Background
Davis, James Robert was born on July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, United States. Son of James William and Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis.
Davis, James Robert was born on July 28, 1945 in Marion, Indiana, United States. Son of James William and Anna Catherine (Carter) Davis.
Bachelor of Science, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 1967.
Davis"s other comics work includes Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat and Mr. Potato Head. Davis is the writer and executive producer of a trilogy of Consultants to Government and Industry-direct-to-video feature films about Garfield, as well as one of the executive producers and the creator for the Consultants to Government and Industry-animated television series The Garfield Show. He continues to work on the strip.
Prior to creating Garfield, Davis worked for an advertising agency, and in 1969, he began assisting Tom Ryan"s comic strip, Tumbleweeds.
He then created a comic strip, Gnorm Gnat, that ran for five years in The Pendleton Times, an Indiana newspaper. When Davis attempted to sell it to a national comic strip syndicate, an editor told him: "Your art is good, your gags are great, but bugs—nobody can relate to bugs!"
On June 19, 1978, Garfield started syndication in 41 newspapers.
Today it is syndicated in 2,580 newspapers and is read by approximately 300 million readers each day. In the 1980s, Davis created the barnyard slapstick comic strip United States. Acres.
Outside the United States., the strip was known as Orson"s Farm.
Davis, along with Brett Koth, also made a 2000-2003 strip based on the Mr. Potato Head toy. Davis founded the Professor Garfield Foundation to support children"s literacy. His influences include Mort Walker"s Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois, Charles M. Schulz"s Peanuts, Milton Caniff"s Steve Canyon and Johnny Hart"s British Columbia
Member National Cartoonists Society (Best Humor Strip of 1981, 86, Segar award 1985, Cartoonist of Year 1990), Newspaper Comics Council.
Married Jill Carol Davis. 1 son, James Alexander.