) |
| Voiced by | Thom Huge(1980–2001) Sandy Kenyon(1982) Jon Barnard(2004, 2021) Wally Wingert(2007–present) Nicholas Hoult(2024) |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Jonathan Q. Arbuckle |
| Occupation | Cartoonist |
| Family | Garfield (pet cat),Odie (pet dog) |
| Significantother | Liz Wilson (girlfriend) |
| Relatives | Doc Boy (brother), Tony Arbuckle, Long John Arbuckle, Judy (cousin), Tammy (niece), Stevie (nephew), Ned (uncle), Roy (uncle), Bill (uncle), Ed (uncle), Orpha (aunt), Edna (aunt), Trudy (aunt), Zelda (aunt), an unnamed great-great-grandmother |
| Birthday | July 28, 1950[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] and mentions of the birthday, but not fully confirmed:[13][14][15] |
Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle[16] is a fictional character from theGarfieldcomic strip byJim Davis. He also appears in the animated television seriesGarfield and Friends andThe Garfield Show, two live-action/animated feature films, and four fully animated films.
Jon is the owner ofGarfield, whom he is frequently yet unknowingly mocked by, andOdie. Acartoonist by trade, he is largely presented as a comical, bumblinggeek who is socially oblivious, especially when it comes to women.
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The character of Jon Arbuckle was envisioned byJim Davis as anauthor surrogate and was the primary character of the comic stripJon, created by Davis in 1976 and syndicated locally in the Indiana newspaperThe Pendleton Times.Jon featured Jon Arbuckle alongside his pet cat,Garfield, and a dog named "Spot", who would eventually evolve intoOdie. Davis eventually decided to replace Jon with Garfield as the main character, with the renamedGarfield strip achieving national syndication in 1978.[17] TheJon comics were published without copyright notices, making them and the prototypical Jon and Garfield characterspublic domain under pre-1977 copyright law.
Jonathan Q. "Jon" Arbuckle is an American cartoonist who is the owner of Garfield and Odie. His exact age is unknown. Jon's age was given as 29 years old in a December 23, 1980, strip when he tells Garfield a joke that he "would be 30 but he was sick a year" (although given that this is presented in the context of Jon telling a joke, it is possible Jon may not have stated his actual age).[18] In the episode "T3000" ofThe Garfield Show, he is described as 22.[19]
He and his pets live in Jim Davis's hometown ofMuncie, Indiana, according to the television specialsGarfield Goes Hollywood andHappy Birthday, Garfield.
In the first strip, Jon is presented as acartoonist.[20]Garfield and Friends also shows him several times as a cartoonist. InThe Garfield Show, his occupation is a cartoonist. Also, in the strip from May 2, 2010, Liz tells her parents Jon is a cartoonist.[21] Jon was also seen doing his work briefly in the August 2, 2015, strip.[22]
He can playaccordion,bagpipes,guitar,banjo, andbongos and sing, although his musical skills are not the greatest.
Jon was raised on a farm and occasionally visits his mother, father, paternal grandmother, and brotherDoc Boy, who live on the farm,usually at Christmas time.
Jon lives with cat Garfield and dog Odie, his pets. He acquired his cat at a pet shop. Jon acquired Odie later, whenLyman, an old friend of his (and Odie's original owner), moved in with him and Garfield. After a few years, Lyman disappeared from the strip, never to be heard from again. The bookTwenty Years and Still Kicking, which marked Garfield's twentieth year, included parodies of how Lyman left, such as "Had lunch withJimmy Hoffa and then...".[23] Lyman does appear in an episode ofThe Garfield Show, during which Jon sets out to look for him.[24] Odie goes back to Lyman but returns to Garfield at the end.[25]
Jon is often presented as being very odd and off-putting to others, particularly many of the women he would date or attempt to date before his relationship with Liz began. Jon's off-putting nature is the result of a wide number of factors, but common reasons for it include his ridiculous pick-up lines, his over-the-top and off-putting fashion sense, weird habits, and annoying character and personality. A recurring gag at a certain point in the comics was Jon and Garfield attending New Year's gatherings only for Garfield to wind up charming the other attendees while Jon would often be shunned and forced to return home. While lacking social skills, Jon is not socially introverted, rather it is because of how over-the-top and extroverted he is that often lands him in trouble with others. Garfield often mocks him for these blunders.[26][27][28][29]
Contrasting his more bizarre moments and tendencies, Jon is also frequently portrayed as the straight man in certain instances, typically to situations regarding his pets' antics. Jon also had a habit of dating women stranger than even himself. Notable examples include Kimmy, a woman raised by wolves who only returned to human civilization the previous Friday before their date, a woman who tried to run Jon over with her truck (although Jon survived this as, in his words, "fortunately 18-wheelers aren't very maneuverable"), Suki, a "sumo belly dancer", and Siamese Triplets Gertie, Gretta, and Bob.
Since 2006, Jon has been in a relationship with Garfield'sveterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson. Although she has a deadpan, sardonic persona, she finds Jon's outlandish and goofball behavior endearing on occasion. Before they began dating, Jon often attempted to pursue Liz romantically, at worst (and in most cases) comically failing in his attempts to do so and at best getting her to go out with him once but ultimately failing to get Liz to continue the relationship beyond an initial date; however, in an extended story arc from June 20 to July 29, 2006, Liz finally admitted she was in love with him and the two have remained in a relationship since. As early as 1982, Davis had suggested he would eventually bring Jon and Liz together as a couple.[30]
Despite his wimpy nature, Jon can be assertive, particularly when it comes to dealing with Garfield (and occasionally Odie) and the latter's antics (sometimes to a fault). Jon has also shown instances of matching and sometimes surpassing Garfield's cruel and annoying tendencies and can be selfish, petty, and childish when dealing with others like Garfield and his brother Doc Boy, with the two often resorting to acting like children in the presence of the other.
Many of Jon's character traitsare shared with his author Jim Davis, who is likewise a cartoonist, raised on a farm and born on July 28.[citation needed]
Jon Arbuckle was voted number one on theBest Week Ever blog's list of "The Most Depressed Comic Book Characters".[31]
