Paws Incorporated | |
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | 1981Muncie, Indiana | , in
Founder | Jim Davis |
Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | Jim Davis (CEO) |
Products | |
Brands | |
Owner | Jim Davis (1981–2019) |
Parent | Nickelodeon Group (2019-present) |
Paws, Inc., doing business as Paws, Incorporated, is an American comic studio and production company founded by American cartoonist Jim Davis in 1981 [1] to support the Garfield comic strips and its licensing. The company is located inside Paramount Global's headquarters building in New York City. It was originally located in Muncie, Indiana, relocated in 1989 from Davis' own farm when he was a boy. [2]
In 1994, the company purchased all rights to the classic Garfield comic strips from 1978 to 1993 from United Feature Syndicate, although United still holds the original black-and-white daily strips and original color Sunday strips. The full-color daily strips and recolored Sunday strips are copyrighted to Paws as they are considered a different product. The strip is currently distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Press Syndicate and Universal Uclick), while rights for the strip remain with Paws, Inc. By 2015, the company employed almost fifty artists and administrators. [3]
In 2019, Davis sold Paws, Inc. to Viacom (now known as Paramount Global), including global merchandising and existing licensees. The deal put Paws under Viacom's Nickelodeon banner (which itself is part of its Kids & Family division). [4] The deal excluded the rights to the live-action Garfield films from 2004 to 2006, which are still owned by 20th Century Studios, [4] as well as the upcoming animated film The Garfield Movie , which will be distributed by Sony Pictures under its Columbia Pictures label. [5] Although Paws, Inc. is now effectively located in Manhattan, Davis will continue to draw the comic strips in Indiana for newspapers and Andrews McMeel Syndication. [6]
Work | Original release | Studio | Network |
---|---|---|---|
Here Comes Garfield | 1982 | Bill Melendez Productions Lee Mendelson Film Productions United Media Productions | CBS |
Garfield on the Town | 1983 | ||
Garfield in the Rough | 1984 | Film Roman United Media Productions | |
Garfield's Halloween Adventure | 1985 | ||
Garfield in Paradise | 1986 | ||
Garfield Goes Hollywood | 1987 | ||
A Garfield Christmas | |||
Happy Birthday, Garfield | 1988 | ||
Garfield: His 9 Lives | |||
Garfield's Babes and Bullets | 1989 | ||
Garfield's Thanksgiving | |||
Garfield's Feline Fantasies | 1990 | ||
Garfield Gets a Life | 1991 |
Work | Original release | Studio | Network |
---|---|---|---|
Garfield and Friends | 1988–1994 | United Media Productions (seasons 1–6) Lee Mendelson Film Productions (seasons 2–7) Film Roman | CBS |
The Garfield Show | 2008–2016 | Dargaud Media | France 3 (France) Cartoon Network (United States, seasons 1–3) Boomerang (United States, seasons 4–5) |
Garfield Originals | 2019–2020 | France 3 | |
Untitled Garfield television series | TBA | Nickelodeon Animation Studio | Nickelodeon |
Work | Original release | Studio | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Garfield: The Movie | 2004 | 20th Century Fox Davis Entertainment | Live-action/CGI hybrid, theatrical feature |
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties | 2006 | 20th Century Fox Davis Entertainment Dune Entertainment Major Studio Partners Ingenious Film Partners | |
Garfield Gets Real | 2007 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Davis Entertainment The Animation Picture Company | Fully computer-animated, direct-to-video feature |
Garfield's Fun Fest | 2008 | ||
Garfield's Pet Force | 2009 | ||
The Garfield Movie [5] [7] [8] | 2024 | Columbia Pictures Alcon Entertainment DNEG Animation Prime Focus One Cool Group Limited Wayfarer Studios | Fully computer-animated, theatrical feature |
Garfield is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis. Originally published locally as Jon in 1976, then in nationwide syndication from 1978 as Garfield, it chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat, his human owner Jon Arbuckle, and Odie the dog. As of 2013, it was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals and held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip.
