U.S Acres (comic strip)

U.S. Acres (known as Orson's Farm in other countries) is a comic strip that originally ran from 1986 to 1989 created by Jim Davis, author of the popular comic strip Garfield. When the strip was launched, Jim Davis expected it to become quickly popular, but great criticism forced it to end after 3 years in 1989. The comic strip was launched on March 3, 1986 in a then-unprecedented 505 newspapers by United Feature Syndicate. For most of the last year of the strip's existence, Brett Koth, who had been assisting Davis on Garfield at that time, was given co-creator's credit in the strip, and signed his name to the strips along with Davis. The strip was centered on a group of barnyard animals, with the main character being Orson, a small pig who had been taken from his mother shortly after being born.At the peak of the comic's popularity, there were children's books, plush animals (particularly of the characters Roy, Booker, Sheldon, and Orson), and posters of the main characters. Its animated adaptation was included in the TV show Garfield and Friends, and continued to be so for several years after the strip ended.The final daily strip was printed on April 15, 1989, while the final Sunday, and the strip itself, appeared on May 7, 1989.The strip was relaunched as an online webcomic on October 1, 2010 the date going back to March 3, 2010. The relaunch was announced the day before in a question and answer column in USA Today.Later, in celebration of U.S. Acres's twenty-fourth anniversary, the strips prior to August 1, 1986 were released on Garfield.com.