Image via Amazon
Almost 25 years after his retirement, cartoonist Gary Larson has made his The Far Side comic available for all to enjoy online via a new website, TheFarSide.com.
Larson tickled millions with the comic series, printed on 1,900 daily newspapers between 1980 and 1995. Unfortunately, burnout caught up, and he decided to stop publishing the cartoons, citing “simple fatigue and a fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer or at the very least ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons.”
In the decades since, he had been working to prevent his artworks from being redistributed online by third parties, expressing the “emotional cost” of his work being “offered up in cyberspace beyond my control,” according to The Guardian.
It’s been an uphill battle, and thus the artist has made his work available for browsing on the internet after all.
“I also concede I’m a little exhausted,” he penned in a letter. “Trying to exert some control over my cartoons has always been an uphill slog, and I’ve sometimes wondered if my absence from the web may have inadvertently fuelled someone’s belief my cartoons were up for grabs. They’re not.”
Larson also admitted it was “inherently awkward” to chastise a third party for reuploading the comics, when they were likely a fan.
“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,” he explained.
The new website, produced with the help of his publisher Andrews McMeel, embraces the “new online era” with daily cartoons, never-before-seen art from Larson’s sketchbooks, and a “periodic unveiling of new work by Larson” come 2020.
“In truth, we really have no idea what might show up,” the publisher commented. “But, on the other hand, what’s changed?”
Might just be exactly what the world needs right now…Gary Larson goes online https://t.co/NGsJ8nVZ1B #thefarside pic.twitter.com/qMNc1hAAol
— Steve McDonald (@Stevemc1) December 24, 2019
Gary Larson is back, and I’m the last one to know.https://t.co/AJXf5ct1aU pic.twitter.com/KlXTN3NNV7
— The Unqualified Expert (@UnqualifiedE) December 23, 2019
[via The Guardian, images via various sources] http://www.designtaxi.com/news/408028/Gary-Larson-Releases-The-Far-Side-Comic-Online-Vows-To-Unleash-New-Art/