James Robert Davis is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known as the creator of the comic strips Garfield and U.S. Acres. Published since 1978, Garfield is one of the world's most widely syndicated comic strips. Davis's other comics work includes Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, and Mr. Potato Head.
Garfield: The Movie is a 2004 American comedy film based on Jim Davis' comic strip Garfield. Directed by Peter Hewitt and written by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, it stars Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr. Liz Wilson and features Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield, who was created with computer-generated imagery.
U.S. Acres is an American comic strip that ran in newspapers from 1986 to 1989, created by Jim Davis, author of the comic strip Garfield.
Nickelodeon Movies is an American film production company owned by Paramount Global. Originally founded in 1995, it serves as both the film production arm of the American children's network Nickelodeon and the family film distribution label of Paramount Pictures, operating under its Paramount Players division.
United Media was a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core businesses were the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media from 1978 to 2011, and is now a division of Andrews McMeel Syndication. United Features has syndicated many notable comic strips, including Peanuts, Garfield, Li'l Abner, Dilbert, Nancy, and Marmaduke.
Garfield is a fictional cat and the protagonist of the comic strip of the same name, created by Jim Davis. Garfield is portrayed as a lazy, fat, and cynical orange tabby Persian cat. He is noted for his love of lasagna and sleeping, and his hatred of Mondays, Nermal, and exercise.
Universal Press Syndicate (UPS), a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, was an independent press syndicate. It distributed lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird. Founded in 1970, it was merged in July 2009 with Uclick to form Universal Uclick.
Lincoln Peirce is an American cartoonist and animator, best known as the creator of the successful Big Nate comic strip and as the author/illustrator of a series of Big Nate novels for young readers. He has also written a number of animated shorts that have appeared on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Peirce is the creator of the animated series based on his aforementioned book and comic strip series. The series premiered on the Paramount+ streaming service.
David Reddick is an American artist, illustrator and cartoonist. He is the creator of various popular comic strips such as Legend of Bill, The Trek Life, Gene's Journal and Rod & Barry at Roddenberry.com, and he is a full-time cartoonist at Paws, Inc., where he works on the Garfield worldwide property.
Garfield merchadise is the merchandise based on the "Garfield" comic strip by Jim Davis. Garfield is one of the world's most prominent and widely syndicated comic strips, and was specifically designed to be marketable. Before the sale of Paws, Inc. in August 2019, all the profits from merchandise went to Paws, Inc., of which Jim Davis is the CEO and founder. The following is a compiled list of selected merchandise based on the franchise.
Andrews McMeel Syndication is an American content syndicate which provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and various other content. Some of its best-known products include Dear Abby, Doonesbury, Ziggy, Garfield, Ann Coulter, Richard Roeper and News of the Weird. A subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, it is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. It was formed in 2009 and renamed in January 2017.
A zombie strip is a comic strip whose creator has died or retired, but which continues to exist with new installments in syndication done by a succeeding writer or artist, most often relatives of the original creator. Zombie comic strips are often criticized as lacking the "spark" that had originally made the strip successful.
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated comedy media franchise created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It began with the series, which premiered in 1999, and went on to become one of the longest-running American animated series. The franchise is the most profitable property for Paramount Consumer Products, having generated over $13 billion in merchandising revenue.
CBS Eye Animation Productions is an American animation studio, division of CBS Studios owned by Paramount Global. The studio is closely associated with the Star Trek franchise with its first projects, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy. CBS reinstated it as an animation division in late 2018 before its re-merger with Viacom in late 2019.
The Garfield Movie is an upcoming American animated comedy film based on Jim Davis' comic strip Garfield, produced by Columbia Pictures and Alcon Entertainment, animated by DNEG Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Directed by Mark Dindal from a screenplay written by David Reynolds and the writing team of Paul A. Kaplan and Mark Torgove, the film stars Chris Pratt as the voice of the titular character, alongside the voices of Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Ving Rhames, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Harvey Guillén, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang, and Snoop Dogg.
Nickelodeon Group, also known as Nickelodeon Networks Inc., is an American children's entertainment company and a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global that oversees cable television channels, including its flagship service Nickelodeon, its in-house animation studio and Paws, Inc.