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This article is about the comic strip. For other uses, see Far side.
| The Far Side | |
|---|---|
 Wiener Dog Art, one of many Far Side collections published in the United States, features an artist stamping a paint-covered dachshund on a canvas. | |
| Author(s) | Gary Larson |
| Current status / schedule | Ended |
| Launch date | January 1, 1980 |
| End Date | January 1, 1995 |
| Syndicate(s) | Chronicle Features (1980–1985) Universal Press Syndicate (1985–1995) |
| Genre(s) | Humor, Satire |
| Preceded by | Nature\'s Way |
The Far Side is a popular one-panel syndicated 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. Reruns are still printed in many newspapers.
Around the world, The Far Side is perhaps better known for the compilation books and merchandise (especially calendars, T-shirts, greeting cards, and mugs) than it is for its original incarnation as a daily newspaper feature.[citation needed]
The series was preceded by a similar panel called Nature\'s Way, also by Larson.
Contents |
Most of the Far Side cartoons are a single rectangular panel, occasionally split into small sections of four, six or eight for the purposes of a storyline, with the caption or dialogue usually appearing under the panel as typed text (although word-balloons were sometimes utilized for conversations). Sunday comics were done in watercolor 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[citation needed].
Larson\'s comic has been attacked by people and groups to whom it caused offense. Several Far Side jokes have involved violence and murder, often between animals or humans and animals. Though not visually gory, some readers have found such strips to be too gruesome and dark for the comics page.
One cartoon shows two chimpanzees grooming. One finds a human hair on the other and inquires, "Conducting a little more \'research\' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" The Jane Goodall Institute considered this to be in bad taste, and its lawyers drafted a letter to Larson and his distribution syndicate in which it described the cartoon as an "atrocity." It was stymied, however, by Goodall herself, who revealed that she found the cartoon amusing. Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon have been donated to the Institute. (Larson was attacked by Frodo, a chimp described by Goodall as a bully, while visiting Gombe National Park in 1988. Goodall commented, "He somehow managed to get news of the cartoon.")[citation needed]
Larson has occasionally engaged in self-censorship, acknowledging that some of his cartoons were seriously over the line. The Prehistory Of The Far Side shows a number of these.
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 newspaper publishers, demanding the removal of The Far Side from their pages, and often citing a canceled 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, in which he writes that these people have usually misunderstood the cartoon.
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.
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, including Stephen King, Robin Williams, and Jane Goodall.
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 2003, The Complete Far Side was released, which contains nearly every Far Side comic ever published, although some cartoons written for Christmas cards were not included. The collection is also missing parody art pieces from Wiener Dog Art, some material from The Prehistory of the Far Side, and a panel run for a caption writing contest in the Telegram-Tribune newspaper. The set was released in two volumes (1980–1986 and 1987–1994), with 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). Some of the comics were altered for this book, either featuring a different caption or correcting errors or simply colorised. In 2003 Gary Larson drew a cover for The New Yorker magazine,The Times cover 17-Nov-2003 a prestigious offer he said he couldn\'t refuse.The Lawrence Journal-World
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.
It is difficult to find many Far Side cartoons online, since Larson (and/or his publishers and lawyers) has 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.
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
| Universal Press Syndicate Comics | |
|---|---|
| Currently syndicated | Adam@home · Baldo · Calvin and Hobbes · Cathy · Clear Blue Water · Cleats · Close to Home · Condorito · Cornered · Cul de Sac · Doonesbury · The Duplex · The Elderberries · The 5th Wave · The Flying McCoys · For Better or For Worse · FoxTrot · Fred Basset · The Fusco Brothers · Garfield · Gaturro · Ginger Meggs · Heart of the City · In the Bleachers · Ink Pen · James Bond · Judge Dredd · La Cucaracha · Leyendas Míticas · Liō · Lucky Cow · Maintaining · Modesty Blaise · Monica\'s Gang · Mutt & Jeff · Non Sequitur · Overboard · Pepe · Pooch Café · PreTeena · Prickly City · Princess Ai · Real Life Adventures · Red and Rover · Ronaldinho Gaucho · Stone Soup · Tank McNamara · Tom the Dancing Bug · Tutelandia · Ziggy |
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