Any Gary Larson/ The far side fans?

[Fearless Leader]

Just wondering if anybody is a fan of the far side?

A lot of the humors things I do have that kinda Larson feel to it (strange odd weird yet funny). I thank my dad for getting me hooked on it. Last Christmas I got the complete everything edition and pulled it out today for a good laugh.

[motulist]

Moo!

[Zwhaler]

Wirelessly posted (LGE-VX9900/1.0 UP.Browser/6.2.3.2 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Yes! I love the one where these pilots are flying a plane... And closeby the see something and say "what are those sheep doing wayy up here in the clouds?" haha!

[MattG]

Yes...I've always liked this one.

[Foxglove9]

I'm a HUGE fan. I have 10 mini books, and 2 giant gallery books.

Even have the cartoon on VHS somewhere.

[Nugget]

Moo! ]:8)

[Mistershark]

I absolutely love the Far Side. Unlike most comic strips these days, the humor is spontaneous and always present.

[Sherman Homan]

One of the funniest strips ever!
The real reason dinosaurs became extinct
Boneless chicken ranch

[decksnap]

I really wouldn't mind a daily Far Side widget. Anybody know of one? I used to have the daily calendars.

[Teh Don Ditty]

Glorious!!!!

Loves me some Far Side!!

[Fearless Leader]

Nice.

I draw comics and I run into a self debate (no im not schizophrenic) of how close I want to come to that kind of humor. Its funny but its almost like riding off his coat tails.

[rockosmodurnlif]

Originally Posted by Fearless Leader

Nice.

I draw comics and I run into a self debate (no im not schizophrenic) of how close I want to come to that kind of humor. Its funny but its almost like riding off his coat tails.

There are a few comics I like that ride his coattails, ie: Bizzaro (who's original syndication was as a Far Side replacement), Close to Home and another one called something soup or soup something. I feel Pardon My Planet and Non Sequitur are also in the same vein though Non Sequitur sometimes has a linear storyline with recurring characters.

It's not originality, its execution. That's how I feel anyway. Go for it.

[RonPrice]

CARTOONIST AND POET

Reading about the work of cartoonist Gary Larson and how he works I could not help compare and contrast his modus operandi and my own with respect to writing prose and poetry. Larson draws inspiration from similar sources to my own: interests, experiences and memories. He is sensitive about his readers and whether they understand his work. And so is this the case with me and my literary opus. I have one eye on my readers most of the time, but another on the world and all that is therein. Sometimes I shut one eye and open the other; at other times I open both eyes one, I like to think, to “the hallowed beauty of the Beloved.”

Both Larson and I like our work to speak for itself but, after years in classrooms explaining things to students, I am not bothered if I have to discuss my work. This, though, I rarely have to do. I’m not popular enough to have to so engage my mental powers. Larson is never comfortable analysing his cartoons. We are both painstaking about making our work unambiguous. One interesting sub-set of his work is cartoons about cartoons and, for me, poems about poetry. Ideas for his work and mine can and do come from anywhere. Being a cartoonist is a solitary life as it is being a poet, but there are fewer really successful cartoonists. Few poets and few cartoonists get rich.-Ron Price with thanks to Jackie Morrissey in The Complete Far Side: Volume One: 1980-1986, by Gary Larson, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, 2004, pp. viii-xiii.

Yes, things that just drift into
your head, Gary, little musings
when one is alone with one’s
thoughts and I, too, jot them
down. But, unlike you, Gary,
I get lots of ideas from others,
indeed, a veritable cornucopia
of sources. But we both had our
door openers, eh Gary? Mine was
Roger White, the unofficial laureate
poet of the international Baha’i
community in the 1980s and ‘90s.

But I must most deeply thank the
internet, a world-wide-web that
got my work out-there or my words
would have remained gathering dust
in my files forever. And, finally,
like Larson’s Humour Police, his
readers, and my Poetry Police, my
readers, who hover around and let
me know in no uncertain terms that
I have crossed some invisible line
into total obscurity or obsolescence
and that I am just wasting my time.

Ron Price
14 December2007

PS. I also want to thank: (a) my son for loaning me the biggest, fattest book I’ve ever held in my hands or on my lap, The Far Side, Volume 1, and for continuing to make me laugh as he has done since he was just a little chap; and (b) my wife whose honesty, persistence and her multitude of other qualities have made her my indefatigable collaborator.

