Anyone who has picked up the comics page of a newspaper or visited the humor section of a bookstore will be familiar with Jim Davis's lasagna-scarfing, cantankerous cartoon cat Garfield. Appearing in newspapers across the United States and in dozens of countries around the world, Garfield has also become a familiar face on merchandise ranging from t-shirts to bookmarks and as the star of animated television specials. But even though his creation has made him a millionaire, Davis has not allowed his celebrity to change him in any way. "Everything I did cannot erase the fact that I am an Indiana farm boy," he tells People writer Mary Vespa. "Except for the media attention, precious little has changed."

The origin of Davis's love for cartooning can be traced back to his childhood on a farm in Fairmont, Indiana. He spent much of his time there sick in bed...