Worth noting is Gary Larson's original response to the WWW was an open letter asking fans not to post his cartoons online. Akin to the Bill Gates letter on copying software, but, perhaps, more understandable. This website is a reversal of that original position. He was thoughtful then, and is thoughtful now. The original letter: https://www.portmann.com/farside/index.html?home.html And the reversal: https://www.thefa…
"I'm not content" was especially relevant if you remember the old Darigold Dairies commercial: "Darigold...home of contented cows."
I've been reading the entire The Far Side (from the massive two book set) with my 10 y/o daughter. It's interesting to see how apparently the culture of the time of Gary Larson's upbringing imprinted itself on the strips. Reading 10 or so strips at a sitting makes it very apparent (along with making apparent Larson's go-to characters and tropes). My daughter commented on there being few depictions of female scientist…
Pop culture (and, good as it is, The Far Side is pop culture) always reflects current society to some degree. I would actually say that The Far Side (and Calvin and Hobbes) probably less directly reflects when they were drawn. For a more obvious example, see Dilbert. Leaving aside all the other baggage, with few exceptions, it's really more about 1990s PacBell cubicle life than anything about the current era, certain…
Honestly, it's a real shame that it took so long for that reversal, because Far Side comics already had an almost perfect vibe for joining the early rise of internet meme culture, with the postmodernist elements they had in common. Hopefully for Larson things haven't moved on too far that he's totally missed that boat, because his comics absolutely deserve wider recognition among internet culture.
I think the expectation from the early days of the internet was that information could be contained, and the realization from recent years is that the expectation no longer holds. So creators either have to make their own contents accessible or someone else will do it anyways, possibly poorly. Gary Larson might have arrived at this realization relatively late, but I don't think he is the last one.
Witness all the artists who refused to put their music on iTunes or streaming. How'd that exclusive CD deal with Wal-Mart work out, Garth?
I love the Far Side, glad to have it online. The two volume set has a featured spot on my bookshelf. And fun to see other commenters here share some of my favorites Far Sides.
What contemporary comics are people following? Two of my current daily views are:
I've been reading the entire The Far Side (from the massive two book set) with my 10 y/o daughter. It's interesting to see how apparently the culture of the time of Gary Larson's upbringing imprinted itself on the strips. Reading 10 or so strips at a sitting makes it very apparent (along with making apparent Larson's go-to characters and tropes). My daughter commented on there being few depictions of female scientist…
Pop culture (and, good as it is, The Far Side is pop culture) always reflects current society to some degree. I would actually say that The Far Side (and Calvin and Hobbes) probably less directly reflects when they were drawn. For a more obvious example, see Dilbert. Leaving aside all the other baggage, with few exceptions, it's really more about 1990s PacBell cubicle life than anything about the current era, certain…
I think society in The Far Side is built more out of, like, Looney Tunes cartoons and B movies from the 50s. Everybody is a stereotype: scientists in lab coats and glasses, "tough guys" in white t-shirts and pompadours, ladies with beehive hairdos. His cities, his houses, his restaurants, they all default to "stereotypically about 1955". It's easy to draw and it's easy to parse as a reader.
Bummer of a birthmark https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/64/d6/8664d684518509081caf...
"Bummer of a birthmark, Hal" has made its way into my everyday lexicon. Most of my coworkers immediately got the reference. There is something about Far Side humor that appeals to people in tech beyond all the science and nerd jokes.
I have that comic (text included) on a t shirt. Sometimes people ask me about it, and I will explain it in an excruciating amount of detail for my entertainment. Sometimes they will try to out-do me and respond by pretending to be confused by my explanation, but my tolerance for playing the fool is incredibly high so I can keep it up for quite some time and they inevitably give up first.