Garfield, the curmudgeonly cat, has hated Mondays, scarfed lasagna, and tormented his owner, Jon Arbuckle, for 40 years today—providing ample material for Garfield’s Sunday Finest: 35 Years of My Best Sunday Funnies, a collection of his Sunday funnies selected and annotated by author Jim Davis.

In honor of Garfield’s 40th birthday, check out five of his classic comic strips in our gallery (including his first Sunday strip—he looked so different!), along with Davis’s commentary, excerpted from the book.

Excerpted from GARFIELD’S SUNDAY FINEST Copyright © 2013 Jim Davis. Excerpted by permission of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.