Heathcliff was actually created and published before Garfield.
Heathcliff debuted in 1973, Garfield in 1978. Garfield found more success and is just more well known. There are enough, significant differences between the two I don’t think there were ever any claims of plagiarism.
Garfield is always just Jon’s pet and typically remains in the house. Heathcliff has adventures out of the house quite often. Heathcliff is also a single panel cartoon on weekdays vs Garfield’s strip format. Heathcliff did have a strip format for Sundays.
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