A Lesson from Garfield: Kill Your Protagonist

Courtesy of the print edition of Entertainment Weekly (yes, print media has its value – it’s just not as easily sharable) comes a brilliant experiment: Garfield Minus Garfield.

Here’s how it’s described:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield
comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends,
meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep
into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a
losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

I’ve included a couple favorites below, but there are dozens of examples, and it’s updated regularly. It’s also the best use I’ve seen of Tumblr (the Twitter / Jaiku / Pownce microblogging service).

Garfield_minus_garfield_dinner
Garfield_minus_garfield_pathetic

Picollator Loves My Girlish Smile
Color Coding: Crayon Video from Sesame Street on YouTube