Cartoonist Gary Larson Launches a Website for ‘The Far Side,’ Promising New Comics by Early 2020

In the final installment of The Far Side—the
wildly popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and
syndicated in hundreds of newspapers between 1980 and 1995—the
bespectacled cartoonist wakes up from a Wizard of Oz-like
dream. “There were monsters and stupid-looking things and animals
could talk and some of it was confusing,” Larson’s speech bubble
says, which is a pretty apt summary of the entire series.

Larson is now fully awake again after the launch of his first official website yesterday, where a
daily dose of cartoons from the archives will be posted alongside
unseen doodles from the artist’s sketchbook. And starting January
1, 2020, new Far Side comics will be published at random
to mark the 40th anniversary of the series.

The launch will likely prove to be a nostalgic moment for
millennials, many of whom grew up looking for The Far Side
in their parents’ home-delivered newspapers, or had tear-off sheet
calendars where they could enjoy one absurd cartoon per day.

The website marks the first time that authorized images of the
cartoons are available online. “Back [when I discontinued the
series], the Internet was a cute little Internet-ling, its cold,
digital eyes just starting to open,” Larson wrote in an open letter to his new audience, published on
the website in September. “The first website (I just looked this
up) debuted only a couple years prior to my retirement, Google came
along several years later, and Facebook was launched a full decade
after I had drawn my last cow. Meaning, like most of my generation,
I was pretty much clueless about this new technology that was on
the rise.”

Larson never connected the dots between his cartoons and the
emergent technology. Comfortable at his desk with an electric
pencil sharpener and a pad of paper, he thought to himself: “What
did the Internet have to do with me? Cue the scary music.”

But as Larson says he’s discovered, the internet is not that
scary. He’s still ambivalent about being part of the online
universe (which he equates to a type of black hole), but the
cartoonist is pleased with two of its specific features: graphics
and security. Computer screens are far more advanced now than when
he retired The Far Side back in 1995, and can show better
visual details. The website is also a secure space for him to post
authorized images of his series, so that hopefully people stop
posting amateur (and illegal) scans of tear-off sheets from one of
the 77 million Far Side calendars sold back in its
heyday.

Once a bit of an online curmudgeon, Larson has now come around.
“Let this website become your place to stop by for a smile,” he
writes. “A laugh, or a good ol’ fashioned recoiling.”

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Far Side,’ Promising New Comics by Early 2020 appeared first on
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