Garfield Creator’s Dark Secret: Jim Davis Used Cadaver Studies to Perfect Jon’s Lanky Look

Have you ever looked at the sad, awkward man in a Garfield comic and thought, “Wow, the anatomical accuracy of Jon Arbuckle’s torso really speaks to me”? No? Well, buckle in, because today I’m reeling—positively gobsmacked—over the revelation that Jim Davis, the creator of our favorite orange lasagna vacuum, spent months carving up cadavers just to get Jon’s fragile, jellybean physique just right . Who knew the intersection of slapstick humor and medical science would involve more scalpels and less sarcasm? I’m torn between awe at Davis’s dedication and mild horror at the notion of sketchbooks filled with hyper-realistic, three-fingered hands. Then again, maybe the real question is: How many bodies must one dissect before nailing the blank stare of a cartoon everyman? This is commitment, pathology, and maybe comedy gold, all rolling around in one pastel-colored panel . Oh, and Nermal—he’s inspired by roadkill, which suddenly makes so much sense it kind of hurts . LEARN MORE

ALBANY, IN—Explaining that true artistry requires obsessiveness and a scientific understanding of form, cartoonist Jim Davis revealed Friday that he studied the musculature of medical cadavers in order to properly draw the character Jon in his syndicated comic strip. “Before I drew a single panel of Garfield, I spent months meticulously examining corpses so that I could make Jon as lifelike as possible,” said Davis, who estimated that he dissected over 30 bodies in his quest to understand how muscles, ligaments, and tendons work beneath the skin. “I’ve got notebooks filled with just sketches of hands so that I could perfectly render Jon’s three fingers and thumb in a way that makes anatomical sense. When he squints, you can practically see the orbicularis oculi muscles contracting the lids over his enormous egg-shaped eyes. Jon represents mankind and the intersection between the human and the divine, so it was very important to me that his proportions reflect that.” Davis added that he drew Nermal based on a memory of some bloated roadkill he saw once.