A number of folks have written to ask me if I had anything to do with the new Garfield movie, the trailer for which is now online. Typical is this one from "Frank D"…
I saw a trailer for a new Garfield movie and immediately thought is this something Mark has done? I know you have thoroughly refrained from plugging any of your current work but as soon as I saw the trailer you just came to mind.
No, I had nothing to do with the new Garfield movie…nor, to answer a question others have asked, am I bothered by that. I mean, I loved writing that cat for all those years and I'm sad if that was the end of it…but I always knew it would end and am surprised/pleased it lasted as long as it did. I'm the guy who coined the oft-quoted-within-the-industry line, "Never get possessive about characters you don't own."
When we write others' properties, we're baby-sitters. We are not the parents nor, even if we do a great job of baby-sitting, do we become the parents. We're baby-sitters and it's real easy to change baby-sitters or even for the parents to not need one any longer. Name almost any character who's been around long enough to be passed from writer to writer to writer. I know someone who wrote that property for a long time and was very proud of the work they did on that property…
…and then it came as, if not a shock then at least a little jolt to realize someone else was suddenly in charge of "their" character. I had a friend who was so "into" writing Superman that for a time whenever anyone else did, he reacted at least a little like a man discovering that his wife was sleeping around.
I was maybe the fortieth or fiftieth person to write Scooby Doo and never for a moment the only one. There have been hundreds since and there will he hundreds more. You have to think of these kinds of assignments in that context.