avatarTim Maudlin

Summary

Tim Maudlin recounts his three personal encounters with Garfield's creator Jim Davis and draws parallels between Davis's creative process and his own template-based approach to storytelling and content creation.

Abstract

The article by Tim Maudlin, titled "My 3 Close Encounters of the Best Kind with Garfield's Jim Davis," narrates the author's experiences meeting the famous cartoonist at various events in Muncie, Indiana. Maudlin, a fan of comic strips and templates, admires Davis's ability to create humor through a structured process. He describes how Davis visualizes Garfield's actions as if watching a television show, capturing the funny moments by rewinding three frames. Maudlin relates this method to his own use of templates for content creation, emphasizing the efficiency and reliability of this approach. He encourages readers to adopt a similar strategy for achieving their goals by working backward from their desired outcome. The article also promotes Maudlin's "Know, Like & Trust Template" and invites readers to connect with him on various social media platforms.

Opinions

  • Maudlin values the connection between comic strips and templates, seeing both as structured forms of creativity.
  • He respects Jim Davis's creative process and sees it as a form of template that can be applied to other areas of content creation.
  • Maudlin believes in the power of templates to streamline the process of turning thoughts into words and achieving consistent results.
  • He encourages the use of a backward planning approach, starting with the end goal and mapping out the necessary steps to reach it.
  • Maudlin views his encounters with Jim Davis as inspiring and formative experiences for his own work in storytelling and template architecture.
  • He promotes the idea of sharing knowledge and processes, as evidenced by his template club and the sharing of his own experiences with Jim Davis.

HUMOR | STORYTELLING | LIFE LESSONS

My 3 Close Encounters of the Best Kind with Garfield's Jim Davis

Grab your popcorn and stay awhile

Photo Public Domain on Wikimedia Commons

I love comic strips and I love templates. And yes, the two are connected. I’ll explain how in a little while. As for the Close Encounters of the Third Kind reference, that movie was set in Muncie, Indiana. And that’s where this story about me and Jim Davis takes place.

I saw Mr. Davis on three separate occasions. He was a Ball State University Alummist, the same university I graduated from in Muncie.

The first time was face-to-face. Mr. Davis was doing a book signing just off of campus. I had him sign a poster that I gave to someone else. I still can’t believe I didn’t buy a book and have him sign it for me!

The second time was at a Ball State football game. Mr. Davis lives in a nearby town where his company Paws, Inc. is located. He was sitting with friends ten feet away in the same row as me. This time I didn’t approach him. I figured he deserved to enjoy himself without some college kid bothering him.

The third time I was much farther away. We were in the same building, the College of Architecture. Mr. Davis had participated in a lecture for the students. This was cool because he was asked to sign the wall reserved for the speakers. He didn’t just sign the wall. He drew Garfield on it!

Like this…

I love it when artists pull back the curtains and give you a peek at their creation process. I’ve heard Mr. Davis describe the steps he goes through as detailed in this story, the magazine, Indianapolis Monthly. One quote, in particular, caught my attention.

… I watch Garfield in my head like I’m watching a TV set. I put him up a tree, I have him in a boat, or staring out a window — and then I just watch him. And I ask myself, What would he do? What would he say? What would the other characters do and say? Where would they go? And I just watch until something funny happens — then I back up three frames and cut it off…

The first time I heard this quote years ago, it didn’t occur to me what Mr. Davis was doing. At the core of his process is a template.

Here is the Garfield template.

Step 1: Put Garfield in a situation

Step 2: See how he acts

Step 3: When something funny happens, back up three frames

Simple! Right? Mr. Davis has used this template for over 40 years to entertain millions of readers and make millions.

Let’s connect the dots and tie this story together.

I love to create templates because they make going from thoughts to words easier, faster with results that work every time. In fact, I have a template of the month club where members get a new content creation template every month.

Here’s my process.

Step 1: I think of an idea for a template. Something to base it on. For example, I love acronyms because acronyms make a concept easy to remember.

Step 2: I ask myself, how can I turn an acronym into a template?

Step 3: With the end result in mind, I back up one, two, three, or however many steps it takes to turn my idea into a template.

Without realizing it, my process is similar to the process Jim Davis uses to create Garfield. I’ve used this process many times to create templates.

You can do this too!

Daily Doable: Think of an outcome you would like to achieve. Then back up one, two, three, however many steps it will take to get you to your goal. Then begin at step one and do it. #DoWhatYouCanNow

Want to read about the time a cartoonist and a baseball hat saved my life?

Before I go, please check out this story about loving a parent from one of my CAPITAL Acquaintances Peg Duchesne.

What’s a CAPITAL Acquaintance? Find out here.

Discover great stories from these individuals. Henery X (long), Amy Marley, Michele Thill, Trapper Sherwood, Nomanono Isaacs, Timothy Key, Linda Halladay, Joan Kent, PhD, Casi Mclean, Jacquelyn Lynn, Dr Michael Heng, Dipti Pande, Ntathu Allen, Cindy Richardson

This Inspire Point and Daily Doable were brought to you by the ❤️ Know, Like & Trust Template ❤️ Get your Free copy below.

Graphic by Tim Maudlin

I’m Storyteller and Template Architect Tim Maudlin. Please allow me to introduce myself.

This story was originally published on my site at DoWhatYouCanNow.com Also, connect with me here: Twitter — Facebook — Instagram — LinkedIn

Humor
Storytelling
Life Lessons
Content Creation
Comic Strip
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