EduClaytion

The Greatest Who Ever Lived

I’ve often heard that there are three types of people in this world.  That’s not true.  There are only two.  Those who “get” The Far Side by Gary Larson and those who don’t. 

If you don’t know what The Far Side is, don’t worry.  There’s still time to go find it and learn.  If you don’t like The Far Side, then no offense but there is simply no hope for you.  Sure you can still find love (possibly), but you will never understand this world, this life, or real people. 

Listen to me single people.  If you are considering marriage just clear your mind, grab one of Larson’s single panels, and show it to your other.  If he/she laughs until stringy stuff comes out their nose, you can marry them.  If he/she gets confused, bored, or angry, you need to run like a deer with a bullseye shaped birthmark.

Record numbers of readers took in Larson’s brilliance from 1980 until he retired the strip in 1995 for fear he might one day become mediocre.  The great ones always know when to get out.  A whopping 900 papers syndicated his work. 

Shortly after retiring in 1995 from the daily grind, Larson put out There’s A Hair In My Dirt: A Worm’s Story, published in 1998.  not surprisingly the book became a New York Times Bestseller.  Five years later he accepted an offer to draw a cover for The New Yorker magazine.   In between, he continued creating page-a-day calendars but ended that in 2002, once again careful to never become stale.

Extremely private, Larson relented to an interview with U.S.A. Today in late 2006.  He was launching a new calendar to raise money for animal conservation.  He actually doubted whether his work still held appeal.  Apparently, no level of success eliminates the insecurity of creative artists.  He had nothing to worry about according to the article:

“Species may go extinct, but not his fans. Far Side calendars sell ‘four to five times more than any other calendar we have,’ says Borders’ Linda Jones. ‘I call it the Harry Potter of calendars.’

A massive two-volume set of his entire collected works — at $135 a copy — has sold 350,000, and it was the most expensive New York Times bestseller ever at the time it was published, says Hugh Andrew of Andrews McMeel.

Each of his 23 books of collected cartoons are still in print and they’ve sold a combined 45 million copies.

Larson’s genius was that he took the modern sensibility of the comedic revolution going on in the late 1970s, ‘all attitude and irony,’ and married it to the craft of the comic art, says Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.

‘I’d put him up there with Krazy Kat’s George Herriman, Nancy’s Ernie Bushmiller and Peanut’s Charles Shultz as one of the great artists who have worked in the field of American comics,’ Thompson says.”

With all due respect, I would put him at the top.  Strangely enough, I doubt Larson and I even have much in common.  He’s into science, animal conservation, and jazz guitar.  I like history, chicken entrees, and guitar hero.  But when he threw down those panels a trap was laid that sucked in millions of fans. 

Okay, so plenty of people don’t “get it.”  Despair not jilted lovers.  According to Professor Tim McGuire in the same U.S.A. Today piece:

“[Larson] definitely broke ground. Some people just hated it, just didn’t get it, why would you run that silliness? And his fans were so ardent and so dedicated…” [emphasis added]

These days it’s leftover greeting cards, calendars, and books, a uniquely brilliant universe always hilarious, always leaving the reader wanting more. 

Like Muhammad Ali to boxing and Mario Lemieux to hockey, Gary Larson is the greatest cartoonist to ever live.  Hopefully there’s still more to come.

March 24, 2009 - Posted by educlaytion | Pop Culture