The Far Side Gallery for by Gary Larson is a 167-page softcover published in 1993 by Andrews McMeel Publishing. The book is in very good condition.
Gary Larson is to cartooning what JoJo the dog-faced boy is the circus freaks. He's the best of a weird breed. I suppose most people have this image of a cartoon as a quiet person sitting in a cozy den, puffing on a pipe, and carefully drawing on a sketch pad. Sort of like Norman Rockwell. My image of Gary is more like Norman Bates. I imagine Gary in a dark and mysterious laboratory with chemicals brewing and static electricity crackling. He stands over his sketch pad, cackling like a mad scientist. He raises his arms to the sky. Lightning strikes. And he maniacally shouts, “ give my creation LIFE!!!”
What The Far Side I feel like I'm watching a National Geographic special on Prozac-- talking sharks, cigar-smoking termites, lustful flies, squirrels and cop uniforms, cows with attitudes. I pictured Gary wandering through zoos and Aquariums, talking to all the animals and insects like a demented Doctor Dolittle. He approaches a Boll Weevil, hands it a contract, and says, “ I'd like to sketch you for my next cartoon. Who's your agent?”
But I really love the Larson Flair for drawing humans. Future civilizations made dig up his cartoons in archaeological Expeditions. Their scientists will examine them and they will think 20th century man was a lumpy trogdolyte with bad eyesight, buck teeth, and cowlicks. Then again, maybe that's how we will evolve. If that's the case-- if mankind evolved into a bizarre Gary Larson creation-- it's going to be a strange and funny future.
--Robin Williams
ISBN: 0 - 8362 - 1724 - 1
