The Far Side to Return?

[Blumf]

https://www.thefarside.com/

Uncommon, unreal, and (soon-to-be) unfrozen.
A new online era of The Far Side is coming!

https://www.cnet.com/news/the-far-side-could-be-back-from-extinction-and-the-timings-so-right/

According to the official Far Side website, more Far Side comics are on the way.

The website, run by Andrews McMeel Universal, posted a Far Side comic illustration with the sentence "Uncommon, unreal, and (soon-to-be) unfrozen. A new online era of The Far Side is coming!" The website didn't provide any additional information on when or how Larson's comic will return, and Andrews McMeel Universal didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hummmm, Too rooted in the 80s I'd say, humour has moved on (thanks in part to Larson). But who knows, maybe he'd got the goods

[mippy]

I read a while back that Larson didn't want his cartoons reposted online for some reason. Maybe he's just granted permission, rather than creating new work.

EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFarSide/comments/13qeyi/an_open_letter_to_gary_larson/

[Ambient Sheep]

Hummmm, Too rooted in the 80s I'd say, humour has moved on (thanks in part to Larson).

Really?  I'm honestly not trying to be an argumentative sod, but what about them makes them "rooted in the 80s"?  I can't think of much in them that's era-specific, either in terms of technology (CRTs aside) or style of humour.

(I always think of them as more of a 90s thing anyway, but that must be down to when I discovered them: it ran from 1980/01/01 to 1995/01/01... I'd've moved both ends five years later at least if you'd asked me to guess!)

Maybe it's just me who's stuck in the 80s/90s?  More than likely.

[Ambient Sheep]

This -- linked from that CNet article -- is lovely, and some absolute classics posted underneath it (including amazingly three I've never seen: two bystanders, Nintendo 2005, and the utterly-wonderful Ithuania one):

https://twitter.com/laylamarie/status/1173032210967871489?

It does seem that this is merely about putting the existing ones online, and nothing else, though.  Wondering if that might actually be for the best in the end.

[Blumf]

Really?  I'm honestly not trying to be an argumentative sod, but what about them makes them "rooted in the 80s"?  I can't think of much in them that's era-specific, either in terms of technology (CRTs aside) or style of humour.

Nah, fair enough, because I'd struggle to nail my claim down, but I'd say style of humour. It's just something that I don't feel would work as well now as it did then. Not that I'm saying TFS is bad or anything, far from it. The fact that it's had the influence it did is part of the reason, people have built on the humour since then and that's changed the landscape a revival would have to work in.

[jobotic]

I loved one with a cow in a phone box phoning home after a stampede and saying he was feeling a bit spooked. Never found it online though and its not in the one book I have.

[Ambient Sheep]

The fact that it's had the influence it did is part of the reason, people have built on the humour since then and that's changed the landscape a revival would have to work in.

Hmmm, maybe.  Since I've not read much in the way of comic strips since (just Dilbert & XKCD for a few years, both now stopped) maybe I'm not aware that the landscape has changed in the way you say.

I guess I'm not best qualified to judge.


Reading Wikipedia, I've decided that once funds allow, I need to buy The Complete Far Side as the "collection contains more than 1,100 comics that had not previously appeared in any other Far Side books."

Mind you I suppose that's what this new website will do, but it's not the same...


Also, if any Far Side fans haven't read his The Prehistory of the Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit, you simply must... it's an absolutely wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the whole thing and took pride of place on my bookshelf when I still had one.

[Thursday]

I was quite happy upon seeing excitement at this news and people sharing favourite cartoons. For some reason I just assumed it would be cynicism and that you weren't supposed to like it for some reason.

[idunnosomename]

surely this will be some sort of central source republishing his cartoons for people to share online? if he wanted to make new ones he could get massive newspaper syndication deals with a single word. i can't believe this will be a closed subscription deal. we've seen that just doesn't work online.

[mippy]

Unfortunately, as with Linehan, the humour of Dilbert is somewhat ruined by the creator being an utter arse. On another forum I'm on, he set up a sock puppet account to defend himself in a critical thread, dropping lots of references to his 'genius IQ' and accusing other posters of 'mastur-debating'.

[idunnosomename]

Scott Adams is a cunt and the Dilbert animation was better than the strip as it being written by multiple writers raised it well above the purgatory of hackiness which was the syndicated comic

[Brundle-Fly]

Those small Larson books (along with Viz Comic) made eighties lunchbreaks a helluva lot more fun for me in my student days. Maybe, the anthropomorphic animal whimsy element has dated them now for some folk? You can see Izzard's stand-up was massively influenced by them. I like the fact they were not just 'lol random' for the sake of it. There was always a joke under the absurdity.

