Gary Larson's Iconic Comic THE FAR SIDE Gets a New Website Where You Can Enjoy The Humor

When I was growing up I loved to get the Sunday paper and read all the comic strips. I always found joy in that and it’s something that I miss doing. One of my favorite comics was The Far Side by Gary Larson, the humor injected into those always made me laugh.

Well, 25 years after Larson retired, a brand new website was launched for the comic. The previous website hadn’t been touched in 19 years! This new site will feature new cartoon content as well as the old comics that ran from 1980 to 1995.

If social sharing had been measured during the fifteen-year run of The Far Side, Gary Larson’s creation would rank as the “most shared” of all time. From science labs to dorm rooms, mail rooms to executive suites, The Far Side worked its way into our lives and invited us into a whole new world: brilliant, bold, and bizarre. The iconic comic panel has never been authorized to be available online. Until now.

In an open letter that was shared, Larson explained why he’s he’s held off on doing this for so long, saying:

Truthfully, I still have some ambivalence about officially entering the online world — I previously equated it to a rabbit hole, although “black hole” sometimes seems more apropos — but my change of heart on this has been due not only to some evolution in my own thinking but also in two areas I’ve always cared about when it comes to this computer/Internet “stuff”: security and graphics. …Okay, so better security is, of course, just better security. But it helps. If they wanted to, I’m sure the Russians could get inside this thing and start messing with my captions. (I know they’re thinking about it!) But the other one — the advancements in graphics — has been a big incentive for me. Man, did those old computer screens suck when it came to visual nuances.

I hope you enjoy TheFarSide.com. I’m very grateful to the digital team at AMU, my longtime publisher, for all their input and hard work on this project. And for those of you who are familiar with The Far Side, and perhaps wishing it had been online before now (as opposed to those who are familiar with my work and have an opposing view), thank you for your patience. I hope all the reasons I’ve given here help explain why I’m so late to this party. But I’m finally here. And I could use a drink.

You can enjoy the new website here. If you’ve never heard of The Far Side, you’re in for a real treat.