Throughout this year, we hope you've noticed our effort to bring you new comics and storylines along with ways to reach you with our work. We want our comics to resonate in your daily lives; I like to call it "fishing where the fish are." So, we've been extremely active through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+ and more) and now update this blog daily (M – F) with new stories and a stable of strong and diverse writers. Another addition was having live tweet sessions on Fridays with our creators, so that you can talk to the makers of your favorite comics and we can introduce you to news ones as well. I like to think that getting a tweet from your favorite celebrity/athlete/writer/talented person is the new autograph. So, we'll be "virtually signing" every Friday at 1:30 p.m. CDT for an hour with cartoonists.
Last Friday, we hosted a session with the PAWS team, home of Garfield, Odie, Jon and the gang. We had high hopes because of the popularity of the fat cat, but also knew that iconic figures make for big targets (sorry, pun intended, Garfield) in social media. Fortunately, the PAWS team has the same sense of humor as we at GoComics do, so they were up for the task, including any sweetness and snarkiness that may come.
Our first warning of things to come was earlier in the week when the cat was challenged, elementary-school style, to meet after the bell rings for a fight behind the school. Well, the cat showed up. So did his friends and the crowds. What did this lead to? Our Twitter hashtag, #GarfieldLive, trending at least FOUR times worldwide during the session. For context, a rule of thumb is that there has to be well over a hundred mentions, retweets or favorites of a keyword or hashtag per minute in order for this to happen. We were right up there with the worldwide topics of the day, including the iPhone release.
Make no mistake, many of the comedians – both professional and armchair – had a field day with throwing lobs at Garfield during the session. But so did we. The responses were quick, fun, sometimes biting and kept in theme with the brand spirit of Garfield and the status that it has reached in its 30+ years of circulation. You found a few Odie and lasagna references (it wouldn’t be Garfield if it didn’t), but there were several pop culture responses, including quoting songs by Snoop Dogg (Lion) and Ice Cube. Yes, Garfield gets down like that. Little did you know.
See you all on Twitter every Friday afternoon. Have any requests for GoComics creators to invite to chat? Let us know.
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