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mygif

The best gift I ever got for Christmas was “The Complete Far Side,” a big, two-volume, hardback set.

My personal favorite is the one of the vultures in the desert eating a corpse, and one of them has donned a hat.

“Hey, look at me, everyone! I’m a cowboy, howdy, howdy, howdy!”

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Also, he gave us the word “thagomizer.” That’s a word that could redeem Rob Liefeld.

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For all those who have a deep and abiding love of Gary Larson, you should own not just the collections of his published works, but ‘The Prehistory of the Far Side.’ It includes a lot of his early stuff, unpublished materiel, stuff from the small-town paper that published him before he got syndicated, and his story of the completely improbably chain of events that got him into daily papers across the country.

(Trivia: he didn’t pick the name ‘The Far Side’ and doesn’t know who did. Someone at Andrews & McMeel made that decision, and nobody really knows anymore who.)

Excellent book. Money quote: “In hindsight, maybe I should have just called it ‘The Cow Side’ and had done with it.”

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mygif

Curse you, John Seavey. You’ve made me weep from fond memories.

And I, too, heartily recommend “The Prehistory of The Far Side”. It is humorous, fascinating, and maybe even educational, and it features cartoons about dung beetles that Gary Larson’s editors never let him publish in the papers.

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Johnathan said on March 2nd, 2013 at 7:47 am

Why, just yesterday my girlfriend asked me why I say ‘howdy’ all the time and I had to explain that it was because of those damn hilarious vultures.

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I remember when I first read the Far Side: I was around three years old- couldn’t read yet- and my grandfather had this big book of one panel cartoons.

So I’d look through the book, and there were all were all these bizarre, disturbing pictures. There was a boy hiding under the blanket from a wolf with white eyes, and a man trapped in a box filled with snakes in midair, and a duck watching a man from across the street.

It made a whole lot more sense when I learned to read.

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Canukistani John said on March 2nd, 2013 at 9:11 am

Far Side hit me right in my developing funny bone. My parents are Brits who came across the pond before I was born. Between Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, Monty Python and Blackadder, that was it for me. Since then, I expect, even crave a certain intelligence with humor, even just the spark of it. Farce is fine, if it’s done intelligently and without a lot of malice (Community, for example) but to this day I can’t enjoy just brainless slapstick or spiteful comedy at all.

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mygif

“So, Professor Jenkins, my old nemesis! We meet again… but this time, the advantage is mine!”

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The thagomizer can only redeem Liefeld through direct use.

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“Well, we’ve tried every device and you still won’t talk… every device, that is, except this little baby we simply call ‘Mr. Thingy.'”

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I’m kicking myself for not buying the Compete Far Side when the local Borders closed. I didn’t really have room for it (and have even less now) but it would have looked nice next to my Complete Calvin & Hobbes.

Oh well, maybe I’ll get another chance when Barnes & Noble has its going out of business sale.

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mygif

The Far Side made me the nerd I am today. Well, to be specific, I was a big ol’ nerd anyway, but I doubt I’d have such a skewed sense of humor without it. I might be one of those *shudder* Grail-quoters.

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Canukistani John said on March 3rd, 2013 at 11:07 pm

Ni!

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I still love the one of the deer with a bullseye on its chest, being told by another deer “Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.”

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mygif

The Far Side — if any comic deserves the designation “often imitated, never duplicated” — this is it.

I think my first exposure to it was a poster of “The Real Reason Dinosaurs Became Extinct” in one of high school teacher’s classrooms.

So many classic strips.

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The Unstoppable Gravy Express said on March 4th, 2013 at 8:27 am

“Wonderful! So much for instilling them with a sense of awe.”

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MarvinAndroid said on March 4th, 2013 at 8:29 am

Cow tools.

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The Unstoppable Gravy Express said on March 4th, 2013 at 8:33 am

And let’s not forget Herman, which got a five-year head start on Far Side (at least where syndication is concerned). Another excellent source of skewed one-panel humour.

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mygif

Car!

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The Unstoppable Gravy Express said on March 4th, 2013 at 1:35 pm

CAT FUD –>

CAT FUD –>

“Oh please, oh please….”

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William Kendall said on March 4th, 2013 at 3:39 pm

His influence is all over comics that are out today because of him. And he knew to get out at the top of his game.

I’ve got the complete collection hardcovers, and that prehistory special. There were a couple of instances he marks in it about where a newspaper mixed up the captions between his strip and the Dennis The Menace strip.

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Stephen Mann said on March 4th, 2013 at 6:02 pm

If people are going to quote their favorite strip, mine’s: “Stimulus, response! Stimulus, response! Don’t you ever think?!”

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Canukistani John said on March 5th, 2013 at 5:08 pm

Well, well, another blonde hair. Conducting a little more “research” with that Jane Goodall tramp?

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“Puuuuut the caattttt outtttt….Puuuttt the caattttt outtttt….”

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I can never watch any “Alien” movie without thinking of “Moommmm! Bobby Joe’s playing in the turkey!”

But my favorite has to be the Inuit fleeing two polar bears, one of whom is saying to the other in exasperation, “I lift; you grab. Was that concept just a little too complex, Carl?”

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mygif

Gary Larson is a genius and it’s a real shame he retired. I was unaware of some of the cartoons he inspired though so will have to check them out.

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