Although a single comic may appear to be as simple as a few drawings, the making of each "Garfield" comic strip involves many steps that include a number of people.
The process of producing a comic strip begins with Jim Davis developing a concept for the comic. Once Jim has an idea, he makes a thumbnail sketch of what he would like Garfield and other characters to be doing and saying.
Once the idea leaves Davis, it then is "blue lined" by artist Eric Reaves.
Blue lining is "redrawing rough concepts into clean lines so it can be inked into production," Reaves said.
The process is called blue lining because blue lead pencil is used to draw the comic.
During this step, Reaves also uses black ink to write the text that will appear in the conversation bubbles. All text that appears in Garfield comics is still written by hand. Reaves is the only person who writes the text so it will be consistent.
After Reaves has drawn the comic in blue and added the text, the comic is then sent to Kenny Goetzinger who proofreads the text.
"Sometimes we have to get changes approved by Jim," Goetzinger said.
After the comic is proofread and necessary changes are made, an artist inks the comic. Using a paint brush and black ink, artists such as Larry Fentz and Lori Barker will traces over the blue lines to create the final comic. Details such as Garfield's whiskers and stripes are added during this step.
The boxes around each picture (panels) are added first. After the boxes are drawn, the artist begins to traces the lines and add detail. All of the black lines in the comic are drawn by hand opposed to adapting the process to use computers. "Don't fix it if it's not broken," Fentz said.
Fentz rarely finishes a panel all at one time. He prefers to "do all eyes and noses first to get a fluid movement."
By moving from one panel to another, the inkers can usually avoid smearing the lines. "Occasionally I get going too fast and catch the end, but we have white out for that," Fentz said.
The Sunday comics take inkers longer to complete "depending on complexity," Fentz said. "Each panel could take three to four hours." The shorter comics that run Monday through Saturday take about two to three hours to be inked.
Once the comic has been inked completely, the comic goes back to Goetzinger for a final check.
"Sometimes I catch mistakes the second time around," he said.
Goetzinger recalls one mistake that passed through the many checks without being caught. The comic was supposed to say "yoke of oppression" as in a yoke that is used to group to oxen while working. The comic was sent to the newspapers saying "yolk of oppression" as in the yolk of an egg.
"That was one that I missed," Goetzinger said.
Once the comic has been approved by Goetzinger, it goes back to Jim Davis so he can sign and date it.
The comic is then scanned onto a computer by Linda Duell. While Duell is adding copyright lines and the Garfield Web site to the comic strip, other artists are adding color to the scanned comic.
Color is added using Adobe Photoshop. A comic can be colored in 15 to 30 minutes. A Sunday comic can take longer because more complex coloring and details may be added.
Once the comic has been colored and the copyright lines are in place, it is ready to be sent to the company that syndicates "Garfield," Universal Press Syndicate. The comic is translated into 26 different languages and distributed to newspapers around the world for publication. The same comic strip appear in each newspaper on the same day.
Although it is not always possible, Paws Inc. likes to have comics ready six months before they are to be published. For example, last Thursday, the blue liner was drawing a comic strip for an October publication and the inker was working on a September strip. The syndicate requires the comic to be ready approximately two and a half months in advance.
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