24 Comments
Nov 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

I love the one for the "School for the gifted" with the kid pushing against the door marked "Pull"

Classic!

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That is the one that has stayed with me.

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Never have I seen myself represented in comic form as in that one 😂

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Nov 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

Also one of my faves was the Mozzies "Pull out you've hit an artery!"

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Nov 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

If you're not already aware, this is a daily dose of farside classics

https://www.thefarside.com/

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Nov 9, 2022Liked by John Birmingham

I remember this one!

My all time fave, and the first Far Side I saw, is two deer in the forest, "bummer of a birthmark, Hal". I probably laughed for a full hour.

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author

And, “Let’s get this baby in the air!”

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I used to have a huge volume of his cartoons. It included several that he didn’t dare publish . One had a snake in the middle of a baby’s crib with a big lump in its belly. Caption was... you didn’t see this....another of my favs was a kid sitting on the spare tire in the back of a darkened station wagon. His memory of family vacations. Genius stuff

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author

Oh man, I would pay a lot of money for bootleg Farside.

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There is a book (i may also be an old Larson fan) and its called "The prehistory of the far side" 10th anniversary exhibit. Has a lot of his stuff he couldn't publish plus a hilarious section where the paper got other cartoons captions mixed up with his - things like marmaduke and stuff. He said that it made the marmaduke nonsensical but sometimes made his ones even better.

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I remember one with a python sitting down to dinner with a pig halfway down his neck. The phone rings, and he thinks "Damn!"

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I was always a fan of the "Far Side Lite: Not funny, but better for you" one I had (back in the heady days when there was a Far Side Day-To-Day Calendar)

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author

I had that calendar. Back when I used to look forward to each new day.

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When you simply say the words “Midvale School for the Gifted” and the other person smiles and nods…

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Thagomizer

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You can't go past Gazza for longevity in funniness.

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author

There is something fundamentally timeless about his cartooning, isn’t there. Most of his stuff would be funny 50 years ago, and will still be funny 50 years from now.

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Bummer of a birthmark, Hal

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someone posted a Scott Hilburn comic on the book of face recently and i was taken aback. Apparently not Gary Larson in disguise

https://twitter.com/argyle_sweater?lang=en

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My wife owns The Complete Far Side - an enormous 2 volume hardback compendium that weighs about 12kg and is apparently canonical - which she's never opened.

I gave it to her as a gift, after I'd owned it for 8 years and also never opened it.

But somehow, having it and knowing those cartoons are there makes everything a little better.

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author

I totally understand this and approve.

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the artist even had a louse named after him

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My brother and I just quote captions to each other: ‘Bummer of a birthmark, Hal’

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love it. dont think I have seen that one either. when he published the website linked below I was on there daily....till I (thought) i'd seen em all....again

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