Garfield the cat, the star of Jim Davis' internationally popular comic strip, turns 40 today.

由吉姆·戴维斯创作的闻名于世的连环漫画《加菲猫》在今天迎来了40周年纪念。

The cantankerous¹ feline² made his first appearance on 19 June 1978 when he was syndicated in 41 American newspapers.

这只爱吵闹的猫咪于1978年6月19日首次亮相，当时这部漫画被出售给了41家美国报社。

By 1981, Garfield's popularity was such that he appeared in 850 papers. By 2002, the total was 2,570, giving him an approximate audience of 263m readers worldwide and a Guinness World Record for the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. Garfield also quickly became a commercial juggernaut , shifting between $750m and $1bn in merchandise annually³.

到1981年，加菲猫的人气使他登上了850家报刊。到2002年，连载这部漫画的期刊共有2570家，这使得他在全球收获了约2.63亿名观众，而且这部漫画还获得了吉尼斯世界纪录——全球刊载期刊最多的连环漫画。加菲猫也迅速成为强大的商业化漫画形象，每年带来7.5亿~10亿美元的收益。

The cat, who famously loves lasagne, hates Mondays and sheds fur copiously⁴, is accompanied in the series by his owner Jon Arbuckle and fellow pets Odie the dog, Arlene and Nermal, his kitten cousin and nemesis⁵.

这只猫咪非常喜欢意式宽面，讨厌星期一，而且还经常掉毛。在这部连环漫画中，他和他的主人乔恩·阿布库、宠物伙伴狗狗欧迪以及他的猫咪表亲和死对头阿琳和毛毛一起生活。

Davis had grown up surrounded by cats on a farm in Marion, Indiana – a background that parallels Jon Arbuckle’s, also a cartoonist by profession. Garfield was named after his creator's late grandfather.

戴维斯在印第安纳州马里昂的一个农场上在猫咪的环绕中长大，他的背景与加菲猫的主人乔恩·阿布库很相似，他也是一名职业漫画家。加菲猫是以作者已故祖父的名字命名的。

He was brought to television in the early 1980s, and he also appeared in two CGI feature films.

20世纪80年代早期，加菲猫被搬上荧屏，而且他还在两部3D动画电影中登场。

All of this has led to the character becoming one of the most recognisable in American cartoons, as famous as Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang. A huge inflatable Garfield is a common sight as part of the Macy's Day Parade in New York City every Thanksgiving.

所有的这一切都使得加菲猫成为美国漫画知名度最高的形象之一，也使它变得与查尔斯·舒尔茨笔下的《花生漫画（史努比系列漫画）》一样有名。每年的感恩节在纽约梅西百货的感恩节游行中都可以看到一个巨大的加菲猫充气娃娃。

The character represents a soothing⁶ presence in a daily paper, his downbeat mood chiming neatly⁷ with that of his readers, just out of bed, clinging to their coffee mugs and dreading⁸ the working day ahead. His curmudgeonly⁹ nature, moderate misanthropy and unapologetic gluttony are all recognisable traits that have endeared him to millions.

加菲猫这一角色在日报中象征着一种安慰性的存在，读者们与他的悲观情绪产生共鸣，起床后，喝杯咖啡，担心着一天的工作。他那小气的天性、偶尔的愤世嫉俗以及毫无悔意的暴饮暴食都是人们常见的特点，这也使他受到了数百万人的喜爱。