List of Garfield characters


This is a list of characters in the Garfield comic strip, created by Jim Davis, organized by category and date of first appearance.

Main characters

Garfield

First Appearance: June 19, 1978
Garfield is Jon's fat orange tabby cat. Some of his personality traits include laziness, cynicism, sarcasm, a hatred of Mondays, a tendency to be annoyed by Jon's dog Odie, an active imagination, a love for lasagna, and a hatred for Nermal.
In February 2017, a dispute arose on the talk section of the character's Wikipedia page regarding Garfield's gender. Although other characters have persistently referred to Garfield with male pronouns, owing to comments that the character's creator, Jim Davis, made in 2014 to Mental Floss, the matter of Garfield's gender remains ambiguous. He said, "Garfield is very universal. By virtue of being a cat, really, he's not really male or female or any particular race or nationality, young or old. It gives me a lot more latitude for the humour for the situations."

Jon Arbuckle

First Appearance: June 19, 1978
Jon Arbuckle is Garfield and Odie's dorky owner. He is shown as very clumsy and unintelligent, often getting himself hurt or getting injured by Garfield.

Lyman

First Appearance: August 7, 1978
Last Appearance: April 24, 1983
Cameos:
  • Cameo in the tenth anniversary strip: June 19, 1988
  • Cameo in a newspaper: April 2, 2013 and June 23, 2024
Lyman is Jon's former roommate and Odie's former owner. He was a main character along with Jon, Odie, and Garfield during the strip's early years. He was one of Jon's best friends from high school and was taken in by Jon when he needed a place to stay. Lyman, not aiming to trouble Jon too much, brought two things with him: a suitcase and Odie, much to Garfield's dismay. However, after the first few years of the strip, Lyman was gradually phased out of the main cast, mainly due to his role as the person that Jon would talk to being taken over by Garfield and Odie before disappearing from the strip entirely, at which point Odie's ownership was quietly transferred to Jon. His last regular appearance was in 1983 and he made a final cameo in the tenth anniversary strip. Lyman's fate was left ambiguous by Jim Davis, who offered a variety of often humorous explanations for Lyman's disappearance over the years. Lyman would eventually reappear in the online games Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt and Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt 2: Donuts of Doom in the early 2000s. In 2012, almost 30 years after his last main appearance in the strip, Lyman's true fate was revealed in The Garfield Show episode "Long Lost Lyman" where Lyman is revealed to have become a wildlife photographer who left Jon and his home to go to a country called Franistan. When Jon learns that Lyman disappeared while searching for a mythical Bigfoot-like creature called the Zabadu, Jon, Garfield, and Odie travel to the jungle to find him. Lyman is revealed to in fact be the Zabadu and used the guise of the Zabadu to scare poachers away from the area and takes in Odie again, however, he realizes that Odie misses Jon, Garfield, and the rest of his friends and returns to Jon and Garfield's home to give Odie back to Jon. The episode ends with the quartet hanging out with each other and Lyman promises to visit when can. The "Long Lost Lyman" version of Lyman has round eyes resembling Jon's, rather than the dot-eyes of his traditional comics design, and is voiced by Frank Ferrante.

Odie

First Appearance: August 8, 1978
Odie is a yellow-furred, brown-eared dog described by Garfield to be a "purebred clown" and possibly a dachshund in the live-action movies that resides with Jon and Garfield and is, at times, Garfield's best friend. The name came from a commercial written by Davis, which featured Odie the Village Idiot. Davis liked the name and reused it. His birthday is August 8, likely as a nod to his debut date. Odie's main characteristic is his general "lack of intelligence and naiveté", which allows for Garfield to triumph over him in their prankings. In "one glimpse at Odie's secret life", the dog is shown to be much more sophisticated when alone, and Davis lets "Odie get Garfield back every few months." While Garfield's "playful mistreatment" of Odie is a persistent element of the comic, some strips make it clear that "deep down he knows he loves the little scamp". Odie has been considered a "much-loved", "lovable and adorable" and "fan-favourite" character. Jessica Jalali from Screen Rant saw in Odie and Garfield "an iconic duo that made it hard to separate one from the other". Librarian and cartoonist Katy Kavanagh saw Odie as "the comic relief" used to create humor in opposition to Garfield, who is "represented as the curmudgeon".
In most of his animated appearances, he is voiced by Gregg Berger. In The Garfield Movie, he is voiced by Harvey Guillén.

Pooky

First Appearance: October 23, 1978
Pooky is Garfield's teddy bear that was found in a drawer by Garfield. Garfield often carries Pooky around and makes him interact with Jon.

