Jim Davis was born on July 28th, 1945 in Marion, IN. He later
attended Ball State University in Muncie, IN where he distinguished
himself by earning one of the lowest cumulative grade point
averages in the history of the university. (Incidentally, a fellow
classmate named David Letterman earned the other). The Garfield
strip was born on June 19th, 1978, syndicated in 41 US newspapers.
Today it's syndicated in more than 2,500 newspapers worldwide with
263 million readers. Recently, Guinness World Records‘, named
Garfield "The Most Widely Syndicated Comic Strip in the
World."
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.