Garfield at Large: His First Book is the first compilation book of Garfield comic strips. The book was originally published by Ballantine Books in the United States in 1980 and the strips date from June 19, 1978 to January 22, 1979. This book introduced the "Garfield Format" to the comic book market. Prior to its publication, comic strip compilations were originally formatted like a standard paperback book with the panels running down the page. Jim Davis, Garfield's author, disliked the idea and coerced Ballantine to print the strips from left to right, as they would have appeared in the newspaper. This resulted in the final product being shorter from top to bottom and much wider from side to side than the average paperback book. The book was #1 on The New York Times bestseller list for al