When I saw it this morning I was like, “Oh jeeze. Someone’s getting letters.” And apparently, I’m not the only one who thought it was less than tactful:
I don’t think Jim Davis meant any harm (he said as much), and he’s not known (as far as I know) as being some sort of activist. But talk about baaaad timing. :smack:
The strip was written almost a year ago, according to Davis. I wonder how many years worth of strips he has built up?
But he does make Christmas and New Year’s strips, so surely he must work with some dates, does he not?
I’m a veteran. And usually kinda prickly about such things. The strip doesn’t bother me in the least. He’s saying the spider is stupid for baiting the cat into squishing him. The timing is unfortunate, but I just don’t read it as any kind of slam on veterans.
Really bad timing. But I’d attribute it more to cluelessness than ill intent.
I’d blame the publishers, who obviously chose it very poorly.
That’s actually kinda funny, at least by Garfield standards.
Also kinda funny people wrote letters seeing it as a slam against veterans. Is there any comic strip that strives to remain as uncontroversial and inoffensive as Garfield? That someone would think Jim Davis would wake up one morning and say to himself “after 30 years of phoning in the most bland and inoffensive comics possible, you know who I’m going to go after, Veterans!” is hilarious.
Also, isn’t the entire premise of Beetle Baily making fun of veterans?
All the characters are still on active duty.
Yep–he just unintentionally created the funniest Garfield in years.
Another vote for ‘NO ONE (well, almost no one) would imply that deliberately, Jim Davis especially so.’ Polka-bashing is as offensive as he’s likely to get.
Beetle Bailey might be accused of occasionally making (alleged) jokes about military life. That’s not the same as jokes at the expense of people in the military.
Though referring to anything in that strip as a ‘joke’ makes me feel like I’ve made some horrible moral compromise. Naturally occurring rock formations are more consistently funny than Beetle Bailey.
–
Strips like Beetle Bailey put complaints about Garfield’s ‘blandness’ into proper perspective . . .
I’d like to think Abbie Hoffman’s ghost was subconsciously influencing Jim Davis and/or the syndicate to have just that strip happen to fall on just that date.
Garfield? Have him on my Death Pool list.
I agree with this, Davis is far to commerical to risk anything by offending Vets.
I actually stopped liking Garfield, when I read an interview with Davis, where he said, when he decided to do a strip, he decided to make Garfield a cat specifically as he researched and found a cat would sell merchandise well.
Of course Garfield was funny, for about a year 
Hate to break it to you, but you’re 20 years too late.