U.S. Acres, Garfield’s Lesser-Known Sister Cartoon, Is Back as a Webcomic

If you are a member of the younger generation and you’ve heard of U.S. Acres at all, you most likely know it as the cartoon about farm animals that played as part of the Garfield and Friends animated series opposite the regular Garfield cartoons, starring a pig named Orson, a rooster named Roy, a duck who always wore an inner tube which would sometimes get comedically deflated, and an egg with feet.

What you might not know is that it was based on an actual comic strip by Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield. Less famous than Garfield, which Davis has written continuously since 1978, U.S. Acres ran for just three years, from 1986 to 1989.

Now, it’s back: In a recent USA Today column, Davis announced that he would be reviving U.S. Acres as a webcomic.

During Garfield, you also created the comic strip U.S. Acres. It ran for three years from 1986-1989. Might we ever see a “complete collection” book released of U.S. Acres? I love Garfield, but I also loved U.S. Acres and would love to read them all again! — Steven B. in Los Angeles

Wow, Steven B. If I didn’t know better I’d say you were a plant. Starting on Friday we’re going to start running a U.S. Acres web comic on Garfield.com.

You can check it out here.

A snippet of the animated U.S. Acres, for nostalgia’s sake (starts at about 0:24):

(via Robot 6 | U.S. Acres comics page)