GREENFIELD — Indiana’s most famous feline is without a doubt the fat orange cat known as Garfield. Drawn by Hoosier Jim Davis, the lazy lasagna-loving cat has appeared for decades in newspapers, along with a host of other characters, including Jon Arbuckle (Garfield’s beleaguered owner), Odie (Jon’s poor long-suffering dog) and countless nameless spiders.
But Davis, now 75, wasn’t the only one who drew Garfield. He had help from three Mt. Vernon High School graduates who worked for Davis for more than 25 years at Davis’ PAWS studio in Albany: David Kuhn (who passed in 2014), Larry Fentz and Michael Fentz.
Michael Fentz will be the guest of honor for a Facebook Live interview with Michael Kester of the Hancock County Historical Society. The public is invited to tune in to the historical society’s Facebook page or at the organization’s website at hancockhistory.org at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 19, to hear the artist share stories and a few of his original artworks.
The program came about when Kester, president of the historical society, picked up a couple of pieces of artwork by David Kuhn. He did some research into the art he’d just purchased, only to discover that Kuhn had died. However, he learned that Kuhn had been a graduate of Mt. Vernon High School, and that he and the Fentz brothers had worked with cartoonist Jim Davis.
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Kester was thrilled to discover that his newly purchased artwork had a Hancock County connection. On a whim, he reached out to Fentz through his website contact, and Fentz returned his call.
“We talked for about an hour,” Kester said. “He thought I was trying to put together a program about Dave Kuhn, but I told him, ‘It’s about all of you — you’re the storyteller of the legacy of these three boys that went to work for Jim Davis.’”
Kester and Fentz collaborated on a program for the Hancock County Historical Society. Kester drove up to Muncie to meet with Fentz and run through some questions.
Fentz owes his successful art career to being in the right place at the right time. He, his brother and Kuhn had set up a small freelance art studio in Indianapolis, and Fentz had done some work for a small ad agency in Broad Ripple.
“The owner of the agency was an old college buddy of Jim’s at Ball State,” Fentz said. “Jim saw it and called his college buddy.”
Fentz’s propensity for cartooning, caricature and illustration made him the perfect choice to assist Davis with his burgeoning cartooning career — and he brought his brother and Kuhn along for the ride.
Davis needed help. According to Fentz, Davis was one of the first cartoonists to license his images.
“He set up his own licensing arm of the comic strip,” Fentz said, “and anything you can think of, Garfield was slapped onto it.”
Kester would be the first to agree. He bought a calendar and a book. Fentz signed both, and Kester plans to put both items in the historical society collection.
Kester hopes for a large audience for the live interview. Watchers will be able to ask questions on the Facebook page that Kester will, in turn, ask of Fentz.
The interview also will be archived on the organization’s page.
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Who: The Hancock County Historical Society
What: A live interview with Garfield artist Michael Fentz
When: 3 p.m. July 19
Where: on Facebook at the Hancock County Historical Society or hancockhistory.org.
Other: Attending the virtual interview program is free; viewers are invited to submit questions to be asked during the interview; the interview will be up on the Facebook page following the live interview.
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