Created by Jim Davis, the Garfield comic strip now appears in 2,570 journals worldwide and is read by some 263 million people around the world, making it the world's most widely syndicated comic strip in history as recorded by Guiness World Records. Here are the latest two new titles in this bestselling series which now boasts slaes of almost 7 million copies. Each title contains over 120 daily strips... not yet seen in book format. Jim Davis was born on a farm which had at one time 25 cats. Early in his career he was assistant to 'Tumbleweeds' cartoonist, Tom Ryan, from whom he learned the skills and discipline to become a syndicated cartoonist. After one unsuccessful strip entitled "Gnorm Gnat", he looked around and noticed a few strips about dogs but none about cats. He combined his wry wit with the art skills he had honed since childhood and GARFIELD, a fat, lazy, lasagna-loving, cynical cat was born. Jim says Garfield is a composite of all the cats he remembered from his childhood, rolled into one feisty orange fur ball. Garfield was named after Jim's grandfather, James Garfield Davis. Jim Davis has had many successes with GARFIELD including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program and induction into the Licensing Hall of Fame (1998), but his most prized awards are from his peers in the National Cartoonist Society: Best Humor Strip (1981 and 1985), the Elzie Segar Award (1990), and the coveted Reuben Award (1990) for overall excellence in cartooning.