[mrkramer]

I love the far side.

[Blue Velvet]

Complete plagiarist IMO. Lifted his entire schtick and style of drawing — check how he draws his humans — from B. Kliban, who was far darker and much funnier...

[motulist]

Originally Posted by Blue Velvet

Complete plagiarist IMO. Lifted his entire schtick and style of drawing — check how he draws his humans — from B. Kliban, who was far darker and much funnier...

What makes you feel that larson and kliban are very similar? As you said, kilban is much darker, which immediately makes his stuff totally different than larson's material, which was always just silly and absurdist. Other than the use of animals and weird situations, which have always been common ingredients in many different comics through the years, I see little similarity between the two. (though admittedly I am only slightly familiar with kilban's stuff)

Kilban comics:
http://images.google.com/images?clie...=1&sa=N&tab=wi

EDIT: upon perusing more kilban stuff, I see how you feel they are somewhat similar. But a plagiarist? I don't see that at all. Though there are some similarities, they differ in many significant ways.

[decksnap]

Originally Posted by Blue Velvet

Complete plagiarist IMO. Lifted his entire schtick and style of drawing — check how he draws his humans — from B. Kliban, who was far darker and much funnier...

Hah. No.

[Blue Velvet]

Originally Posted by decksnap

Hah. No.

Hah. So.

Even the one panel pieces with captions which Kliban started... it's all there but with less talent. Nothing anyone can say will persuade me otherwise.

Sure he's the guy who did all those Cat calendars, but that was more posthumous marketing momentum than anything else. Judging him on that alone is like judging Loudon Wainright for Dead Skunk. Having been shamelessly ripped-off and diluted by Gary Larson, we thought that dedicating this gallery to Kliban (who is now dead and did most of his work in the 1960s and 70s) may be some recompense for being neglected and appropriated.

[decksnap]

Even if he did 'invent' a genre, Larson's work is too good and too expansive to insinuate he's a hack. The hard part is writing the jokes. Which he wrote thousands of.

[ucfgrad93]

I love Larson and the Far Side! Great comic!

[rockosmodurnlif]

Originally Posted by Blue Velvet

Complete plagiarist IMO. Lifted his entire schtick and style of drawing — check how he draws his humans — from B. Kliban, who was far darker and much funnier...

I think I adressed this before in an earlier post ...

Originally Posted by rockosmodurnlif

It's not originality, its execution. That's how I feel anyway. Go for it.

Oh yes, I did.

[avincent52]

What amazed me is that he was able to churn them out at this level of quality day after day for years. 365 of them a year.
It's hard enough to do Doonesbury or Calvin and Hobbes, but in a serial strip you can take a basic plot idea and run with it for a week.
Larson's best stuff held a whole story in one panel.
And unlike most of the stuff today, which has a 30 percent success rate, he probably hit with seven out of 10.
Larson's retirement is one reason I don't read the comics anymore.
best
Allen

[tompavalock]

To Gary Larson When I Was 12 Or So I Got Sent On A Field Trip To Yellowstone Park For A Week. I Was A Real Shy Kid I Had No Friends, And I Was Scared To Death. After I Got Unpacked I Looked Around And Saw A Book On The Windowsill It Was 1 Of Your Early Books. I Started Reading It And The Fear Turned To Joy I Smiled And Laughed, Forgetting All About How Nervous I Was Hours Earlier. On The Last Day I Packed Up And Headed For The Bus Half Way There I Stopped Ran Back, And Put The Book Back On The Windowsill. I Really Wanted To Keep It. But I Thought Of How Bad I Felt When I Got There, And How That Book Changed My Mood. Hopefully Some Other Shy, Scared Kid Found It After Me, And It Made There Trip Fun As Well. Thank You

[miles01110]

My Favorite Far Side:

[Melrose]

The funny pages died when three cartoons left: Outland, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side.

They just ain't funny anymore, the artwork on most sucks, the ideas aren't ideas, and the humor isn't humor. That, and the For Better or Worse "Let's tell a life story & learn valuable lessons" crap bummed out the comics.

Pooch Cafe is The Last Funny Comic, and it's not in wide distribution.