Jon Arbuckle is single.
Executive summary
No — Jon Arbuckle is not single in the core Garfield comic strip: he has been shown in a sustained romantic relationship with Dr. Liz Wilson since a story arc in 2006 that culminated in their first kiss and an ongoing pairing thereafter [1] [2]. That said, adaptations and past decades of the strip depict Jon as romantically hapless, and some screen versions treat his status differently, so “single” depends on which Garfield continuity is referenced [3] [4].
1. A bachelor for decades, then a canonical relationship
For most of Garfield’s long run Jon was written as the perpetual, romantically unlucky bachelor — a comic foil for Garfield’s sarcasm and an object of pity in many jokes — but the strip’s continuity shifted when Jim Davis ran an extended arc in June–July 2006 that explicitly moved Jon from unrequited suitor to a partner of Liz; those strips show Liz admitting love and the two remaining a couple afterward, marking the end of Jon’s perpetual singledom in the comics [1] [2].
2. The 2006 turning point and subsequent comic depictions
Multiple retrospectives and reporting on the strip’s history point to late June–July 2006 as the narrative turning point when Jon and Liz finally became an established couple — a deliberate, decades-in-the-making beat that redefined Jon’s role from lonely cartoon everyman to a man in a recurring relationship that sources say has continued in subsequent strips [2] [5] [6].
3. Media adaptations complicate the “single” label
While the comic strip canon presents Jon as Liz’s boyfriend from 2006 onward, adaptations have treated the relationship variably: some animated episodes foreground Liz as Jon’s steady girlfriend [7] [5], fandom sources note that live-action film portrayals push the relationship further (fiancé or married in some movie continuity), and popular write‑ups emphasize the contrast between Jon’s earlier dating failures and later stability in other media [3] [4] [8].
4. Why confusion persists: canon vs. gag, long run vs. snapshot
Confusion over whether “Jon Arbuckle is single” persists because Garfield is both a gag strip and a franchise spanning decades and formats; many classic strips freeze Jon in the archetypal lonely-dating routine for joke economy, while later story arcs and modern pieces of continuity deliberately advanced his romantic life — outlets summarizing Garfield lore tend to emphasize one era or continuity over another, which can create the impression Jon remains single despite the documented 2006 development [1] [5] [9].
5. Sources, agendas and what each claims
Encyclopedic sources and mainstream retrospectives (Wikipedia, comic-focused outlets like CBR and ScreenRant) converge on the 2006 relationship shift as canonical for the strip and note media variation elsewhere, while fan wikis catalog Jon’s many dates and present Liz as his girlfriend in the comics and fiancé in some screen versions; those differences reflect editorial aims — fan wikis archive all appearances, pop culture outlets contextualize narrative beats, and official strip continuity is the primary arbiter for “is he single?” [1] [3] [10] [9].
6. Bottom line: life of the character vs. snapshot interpretations
Definitively within the comic-strip continuity that most reporting cites, Jon Arbuckle is not single: since the mid‑2006 arc he has been portrayed as Liz Wilson’s boyfriend and their relationship continues to be referenced and developed in strips and related reporting [1] [2] [5]. However, taking a snapshot of older strips, early decades, or certain adaptations will produce a different answer — those older or alternate-media depictions preserve Jon as single for comedic effect, which explains persistent public perception to the contrary [7] [3].