Regarding Lyman on "Garfield": It was always my suspicion that Jim Davis got rid of Lyman when he realized he had inadvertently created a gay situation. After all, there were two bachelors living together, one of whom had a big mustache (which was common among gay men in the 1970s going for that 'clone' look), and who had pets like children. When some angry fan wrote in complaining about it and "what about the children? The children!!!" Mr. Davis probably went "uh-oh" and phased him out since he really wasn't a necessary character. It didn't matter that Jon had been pursuing Liz for dates since the beginning of the strip. It was Lyman that appeared to be the "big queen". Of course given the storyline, Mr. Davis was free to make up anything years later to cover his tracks, and he came up with the basement comment. That's my take on it, anyway.