Garfield: The Thing in the Fridge (Family Comic Friday)

Greetings everyone! It's the last Family Comic Friday before Halloween. For today's post, I've chosen a book starring a character that for the last 40 years has become so synonymous with a certain day of the week that he sparked the saying 'I hate Mondays!' That's right- it's Garfield.

Garfield: The Thing in the Fridge is an original graphic novel from the Boom Studios imprint Kaboom! This is the third such publication from Boom based on the beloved comic strip by Jim Davis. All your favorites including Jon, Odie, Liz, and even Nermal are on hand in this treasury of three all-new tales.

In the title story, Garfield is having trouble getting to sleep. So he and Odie decide to watch the late night monster feature on TV in hopes of dozing off. When that doesn't work, the pair head off to the kitchen in hopes of raiding the fridge for a late night snack. But it's gonna be hard getting in there when it just so happens that a monster has taken up residence in the Arbuckle Frigidaire. 

Story #2, The Early Jon Arcbuckle has the constantly late owner of Garfield seeking help from a scientist who claims he can make Jon always be on time from now on. Things seem to be going smoothly, until Jon starts to overdo it, like buying all his Christmas shopping early- for the next seven years! Can Garfield and Odie get their own back on time before it's too late?

Lastly, in Only Human, Garfield awakes to find himself somehow turned human. It appears that becoming a real boy has caused the former fat cat to work up a man sized appetite. Dressed in Jon's clothing with his owner's credit card and a reservation to his favorite Italian eatery, it looks like becoming a human being is a piece of cake. What could go wrong? Believe me when I say lots!

Over the past few years Garfield has gotten a bit of a bad rap. Many critics state that the decades old comic strip has gone flat over the years. What was perfect for 1980s Sunday Comics just haven't translated well over the past decade or so. 

A large part of this problem has been from creator Jim Davis. He's stated over the years in interviews that Garfield wasn't even meant to be funny. But it became marketable, so Davis kept doing it. It's really kinda hard to do quality art if your only incentive is money. However, both Scott Nickel (The Incredible Rockhead) and Mark Evanier (Groo The Wanderer) don't seemed to have gotten that memo.

Both writers impart some very clever laughs throughout their stories. I did think the Nickel's first story, The Thing in the Fridge, was about 10 pages too long as it did ramble a bit. But his tale of Garfield turning human was extremely clever. Evanier's episode about Jon always being late started off as a kind of Twilight Zone type tale. I thought Jon was going to become like the Flash and instead he went off into another interesting direction.

For the most part, the artwork was quite good in terms of mimicking Jim Davis' art-style. The first two stories were penciled by Antonio Alfaro and they looked just like Davis would have drawn them for your Sunday paper. The last story, illustrated by Aatmaja Pandya, had an appearance that was nothing like I thought it should. Instead, that tale looked like it was drawn by a 1990's Jr. high school student goofing off on MS Paint during fourth period computer class. 

Overall, Garfield: The Thing in the Fridge was a fun Halloween time read. None of the stories were holiday themed and I would put the fright factor at a level 2 (out of 10.) However, all three stories were kinda weird. So if you choose this as an October read, it would be quite fitting for the time of year. For the most part, kids are going to enjoy it, though some of the back features included featuring comics and other goodies from the 80s might not resonate so well with the young generation.

Garfield: The Thing in the Fridge debuted in stores on October 25th.

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Lastly, before I go- tomorrow is Halloween Comic Fest. In this annual event, comic book stores nationwide will be giving out a variety of kid friendly comics for free! Don't worry parents and guardians, there's some more grown-up goodies for you as well! Don't know where the festivities are being held in your neck of the woods? Check out the store locator to find an event nearest you!

Article was published concurrently on http://www.outrightgeekery.com.