Gary Larson went from Tacoma to ‘The Far Side.’ Now he’s back, but on a new format
When Gary Larson walked away from his cartooning career in 1995, he left behind more than bungling carnivores, supremely stupid gifted children and wacky scientists.
He left a legion of mourning fans.
Now, the Tacoma native and “The Far Side” creator is back.
TheFarSide.com launched Tuesday, Dec. 17, and offers “an ever-changing, random selection of cartoons” as well as themed collections, updated weekly. It also will offer glimpses into his sketchbooks.
Sometime in 2020, Larson will unveil new work, the website promises.
“In truth, we really have no idea what might show up,” The Far Side publisher Andrews McMeel Universal said. “But, on the other hand, what’s changed?”
Tacoma native
Larson was born in Tacoma in 1950. Geographically, he didn’t make it too far. He now lives in Seattle.
Career-wise, he went where cartoonists can only dream. He drew the single-panel comic from 1980 to 1995. It ran in nearly 2,000 newspapers. Best-selling books followed.
Larson said he grew up in Tacoma with his family’s “morbid sense of humor.”
“Always drawn to nature, he and his older brother spent much of their youth exploring the woods and swamps of the tidelands and waters of Puget Sound,” a bio reads.
In 1990, he gave a commencement speech at his alma mater, Washington State University, titled, “The Importance of Being Weird.”
Official place for ‘Far Side’
Larson is 69 now. The internet barely existed when he retired.
“Naively, I now realize, I never once foresaw any connection between this emergent technology and my cartoons,” Larson said in an open letter on his website.
One of the major motivators for the new website, he said, was to fill the void “The Far Side” had on the internet and to thwart the digital pillagers and plagiarizers who steal his work.
“Please, whoever you are, taketh down my cartoons and let this website become your place to stop by for a smile, a laugh, or a good ol’ fashioned recoiling,” Larson said. “And I won’t have to release the Krakencow.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
