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The Far Side

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The Far Side is a popular one-panel comic created by Gary Larson. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, or the search for meaning in life. The strip ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995, when it was retired (there were a few sabbaticals and vacations along the way). The series was preceded by a similar panel called Nature's Way, also by Larson.

Around the world, The Far Side is perhaps better known for the compilation books and merchandise (especially calendars, T-shirts and mugs) than it is for its original incarnation as a daily newspaper feature.

Contents

The comic

Most Far Side cartoons are single panel, with the caption or dialogue usually appears under the panel, as typed text, although sometimes word balloons were utilized for conversations. Sunday comics were done in water color or colored pencils, with captions hand written in Larson's own cursive.

Most of Larson's comics relied on some combination of a visual and verbal gag, rather than just one or the other.

Larson was recognized for his work on the strip with the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1985 and 1988, and their Reuben Award for 1990 and 1994.

Recurring themes

Far Side cartoons, though diverse in their humor, often rely on certain familiar situations. These include:

Far Side cartoons are also known for similarities that appear throughout the series:

The recurring caption Trouble Brewing appeared on a few cartoons throughout the series, as "trouble brewing" was always a fundamental aspect of Larson's humor. This theme was used for the 2005 release of the Far Side calendar, with situations like:

Larson's sense of humor, while original, can also be confusing to some, as in a comic dubbed ["Cow Tools"] (The Complete Far Side 1:251) that caused masses of readers to speculate on the use of the crudely formed tools depicted in the panel, while the cartoonist had just found humor in the idea that if a cow could make a tool, they would most likely look as he had drawn them; in other words, readers were looking for a deeply-embedded punchline which simply wasn't there.

Another famous example inspired by a marine-biologist friend of Larson's (The Complete Far Side 2:302, also discussed in the 1991 introduction) requires the reader to know facts some may consider obscure about sea life. The cartoon depicts two shipwreck survivors clinging to a small island. One survivor tells the other, "Well, we'll never want for food, Doris. ... This rock is absolutely encrusted with oysters and mussels — all the way to the top!" The joke is that these creatures live below high tide and that they will end up underwater when the tide comes in.

Other times he was a little more obvious, though some knowledge was assumed: for example, one strip contained a family of spiders driving a car down the street. The joke was that the car's bumper sticker, "Have a Nice Day", featured a smiley face with eight eyes.

Larson also occasionally drew cartoons commenting on celebrities or current events, although these are rare. An example is a corollary to the Crutchfield joke: "What really happened to D.B. Cooper", showing a wide-eyed parachutist, laden with extortion money and heading down into the heart of a Rottweiler farm. Political-themed cartoons were also rare, though during the Gulf War he drew a comic of Saddam Hussein ordering the "mother of all pizzas."

Controversy

Larson's comic has been attacked by people and groups who found it offensive, for religious content (God is often depicted in a humorous or sarcastic light; a strip dubbed "Acts of God" and containing God doing various vaudeville routines on a stage is cited as one of the most notorious in this category) or because people were appalled by the joke. In The Complete Far Side as well as The Prehistory Of The Far Side, interspersed with the comics, there are letters from angry citizens to their newspaper's publishers, demanding the removal of The Far Side from their pages, and often citing a cancelled subscription if this was not met. However, these protesters constituted a small enough minority that papers were able to continue to run the strip, with the matter becoming moot when compilation books were produced. Larson himself often laughs at the controversies of his comic as evidenced in The Prehistory of the Far Side, where he says these people have usually misunderstood the cartoon.

References in other media

Shades of Far Side–related plot devices can be found in numerous contemporary animated features, such as chickens versus farmers (Chicken Run), cattle hustlers (Home on the Range), or monsters in closets (Monsters, Inc.). However, it should be noted that these themes were not invented by Larson, and the style of humour is often quite different.

Some other works contain more obvious references to The Far Side; for example, the toy shark in Toy Story says, "Look at me, I'm Woody! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" while wearing Woody's hat — a reference to an early Far Side comic that contained a vulture wearing a cowboy hat and the lines, "Hey everyone, look at me, I'm a cowboy! Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!"

Another reference is in Jurrasic Park when one of the vehicles is being chased by the Tyrannosaurus Rex and a character glances at the mirror where "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" - a reference to a Far Side comic that showed a car mirror with the writing "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" and a view of a Godzilla-sized eye.

Publications

Gary Larson has produced 23 Far Side books, all of which have made it to the New York Times bestseller list. The cartoons were first collected in small books (see list below), and some were then republished in larger "best-of" collections (The Far Side Galleries). Additional "best-of" collections were published, such as The Prehistory of The Far Side, culminating in the final, most complete publication, The Complete Far Side.

Collections

Other books

The five Far Side Galleries are the most popular of the books, each of them collecting together the best cartoons from three smaller books, along with a humorous foreword by a celebrity fan, e.g. Stephen King, Robin Williams, or Jane Goodall (who herself was the subject of a controversial Far Side cartoon).

In 1989, The Prehistory Of The Far Side was published to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the strip. In this book, Gary Larson discussed the development of The Far Side, the public's reaction to it, and presented a selection of his personal favorites from the cartoon's history, as well as previously unpublished sketches and strips rejected by his editor.

In 1994, Larson produced an animated special, Tales From the Far Side, featuring his art style and gags from the strips. He followed up with a sequel in 1997.

In 2003, The Complete Far Side was released, which contains nearly every Far Side comic ever published. (The collection is missing parody art pieces from Wiener Dog Art and some material from The Prehistory of the Far Side.) The set featured two volumes (1980–1986 and 1987–1994), a foreword by Steve Martin, and an introduction by Larson's long-time editor Jake Morrisey. The first-edition hardcover boxed set weighs nineteen and a half pounds (8.8 kilograms).

Online

It is difficult to find many Far Side cartoons online, since Larson (and/or his publishers and lawyers) have been very effective at persuading people to not infringe on his copyright. There is a widely distributed [letter] online, attributed to Gary Larson, in which he explains the "emotional cost" to him of people displaying his cartoons on their websites, and asks them to stop doing so.

See also

External links

 

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