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Todos conocemos al gato Garfield, héroes de tiras cómicas, series de televisión, y cuya imagen se ve estampada y reproducida en toda superficie y material imaginable. Lo que yo no sabía es que su creador ya se inventó al bicho deliberadamente como una máquina de generar dinero, y que estudió hasta el último detalle cómo debía hacerlo. Es más, las tiras son deliberadamente inocuas y blanditas, para no generar odio hacia el gato. Qué cosas.

Slate lo cuenta en un interesantísimo artículo:

From the beginning, Davis put as much energy into the marketing of the strip as he did into creating it. (It’s telling that he’s been inducted into the Licensing Merchandiser’s Hall of Fame but not the hall of fame hosted by the International Museum of Cartoon Art.) In 1981, only three years after the strip’s debut, he set up Paws, Inc., a privately held company to handle the licensing of Garfield products. Originally, Paws did only the creative work needed for product design, while Davis’ syndicate managed the business side, but in 1994 Davis purchased the rights to license Garfield products from the syndicate for a reported $15 to $20 million. Even before that, Davis took an active role in the selling of his creation. Before agreeing to a deal with Alpo to put Garfield’s face on a new line of cat food, Davis visited the company’s plant, talked to its employees, and spoke with the grocery industry about the company’s reputation. In his 1982 interview with Shapiro, Davis admitted to spending only 13 or 14 hours a week writing and drawing the strip, compared to 60 hours a week doing promotion and licensing.

Garfield’s origins were so mercantile that it’s fair to say he never sold out?he never had any integrity to put on the auction block to begin with. But today Davis spends even less time on the strip than he used to?between three days and a week each month. During that time, he collaborates with another cartoonist to generate ideas and rough sketches, then hands them over to Paws employees to be illustrated.

(vía PvPonline.com)