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Any Far Side fans out there?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Faos, Oct 21, 2003.

  1. Faos

    Faos Member

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    Man, I miss Far Side.

    Larson leaves the heavy lifting to 'Complete Far Side'

    By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

    Cartoonist Gary Larson calls his 20-pound opus — a two-volume set that includes every Far Side cartoon in its 14-year twisted history — "a hernia giver." But, he says, the heft has mostly to do with the quality of the glossy paper. "I don't think the cartoons weigh that much."

    [​IMG] The Complete Far Side weighs more than 20 pounds.
    By Leslie Smith, USA TODAY


    The Complete Far Side (Andrews McMeel, $135) will be published today, nearly nine years after Larson retired as a daily cartoonist. Or, as he puts it, "I hung up my eraser, the most essential tool I owned."

    Has he thought about where readers will put the set of books?

    "I don't know," he says by phone from his home in Seattle. "I hope it's on something well supported."

    The set opens with his first syndicated cartoon, from New Year's Day 1980, of two crabs eyeing two kids building sand castles. One crab says, "Yes ... they're quite strange during the larval stage."

    It concludes with a cartoon that Larson drew in 1999 for the Science Times section of The New York Times of a wolf, next to a casket in the woods, addressing a gathering of other wolves:

    "Yes, we'll all miss him, but we must not forget: Louis was shot while slaughtering chickens, so we can take solace in knowing that he died doing what he loved."

    It was that kind of macabre humor, which Larson avoids explaining, that both delighted and upset readers. The book, which reprints complaints, notes that many of the newspaper polls that placed Larson among reader favorites also put him on their most-hated list.

    At the height of his popularity in 1994 (in more than 1,900 newspapers), Larson quit because of a "fear that if I continue for many more years, my work will begin to suffer or, at the very least, ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons."

    Looking back at more than 4,000 cartoons, Larson says he's pleased by how much of it holds up, but recalls how "something changed inside. You need a balance of fear and confidence, and not have one overpower the other. I thought I might lose the fear and start to coast."

    In one of his 14 essays in the book, Larson writes that he doesn't miss cartooning: "As they say, been there, done that.

    "Plus, for me, there was always this unforeseen nature of this thing, which no doubt made it easier to eventually let it go. (When Career Day comes to your high school, you don't go around looking for the Cartoon Guy.)"

    At 53, he doesn't consider himself retired. "I'm just not drawing."

    He says he spends several hours a day playing jazz guitar, "the demon that keeps chasing me." He takes lessons and jams with friends, limiting performances to "sneaking into little gigs, just the guitar player in the background, just for the fun of it."
     
  2. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    Oooh, a Gary Larson calendar!

    I don't get it...
    I don't get it...
    I don't get it...
    I don't get it...
    I.........don't get it...
     
  3. PhiSlammaJamma

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    Best stuff ever. This is my type of humor and I was a scientist too.
     
  4. SWTsig

    SWTsig Member

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    I used to love the Far Side. actually, i still do. i just haven't bought a new Far Side book in about 7 or 8 years.

    I have the "Prehistory of the Far Side" which is a 10 year anniversary book. it rocks.
     
  5. Castor27

    Castor27 Moderator
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  6. The Voice of Reason

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    I met larson as a kid. he was related to some kid in my class with the last name larson. go figure. I really dont remember much but he sat in on art class and drew stuff for us. I swear every kid in town had farside stuff. mainly deck calanders and stuff, but it was really cool.

    I totally forgot about it till today.
     
  7. Austin70

    Austin70 Member

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    The far side is great crapper material.
     
  8. Oski2005

    Oski2005 Member

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    The Far Side is far out man.
     
  9. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    "She keeps on passing me by"
     
  10. wouldabeen23

    wouldabeen23 Member

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    hehehehe...Pharcyde! Aww $hit!


    Seriously, I think I have seen EVERY published Farside cartoon there is, but I will definitely buy the collection :D
     
  11. meggoleggo

    meggoleggo Member

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    Hells yeah! I want it all.
    "School for the Gifted and Talented" has got to be my favorite one of all time.
     
  12. GreenVegan76

    GreenVegan76 Member

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    Awesome! The Far Side is an American classic.

    Can't wait to get this thing!
     
  13. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    When I first read Far Side in the mid-'80s I thought it was the funniest thing since Letterman. Classic stuff.
     
  14. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    the groove to this song has been in my head for last hour and a half.
     
  15. rothdaniel

    rothdaniel Member

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    Far side is 3rd on my list.

    Behind Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes
     
  16. BigM

    BigM Member

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  17. Uprising

    Uprising Member

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    My favorites:
    Farside, Garfield, Calvin n Hobs.

    Larson's stuff rocks, but I would never pay that much for a book.
     
  18. GreenVegan76

    GreenVegan76 Member

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    Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side are the only comics that are truly great. I like Fox Trot, The Boondocks and Zits, though.
     
  19. SWTsig

    SWTsig Member

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    exact three i woulda picked. i still read every one of those from time to time. they're classic.
     

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