• Sergio@slrpnk.net
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    8 days ago

    I think Jon was being presented as a lovable but clueless dork. Though his harassment (and forced kissing) of the vet has aged poorly.

    • A_A@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I do agree that, something like 40 years ago, it was read like you explained.

      Also, reading again my question, i realize that i was confusing the author for the character (so I was confusing Jim Davis for Jon …). … if it was autobiographic, i don’t know to what extent it would have been.

      • Sergio@slrpnk.net
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        8 days ago

        if it was autobiographic, i don’t know to what extent it would have been.

        according to wikipedia:

        The character of Jon Arbuckle was envisioned by Jim Davis as an author surrogate

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Arbuckle

        so it’s not autobiographical, but it’s a fictional version. Interestingly, the same article says:

        Davis eventually decided to replace Jon with Garfield as the main character, with the renamed Garfield strip achieving national syndication in 1978.[17] The Jon comics were published without copyright notices, making them and the prototypical Jon and Garfield characters public domain under pre-1977 copyright law.

        • A_A@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Thanks for these searches. Based on this, i feel right to say that both the author and the character could be today somewhat described as incels … still i enjoy reading those cartoons.