‘Garfield’ Found Its Perfect Formula Before the Second Strip Even Arrived Almost 50 Years Later

Not many comic strips figure out their voice with the first installment, but the ones that do tend to stand out. Peanutshad a boy who seemed to praise Charlie Brown to his face, then said, "How I hate him!" This all but cemented Charlie Brown's status as the perpetual hard-luck loser. Calvin and Hobbeskicks off by introducing the titular ten-year-old, having caught the tiger who'll become his best friend with a simple tuna fish sandwich; it isn't until a few strips later that fans learned Hobbes was actually a stuffed animal. However, one comic strip perfectly nailed its lead character from the jump.