The Far Side cartoon strip that's been on hiatus for almost a quarter century is back with an official website.
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — The Far Side cartoon strip that's been on hiatus for almost a quarter century is back — on the internet with an official website.
Creator Gary Larson provided his off-beat cartoons for newspapers between 1980 and 1995, and fans who followed the strip gladly scooped up the spinoff calendars and coffee table books that compiled Larson's work.
His cartoon subjects often reflected his interest in science and what he described as his family’s “morbid sense of humor.” Cows seemed to be his favorite go-to animal.
When Larson "retired" his pen, the Internet age was just dawning. "Naively, I now realize, I never once foresaw any connection between this emergent technology and my cartoons," Larson, now 69, wrote in a letter dated September 26, 2019 and posted on The Far Side's new website.
Larson explained why he was unsettled "when I slowly started realizing I had a second publisher and distributor of my work, known as Anyone With a Scanner & Associates." He fought the "uphill slog" to maintain control of his work, after his cartoons were "taken and used to help sell everything from doughnuts to rodent control. At least I offer range," Larson wrote. "So I’m hopeful this official website will help temper the impulses of the infringement-inclined. 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. And I won’t have to release the Krakencow."
Of course — a cow reference.
