GARFIELD PLUS DEAR ABBEY

A couple years ago, my good friend Van D told me about a great website called Garfield Minus Garfield. The premise is simple: remove Garfield from his own comic strip, and you're left with John's neurotic, anxiety riddled, existential ramblings. The effect is suprisingly insightful and sometimes hilarious.



When I moved to Maine last year, I began reading the Bangor Daily News (or the BDN to all the cool people). Since I always turn to the comics first, I noticed something funny right away. The BDN ran Dear Abbey in the middle of the comics right under Garfield:

However, when you folded the newspaper in half to read it at the breakfast table (like all good-hearted people do), the headline for the Dear Abbey column was directly under the Garfield cartoon like a caption:

Sometimes the combination of Dear Abbey's oddly bizarre and out of context headline, combined with Garfield's surreal half witicisms produced a mildly amusing juxtaposition. I thought I had discovered my ticket out of poverty! I would start a website called Garfield Plus Dear Abbey, and it would be the next internet meme! Alas, like everything I find that is unique and that I enjoy, it was taken away from me ( CremaCoat cough syrup, Kurt Cobain, Arrested Development). The BDN redesigned the comics page, and Garfield Plus Dear Abbey was no more.

Assuming that this treasure trove of morning comic gold would continue forever, I didn't save as many of these clippings as I should have, but here are a few of my favorites:

*sigh*
I just wish there had been a Dear Abbey headline about lasagne. That would have really made my life complete. I guess I'll just have to keep searching.....