Garfield the greatest nemesis, Normalis undeniably one of the franchise’s best characters, but I seriously miss his original design. First debuting on September 3, 1979, Nermal hit the ground running 45 years ago as one of the funniest character concepts from the hit Jim Davis newspaper strip. However, just like Garfield, his design has undergone changes over the years, and I can’t help but feel like his current design lacks what made his original look so strange.
Nermal’s first comic features Jon walking up to Garfield, telling him they’ll be babysitting his parents’ kittens while they’re on vacation. He then holds out Nermal, who is unbelievably tiny as he perches on Jon’s hand. It’s an adorable design that rightfully earned him the moniker of “the world’s cutest kitten,” But the comics that followed introduced readers to just how funny he could be.
Whether it’s insulting Garfield’s weight or praising himself for being cuter than him, he’s a self-indulgent character that works because of his tiny size as he pushes Garfield around.
Nermal grows to look more like Garfield
Its modern design departs from its original concept
Although Nermal is undeniably the same as he has always been in terms of personality, his design has undergone changes over the years. He is still visibly smaller than Garfield, but not as much as he was In his earlier days. Plus, his overall look has been molded to look more like a thinner, grayer version of the orange fat cat. It’s still easy to tell them apart since Nermal has kept his “cutesy” eyelashes, but he just looks too much like Garfield nowadays, and I feel like that ultimately takes away from what made him so appealing in his earlier appearances.
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Nermal worked because he looked very little like Garfield. He was smaller, cuter and had noticeable differences in his design to set him apart from his competition. Plus, with his smaller figure, it made it even funnier when he would say something relentlessly to Garfield, because he could get away with it until he was shoved in a box and mailed to Abu Dhabi. Thankfully, he still fits personality-wise in modern strips, but it’s hard to really appreciate the joke when he and Garfield look eerily similar to each other,​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Realizing it.
How I would change Normal to bring him back to his golden age
Two main shifts to make him perfect
The good thing about Nermal is that it wouldn’t take much to change him. Davis still perfectly understands the personality of this character, so no changes are necessary there. The main thing I would change is his size and the design of his face. Nermal worked so well in the early strips because he was so small he could fit in Jon’s palm, so returning him to that stature would be a major step in the right direction.
It would make for better punchlines if Nermal wasn’t essentially a character that looked so close in design to Garfield.
The other major change would be to change his face in a way that is not remotely similar to Garfield. A lot of his humor comes from the fact that he makes Garfield feel bad about his age and appearance, so it would make for better punchlines if Nermal wasn’t essentially a character who looked so much like Garfield.
Nermal has always served as the perfect comic punching bag for Garfield’s everyday life. His rudeness combined with his cute design easily make him someone fans love to hate. However, its modern design, while perfectly fine as it is, seriously detracts from what it was made of Normal So perfect in the first place, and I miss being before Garfield Appearances because of it.