Jon Arbuckle, cartoonist

[psychonaut]

@psychonaut

But there is so much more about Arbuckle the cartoonist that remains a mystery to me. Is he involved with only one comic strip, or with several? Does he write the comics himself, or does he just do the illustrations? Is his work published locally or is it nationally or internationally syndicated? Do we know anything about the genre of his comic strip or the characters and setting? Has any Garfield strip ever shown a close-up of his artwork? Is cartooning Arbuckle’s sole source of income?

I just stumbled upon a definitive answer to one of these questions. In the 4 July 2010 Garfield strip, Jon draws a cartoon pig and we get to see a close-up of it. The pig bears a striking resemblance to Orson, one of the main characters of Jim Davis’s other comic strip, U.S. Acres. Does this mean that in the Garfield universe, Jon Arbuckle is the cartoonist behind U.S. Acres? Feel free to discuss that particular fan theory in my other thread: Are Garfield and U.S. Acres set in the same universe?

In the meantime, I’m just happy to actually see some of Jon’s artwork.