Jon Arbuckle

In the first strip, Jon is presented as a cartoonist.[10] Garfield and Friends also shows him several times as a cartoonist. In The Garfield Show, his occupation is a cartoonist. Also, in the strip from May 2, 2010, Liz tells her parents Jon is a cartoonist.[11] Jon was also seen doing his work briefly in the August 2, 2015, strip.[12]

He can play accordion, bagpipes, guitar, banjo, and bongos and sing, although his musical skills are not the greatest.

Jon was raised on a farm and occasionally visits his mother, father, paternal grandmother, and brother Doc Boy, who live on the farm, usually at Christmastime.

Jon lives with Garfield and Odie, his pets.

Jon acquired Garfield at a pet shop.

Jon acquired Odie when Lyman, an old friend of his (and Odie's original owner), moved in with him and Garfield. After a few years, Lyman disappeared from the strip, never to be heard from again. The book Twenty Years and Still Kicking, which marked Garfield's twentieth year, included parodies of how Lyman left, such as "Had lunch with Jimmy Hoffa and then...".[13] Lyman does appear in an episode of The Garfield Show, during which Jon sets out to look for him.[14] Odie goes back to Lyman but returns to Garfield at the end.[15]

Before he met Liz, Jon consistently failed to date any woman. This has been partly due to ridiculous pick-up lines, lack of social skills, his entire wardrobe of incredibly weird, flashy outfits, and his general awkwardness. A consistent running gag is Garfield coming back from a New Year's Eve party and asking how a solitary Jon enjoyed his TV movie and microwave popcorn. Every Friday night, he would invite Garfield to undertake in his Friday night festivities instead of inviting whichever woman he was trying to hook up with. Otherwise, he would solely stare at his phone, desperately waiting in vain for a woman to call him. Jon's oddness and horrible fashion sense has often been the subject of teasing or outright mockery, usually from Garfield, as one of the major running gags in the series.[16][17][18][19]

Jon has a longstanding crush on Garfield's veterinarian, Dr. Liz Wilson. Although she has a deadpan, sardonic persona, she finds Jon's outlandish and goofball behavior endearing on occasion. Jon often attempts to ask her out on a date but rarely succeeds, usually due to his lack of fashion sense, with Garfield making fun of his failure as a result; however, in an extended story arc from June 20 to July 29, 2006, Liz finally admitted she was in love with him and became his girlfriend from that point on. As early as 1982, Davis had suggested he would eventually bring Jon and Liz together as a couple.[20]

Despite his somewhat timid and honest nature, Jon is sometimes shown to be quite assertive on Garfield and Friends. Additionally, he shows a tendency to be a miser, as Garfield mentions how Jon passes out seeing the rates on a parking meter.