Dr. Liz Wilson

First Appearance: June 26, 1979
A veterinarian, Liz is Jon Arbuckle's love interest. Jon has attempted to ask her out on dates numerous times over the years, but rarely succeeded. When she did accept, the outings normally became disastrous. Eventually in 2006 whilst on a date with an amnesiac Ellen, he discovers that Liz is at the same restaurant dating someone else. After an awkward encounter with each other, Liz finally admitted that she had feelings for Jon. The two have been portrayed as a couple since, though Jon's trademark geekiness continues to both amuse and embarrass Liz.
On Garfield and Friends, Dr. Liz Wilson was voiced by Julie K Payne, occasionally appearing in the first two seasons and once in the fourth season. In the live-action/animated movies, she is played by Jennifer Love Hewitt. Her first, albeit brief, television appearance was on the second TV special, Garfield on the Town.
In The Garfield Show, she is once again voiced by Julie Payne. In The Garfield Movie, she is voiced by Dev Joshi.

Nermal

First Appearance: September 3, 1979
Nermal is smaller than most and prefers to call himself "the world's cutest kitten". Nermal was first introduced as Jon's parents' kitten. A recurring theme is Nermal's persistent annoyance at Garfield, which usually results in Garfield retaliating, mostly by physical assault, including strangulation, severe beating and as a recurring gag, mailing Nermal to Abu Dhabi, which he has done over 74 times.
In Garfield and Friends, he is played by Desirée Goyette. In Garfield: The Movie, Nermal is portrayed as a Siamese cat in the neighborhood, and is voiced by David Eigenberg. Nermal is voiced by Jason Marsden in The Garfield Show, as well as in the films Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, and Garfield's Pet Force.

Arlene

First Appearance: December 17, 1980
Arlene is a female pink-furred cat with thick eyelashes, large lips, and a gap between her two front teeth. She is Garfield's main love interest and his official girlfriend since 1980..
In Garfield: The Movie, she appears as a Russian Blue cat, voiced by Debra Messing. In Garfield Gets Real, Garfield's Fun Fest, Garfield's Pet Force, and The Garfield Show, she is played by Audrey Wasilewski.

Squeak

First Appearance: October 30, 1984
Squeak is one of the many mice who live in Jon, Garfield, and Odie's house. He and the rest of the mice in Jon's house are close friends of Garfield's, with Garfield even being the one to give Squeak his name. Garfield and the mice often assist each other with their problems, Garfield often keeping them safe from Jon and other cats and the mice often helping Garfield's various schemes.
Squeak is replaced as Garfield's main mouse friend on Garfield and Friends, by a mouse named Floyd and in the 2004 film by a mouse named Louis. Squeak appears fully in The Garfield Show, voiced by Berger.

Arbuckle Family

Mom

First Appearance: February 13, 1980
Jon's unnamed mother who runs the Arbuckle farm with Jon's father. She is based on Jim Davis' own mother. She most commonly appears when Jon, Garfield, and Odie visit Jon's childhood home/the Arbuckle family's farm.

Dad

First Appearance: February 13, 1980
Jon's unnamed father who runs the Arbuckle farm with Jon's mother. He is based on Jim Davis' own father. In The Garfield Show, he is voiced by Frank Welker. He most commonly appears when Jon, Garfield, and Odie visit Jon's childhood home/the Arbuckle family's farm.

Aunt Gussie

First Appearance: August 14, 1981
Aunt Gussie was a relative of Jon's who he and Garfield would occasionally visit. Although portrayed as a stereotypical old woman, Gussie often indicates that she lives a less-than-reserved lifestyle, such as teaching slamdancing for extra money. She is often mean towards Garfield, at which Garfield comments that Gussie used to double-date with Lizzie Borden. Gussie also harbors a crush on John Travolta.

Grandma Arbuckle

First Appearance: January 25, 1982
Jon's grandmother appears in Garfield's Thanksgiving and A Garfield Christmas Special, in which she is voiced by Pat Carroll.

Doc Boy

First Appearance: May 17, 1983
Doc "Doc Boy" Arbuckle is Jon's younger brother. He is named after and based on Jim Davis' own younger brother Dave "Doc Boy" Davis. In his first appearance, his mother mentions that Doc Boy recently moved back in with his parents and works on the farm as a hired hand. In The Garfield Show Doc Boy is shown to have moved out and now has his own farm, with a comic appearance in 2022 implying that he still now lives alone. He also starts dating another woman named Gloria.
In both A Garfield Christmas Special and The Garfield Show, he is voiced by David Lander.