Silent Garfield was invented first, on a forum called Truth and Beauty Bombs, which was the fan forum of a webcomic called Dinosaur Comics, though the discussio

Silent Garfield was invented first, on a forum called Truth and Beauty Bombs, which was the fan forum of a webcomic called Dinosaur Comics, though the discussion thereon tended to be only tangentially connected to Dinosaur Comics. The thread in which it was invented became a big deal and "went viral". I think Garfield Minus Garfield was also invented later on in the same thread, as well as some other variants. But Silent Garfield is funnier and has a better rationale than Garfield Minus Garfield, so it's always to my chagrin that Garfield Minus Garfield is better-known. (That "better rationale" being the fact that in the original, Garfield's "speech" is always shown in thought bubbles, so removing those thought bubbles should theoretically how the strip's events would appear to an outside observer/Jon/anyone without access to Garfield's internal monologue.) Source: I was there. The PhpBB for the old forum seems to be busted, and I don't think the thread is accessible any more.