Gary Larson’s THE FAR SIDE strip had its first newspaper appearance on December 31, 1979. Larson took 1989 off, and the comic began again in 1990 and continued until January 1, 1995.
Larson briefly came out of retirement in 1996 for the release of LAST CHAPTER AND WORSE which collected the final strips from the newspaper run, as well as thirteen new ones that he made after his retirement.
I have a complete set of the standard book releases.
There were five treasury collections released, reprinting strips from the standard books with some additional commentary. I have two of them.
In 1989, a special volume was released in celebration of the ten year mark.
Unlike the treasury volumes, this has tons of new content, including behind the scenes stories, previously unpublished strips that had been rejected for being too out there or potentially controversial, irate letters from disapproving readers, and much more.
Here’s the back cover.
In 2003, THE COMPLETE FAR SIDE came out – a massive two-volume hardcover set with a slipcase that printed the entire run (over 4,000 cartoons) along with additional commentary and bonus content.
In 2019, Larson began sharing new Far Side comics at thefarside.com.
And, though this isn’t part of the FAR SIDE series, I’m going to include it here anyway. A great read from 1998.
I love the warped humor of THE FAR SIDE.
Thank you, Gary Larson!
