Everyone’s favorite orange tabby, or perhaps more accurately, as creator Jim Davis thinks of him, “a human in a cat suit” was born after Davis took a criticism of his earlier venture “Gnome Gnat” to heart. His jokes were spot on, one editor said, but “nobody can identity with bugs.” That led to Davis to turn to an animal he knew much better: he grew up on a farm to a family raising livestock, along with a contingent of cats.

On this day, June 19, in 1978 the “Garfield” comic strip premiered, syndicated in just 40 newspapers. Less than three years after its release, the strip appeared in 850 newspapers and had accumulated over $15 million in merchandise.

Garfield was based in personality and stature on Davis’ grandfather, James A. Garfield Davis, “a large cantankerous man,” according to Davis. The other characters were written in from advertisements: Garfield’s caretaker Jon Arbuckle came from a 1950s coffee commercial, while Odie was based on a car dealership commercial featuring “Odie the Village Idiot,” written by Davis.