Rarely do we encounter things in our daily life that sincerely challenge our sense of self. A close friend showed this to me the other day, and I think its appropriate NO my responsibility to share this with you. Its called Garfield minus Garfield.
“Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.”
I cant begin to express the genius of this.
First of all, there is no trickery here. The story of Garfield does imply that Jon cant actually hear Garfield, you know, because he’s a cat. Hence, what this illustration contains is Jon in his truest, rawest form; without the guise of petty cat-antics to hide behind.
At the same time, Jon lacks consciousness of we, the viewers as well. The voyeurism of a middle aged hermit, living alone with his cat and dog, we experience the plight that exists within us all. And as disturbing as it is to watch, we cannot turn away; maybe what we should do is look insiiide. hmmm. The inner Jon Arbuckle. Veeeery iiinteresting…