The Far Side trails 'new online era' for Gary Larson's beloved cartoons
Immediate excitement has greeted one of the first sign of life from the hugely popular franchise since the publicity-shy artist retired it in 1995
Fans of the surreal, the bizarre and sardonic anthropomorphic cows are in a fervour after The Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson’s website was updated this weekend with promises of “a new online era”, 24 years after the reclusive creator retired at the age of 44.
Larson’s iconic Far Side cartoons were syndicated in more than 1,900 daily newspapers from 1980 to 1995, treating readers to daily offerings from his offbeat visions of the world. In one of his most famous cartoons, a female chimpanzee finds a blonde hair in her mate’s fur, and asks him: “Been doing more ‘research’ with that Jane Goodall tramp?” (Goodall approved.) In another – voted one of his best by scientists – a boffin with a large rectal thermometer stands behind a brontosaurus, the caption reading: “Professor Higgenbottom was never heard from again, leaving the cold-blooded/warm-blooded controversy still unresolved.” His image of a caveman pointing to the tail of a stegosaurus and letting his audience know that it is called “the thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmonds”, led paleontologists to adopt the invented term.
