On June 19, 1978, a comic strip featuring an overweight, sassy, lasagna-loving cat debuted in 41 newspapers. Garfield was launched on this date, 40 years ago, by Ball State graduate Jim Davis.

Today, Garfield is seen in nearly 2,600 publications.  The cartoon cat and his friends have made movies and TV shows, and can be found on hundreds if not thousands of merchandise items bringing in reportedly hundreds of millions of dollars, annually.

Davis and his staff still draw the comic strip in their headquarters, northeast of Muncie.