> Personally, I think Garfield's been slipping for the past few years. But that's just my opinion.

I am a HUGE Garfield fan. I have all of the compilation books. And you're right - lately, it's been getting less and less funny. Jim Davis (the cartoonist) is down to repeating gags now. Garfield's prime was from roughly 1990 to 1996. Before that he was childish, and now he's boring.

Luckily, we have "Get Fuzzy". For those who don't know it, it's a truly brilliant strip starring a struggling advertiser, a näive dog, and a perfectly cast cat. It really gets the essence of cats more than Garfield ever did, and I suspect that Get Fuzzy will eventually dethrone Garfield as king of the cat strips, and possibly of all animal strips. (Peanuts doesn't count.)

Really, I find the difference is this - In Garfield, the cat tries to be humanlike, and succeeds. In Get Fuzzy, the cat tries to be humanlike, and *fails*. That makes for truly funny results.

And there's nearly no competition in the pet strip category: "Marmaduke" is a bore, "Heathcliff" is unknown, and "Mutts", while pleasant, is more cute than funny. The only other animal strip out there with any real backbone is "Sherman's Lagoon", but then it's not pets.

-Mar"Bucky RULES!"kusRTK