On June 19, 1978, the comic strip Garfield makes its national debut when it is published in 41 newspapers across the United States after being accepted by United Feature Syndicate in March of that year. The strip is the creation of cartoonist Jim Davis and came about following the failure of his previous strip, the bug-centric Gnorm Gnat. After Gnorm Gnat failed to gain popularity and was only ran by one newspaper, Davis reevaluated his approach and developed a new comic strip starring a grumpy cat (named after and inspired by his own grandfather James A. Garfield Davis), his owner Jon, and fellow pet Spot the dog (later renamed Odie). The new strip, titled Jon, would run in the same newspaper as his previous work from 1976 to 1978, though the name would be changed to Garfield in 1977. This new strip quickly achieved great success with the number of newspapers publishing it growing from 41 to 850 within three years of its original national syndication. By 2002, Garfield earned the Guinness World Record for the most widely syndicated comic strip with 2,570 newspapers publishing the strip across the world with a readership of 263 million people. The franchise has also proven to be a great commercial success with approximately $1 billion worth of merchandise sold across the globe by 2004. Furthermore, the comic strip has led to ventures in other media including multiple television series, video games, films, and a musical.