[Thursday]

Unfortunately, as with Linehan, the humour of Dilbert is somewhat ruined by the creator being an utter arse. On another forum I'm on, he set up a sock puppet account to defend himself in a critical thread, dropping lots of references to his 'genius IQ' and accusing other posters of 'mastur-debating'.

This isn't Dilbert

[Ambient Sheep]

Indeed not, but he's right.  There were various reasons I stopped reading Dilbert (not as funny as it used to be, no longer able to get easy access to it (yes, I know it's all online now)) but at least one of them is that its creator -- although having written the odd good book or two -- revealed himself to be an arse.  And incredibly, given that Donald Trump is the ultimate pointy-haired boss, he's a Trump supporter (something that's apparently ended his speaking career and reduced his income by about 40%, good).

Whereas Gary Larson has always appeared to be a lovely human being (even if he is a little over-precious about people reproducing his work on the internet).

[Spiny Norman]

I regularly quote the Midvale School for the Gifted...

[Spiny Norman]

Actually, if it returns, shouldn't it be The Further Side?

[madhair60]

The Far Side is fucking great. That's all I want to add here

[Pseudopath]

I loved one with a cow in a phone box phoning home after a stampede and saying he was feeling a bit spooked. Never found it online though and its not in the one book I have.

Mate. Took literally 10 seconds.

[Thursday]

Indeed not, but he's right.  There were various reasons I stopped reading Dilbert (not as funny as it used to be, no longer able to get easy access to it (yes, I know it's all online now)) but at least one of them is that its creator -- although having written the odd good book or two -- revealed himself to be an arse.  And incredibly, given that Donald Trump is the ultimate pointy-haired boss, he's a Trump supporter (something that's apparently ended his speaking career and reduced his income by about 40%, good).

Whereas Gary Larson has always appeared to be a lovely human being (even if he is a little over-precious about people reproducing his work on the internet).

Oh sure, just not sure why we need to bring up Dilbert and it's horrible  creator, when we could talk about The Far Side?

[idunnosomename]

I mean if Tool and King Crimson have put their discographies on streaming, I guess Larson is the next logical step to do an about-turn

[Blumf]

One of my faves:

[Ambient Sheep]

Just stumbled across this tweet that has loads of great ones I'd never seen before... including one that I wonder if they'll dare put online these days.

Plus a Charles Addams one that I don't remember seeing in manticore's wonderful thread (doesn't mean it wasn't there though).

[Thursday]

Yeah, saw that tweet before I'd even seen the news, so wasn't sure what had inspired it.

I just remember my dad having a big anthology of them somewhere and discovering them one day, can't even really remember what age. I don't think he kept it though, THE IDIOT.

[Spiny Norman]

I sometimes say "For the time being", thinking of this one whenever things are OK now, but the future's uncertain as ever:

[Brundle-Fly]

Larson interviewed in 1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57wcedtGpc8

[jobotic]

Mate. Took literally 10 seconds.

Mate. Took me literally no seconds 'cos you did it.

(thank you though)

[idunnosomename]

the early strips are really quite poor, because they're all like "oh what if inanimate object was human". amazing how it reached such a plateau of comic perfection. It was never even syndicated in a newspaper in the UK was it? but we bought the anthologies regardless.

The two animations were great, but brought out the disturbing aspect more than just static frames. Tales from the Far Side II never aired on US TV, though I remember taping it off BBC2 at Christmas when late night TV was good and weird.

[Pseudopath]

(thank you though)

Pleasure, bud. Very funny strip.

[Icehaven]

I'm sure The Far Side is the reason I love panel cartoons so much. My Mum had a few of the books when I was about 12 or 13 and I used to reread them constantly.

It was never even syndicated in a newspaper in the UK was it?

I dunno about this, I'm sure my Mum (and then I) must have regularly seen it somewhere to prompt her buying the books. From the late 80s to the mid 90s She mostly read the Daily Mail (unfortunately) then chucked that for the Times, and the Coventry Evening Telegraph. Could it have been in any of them?

[Spiny Norman]

the early strips are really quite poor, because they're all like "oh what if inanimate object was human". amazing how it reached such a plateau of comic perfection. It was never even syndicated in a newspaper in the UK was it? but we bought the anthologies regardless.

The two animations were great, but brought out the disturbing aspect more than just static frames. Tales from the Far Side II never aired on US TV, though I remember taping it off BBC2 at Christmas when late night TV was good and weird.

Can't say that that's an accurate description. Maybe "What if animals were human?" Yeah, if you read the complete set, then sooner or later you see the same idea recurring in a different form.

The movies on the other hand I find deeply flawed; TFS strength is a one-picture portrait, and the movies did not adapt to taking advantage of motion/sound.