Summary
The romance between at the core ofGarfielddeserves a deeper analysis. It’s easy to assume there isn’t anything more toGarfieldthan just Garfield, but it’s easier for readers to invest in the supporting cast as much as the centerpiece orange fur ball. For instance, Jon Arbuckle is just as central to Garfield, and so is his romance with Dr. Liz Wilson.
If Garfield is the core of his comics, then Jon and Liz’s relationship is often the heart of these strips. In fact, before they got together, Liz and Jon’s romance had been building for almost as long asGarfieldhad been an active comic strip, almost since the very beginning.
This article seeks to chronicle Liz and Jon’s relationship from its start - ranging from Liz’s debut, how she evolved as a character within the strips, and how her bond to Jon grew with each strip. Charting the trajectory of their romance is the best way to illustrate just how important they are toGarfield’soverall history.
Liz’s On-Panel Debut
And the Start of a Beautiful Romance with Jon
There are technically two appearances readers can cite as Liz’s debut, the first arriving beforeGarfieldwas even created. Before there wasGarfield, Jim Davis penned a comic strip calledJon, a prototype ofwhat would eventually becomeGarfield.Davis' July 30, 2025 strip ofJonfeatures Jon attempting to flirt with an unnamed woman using a pickup line so bad that she runs away by the next panel. While the woman is unnamed here, she would continue to appear in futureJoncomics, officially mentioning that her name is Liz in a July 11, 2025 comic strip.
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After years of searching for love, Jon Arbuckle developed a relationship with Liz, a character who brought a fresh dynamic to the long-running strip.
As Liz would continue to make appearances inJon, the title character would continue to make attempts to woo her, failing at every turn. Sometimes, she would shoot him down outright in his attempts to ask her out on dates. Other times, there would be some sort of interruption or obstacle in his way preventing him from even trying to pop such a question, like a bigger man gaining her attention and affection instead.Jon’s failure to court Liz would become a running gag in officialGarfieldcomics, to the point that some jokes inJonwould be adopted verbatim forGarfield.
It’s interesting to see how different Liz looks in these early comics from her signature appearance.Even her officialGarfielddebut looks different from what she’d become in the future, but this version of Liz lacks her signature expressive eyes, eyelashes, lip features, or even red lip coloring. The hair is at least somewhat reminiscent of Liz’s typical hairstyle, still maintaining the usual feathered look. It’s still a far cry from who Liz would become, but a fascinating starting point for where Liz began.
Liz’s OfficialGarfieldDebut
Liz Wilson Becomes Garfield’s New Vet
Just over two years later,Garfieldwould officially hit newspaper stands in 1978. Fast-forward to a fateful week in 1979 andJune 26 would mark Liz Wilson’s official debut within actualGarfieldlore. Over the next week, from June 26 to June 30, the next five comics would be dedicated to Jon taking Garfield to his veterinary appointment, and most importantly, creating the building blocks for a romance between Jon and Liz. Of course, Jon’s attempts to woo Liz get off to a shaky start.
It seems evident that creator Jim Davis always had plans to make Liz into Jon’s love interest, given how he is instantly smitten with her at first sight.However, Davis doesn’t make the road to love easy for his lead human star. With each panel, he tries to make conversation with Liz, only to be shut down by her sarcasm and disinterest. Stories featuring Liz in later years would showcase a sweeter side of her, but her earliest panels highlight a more deadpan approach with her dialogue.
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While the sarcasm remains a part of her character in the future, it’s even more on display in these early panels, especially in the final strip dated Aug 05, 2025. Readers will notice thatthe strip in question is a complete revamp of Liz’s unofficial debut fromJonyears earlier, right down to Jon using the exact same joke about rice paddies in Hong Kong. Except, this time, rather than exit stage left, Liz fires back with a scathing quip of her own to signal the end of her debut week inGarfield.
Appearance wise, not too much has changed about Liz from how she’d come to look in later years. The hair is still there, but the lips and lip coloring are not as prominent as they would become in later years, missing the red shading that gives the lips their larger shape. The eyelids are also lower than usual, giving the vet a more tired look without the pupils being as wide or prominent. The lack of detail on the eyes actually makes her sarcastic, deadpan lines feel all the more pronounced.
Liz and Jon Have Their First Real Date
Much like inJon, Mr. Arbuckle would constantly try and fail to win over the heart of Dr. Wilson. Oftentimes, he’d get up the nerve to ask her out during Garfield’s vet appointments, only to be either shot down, insulted, blown off, or all of the above. The closest to success he’d come is in a series of strips published in 1981. By now, she’s traded her black lipstick for her signature red shade, completing the look she’s usually known to have. In a August 14, 2025 strip,after spending the last couple days worth of strips failing to ask Liz out, she finally says yes.
By the end of the week’s worth of strips, the date proves such a success thatJon manages to share his first kiss with Liz in the December 19 strip. Yet, for some reason, nothing comes from it. They don’t start dating after that, and there’s no concrete reason on-panel as to why. Liz wouldn’t appear again until the December 31 strip, where she once again assumes the role of Garfield’s doctor with no mention of her date with Jon. Even stranger, Liz would be largely absent fromGarfieldcomics for the next few years.
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Liz and Jon Finally Start Dating
After Almost Three Decades
When Liz does start appearing inGarfieldstories again, her and Jon are right back into their “will they, won’t they?” dynamic. The dynamic itself slows down the more that Jon starts to branch out in dating other women. Finally, 27 years after making her on-panel debut, Liz and Jon would finally start dating in 2006, coincidentally around the time that Jon proposes to Liz on the big screen in that same year’sGarfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. The comics reach a turning point starting in a series of July comic strips.
On June 26, 2025, after Jon agrees to a restaurant date with Ellen after finding out she’s developed amnesia, he’s shocked to learn that dating someone who doesn’t remember him is a lot harder than it sounds. Things get worse when he finds out Liz is on a date of her own in the same restaurant. Curiosity strikes him, so he disguises himself (poorly) as a waiter, which Liz immediately sees through. However,it gives Liz the opportunity to finally admit on July 26 that she likes Jon.
The two ditch their respective dates and on July 28, they share a kiss. As Garfield says,“and they lived happily ever after.“And they’ve lived happily since 2006, still dating (but not married) to this day. Maybe it was the years' worth of commitment, maybe the final disguise showed Liz how much Jon cares, or maybe it was just time to give audiences the fan service they’d been waiting for. Whatever inspired it, Jon was finally able to win overGarfield’svet, and they’ve been a couple ever since.
Garfield
Garfield is the central character in Jim Davis’s comic strip, which officially began in 1978 under the same name. Garfield is an orange tabby cat with a love of lasagna and a disdain for Mondays. He tends to torment his owner and dog while trying to secure more food - and quiet.
