The Far Side
| The Far Side | |
|---|---|
 Wiener Dog Art, one of many Far Side collections published in the United States. | |
| 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 |
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, 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.
The comic
Most Far Side cartoons are single rectangular panel, with the caption or dialogue usually appearing 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:
- Life in Hell
- Chickens
- Snakes
- Cows
- Life on the farm, featuring the antics of farmers and their animals, especially cows and chickens
- Dogs and/or cats and/or other family pets
- Ducks
- Castaways on a desert island
- People stuck or lost in a desert
- Cavemen and dinosaurs
- Scientists in labs, invariably wearing white lab coats
- Explorers and indigenous peoples or cannibals
- Vikings and Warriors
- Elephants
- Nerds (with whom Larson admittedly identifies)
- God, complete with white hair and flowing beard, as in Michelangelo's artworks, and other religious themes
- Monsters of varying appearances, such as giant creatures (Godzilla), werewolves, and generic monstrosities such as Frankenstein's monster.
- Protozoa and other microscopic creatures
- Mixed metaphors of all kinds
- Parrots
- Common sayings or figures of speech (often metaphors or similes literally coming true)
- Historical events
- Insects and many other wild animals living in human society or in human homes
- The Old West
- Deep sea divers
- Gorillas, and/or Tarzan
- Humans switching places with other various things, usually animals (such as fish trying to catch humans)
- Aliens and their similarities and differences from Earth.
- Musicians, musical instruments, and venues
- References to science and scientific thought
Far Side cartoons are also known for similarities that appear throughout the series:
- Most of the characters are overweight.
- A majority of the characters wear glasses; most notably, the women almost always wear catseye glasses. In situations with non-human characters, the glasses usually indicate the character's gender.
- When no glasses are worn, the eyes usually consist of a simple line, at least when they aren't showing expression.
- The women usually have a beehive hairdo.
- There are always doilies on couches and living room chairs.
- There are usually framed photos of the character's species hanging on the wall of the living room or dining room.
- The generic companies A-1, Ace, and Acme are used for most products featured.
- Names of shops, restaurants, etc. are very simplistic (example: Bob's Diner).
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:
- Ed's Dingo Farm next door to Doreen's Daycare
- A falconer meeting next to the 12th Annual Teacup Poodle Fanciers Picnic
- An angry mob leaving a migraine headaches center towards the marching band school next door, with the caption The dam bursts, which seems to be a little further than Trouble Brewing
- Crutchfield's Crocodile Farm next door to Anderson's Sky-Diving School
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 the bottom of a tall, rocky 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 marine creatures live below high tide and that the two survivors will end up being underwater once the tide has come 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 or a comic showing Madonna falling down on an emergency raft and puncturing the bottom with the cone-shaped bikini top that she wore in the 80s. Political-themed cartoons were also rare, though during the Gulf War he drew a comic of "Saddam Hussein's war room" with an entering pizza man asking "Who ordered the 'mother of all pizzas'?"
Controversy
Larson's comic has been attacked by people and groups who found it offensive, often for religious content (the Judeo-Christian God is often depicted in a humorous or facetious 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). 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.
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.
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
- September 1982: The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-1200-2)
- August 1983: Beyond The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-1149-9)
- August 1984: In Search Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2060-9)
- April 1985: Bride Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2066-8)
- August 1985: Valley Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2067-6)
- August 1986: It Came From The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2073-0)
- April 1987: Hound Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2087-0)
- October 1987: The Far Side Observer (ISBN 0-8362-2098-6)
- July 1988: Night of the Crash Test Dummies (ISBN 0-8362-2049-8)
- April 1989: Wildlife Preserves (ISBN 0-8362-1842-6)
- October 1990: Wiener Dog Art (ISBN 0-8362-1865-5)
- November 1991: Unnatural Selections (ISBN 0-8362-1881-7)
- November 1992: Cows Of Our Planet (ISBN 0-8362-1701-2)
- November 1993: The Chickens Are Restless (ISBN 0-8362-1717-9)
- November 1994: The Curse of Madame "C" (ISBN 0-8362-1763-2)
- October 1996: Last Chapter And Worse (ISBN 0-8362-2131-1; published after the end of the strip)
Other books
- November 1984: The Far Side Gallery (ISBN 0-8362-2062-5)
- October 1986: The Far Side Gallery 2 (ISBN 0-8362-2085-4)
- October 1988: The Far Side Gallery 3 (ISBN 0-8362-1831-0)
- January 1989: The Prehistory of the Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit (ISBN 0-8362-1851-5)
- October 1993: The Far Side Gallery 4 (ISBN 0-8362-1724-1)
- September 1995 The Far Side Gallery 5 (ISBN 0-8362-0425-5)
- April 1998: There's a Hair in My Dirt! (ISBN 0-06-093274-0; not a collection of single panels)
- August 2003: The Complete Far Side: 1980-1994 (ISBN 0-7407-2113-5)
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 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). Some of the comics were altered for this book, either featuring a different caption or correcting errors. (Most notably altered is a comic where a man with a smiley face for a head is on trial for murder. In The Prehistory of the Far Side Larson noted that he forgot to draw the man's legs.)
On Television
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.
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.