Ah, yes. THAT era of the Garfield strip. As I like to call it the: ‘Garfield and Friends era’. Why? Because the comics were beginning to take heavy inspiration from the show, Garfield and Friends. Which had premiered in 1988, pretty close to 1990.
It feels like COMIC Nate and BOOK Nate are completely different, where Nate in the chapter books is a narcissist who is willing to put his pride aside and help others, Nate HERE is a self-absorbed, egotistical JERK who does EVERYTHING possible to keep himself looking good, and criticizes his own friends just because they have a few traits that he doesn’t like all too much. And that’s the thing. The book version of all these characters is much more, well, marketable. Nicer. Meanwhile, THESE characters are jerks who usually care about nothing but themselves, or their personal life. Personally, just read the chapter books. They’re way better.
I am from the future of 2021, and you guys are outta luck.