‘The Far Side’ Cartoonist Gary Larson Returns With ‘New Stuff’ After 25 Years Of Retirement

Comic strip illustrator Gary Larson has come back after his retirement of 25 years. The Far Side’s Larson has created four new strips up on his website thefarside.com under the “New Stuff.”

Larson’s most famous work, The Far Side was published daily from 1979 to 1995 and appeared in over 1,900 newspapers. Even though Larson had retired 25 years ago, his comic has remained popular by being placed on things like calendars and greeting cards. 

Larson revealed on his website that he has been drawing for fun and in his spare time which is what lead him to launch his four new strips. He wrote, “I don’t want to mislead anyone here. This corner of the website—’New Stuff’—is not a resurrection of The Far Side daily cartoons. (Well, not exactly, anyway—like the proverbial tiger and its stripes, I’m pretty much stuck with my sense of humor. Aren’t we all?) The thing is, I thoroughly enjoyed my career as a syndicated cartoonist, and I hope, in spirit at least, we had some laughs together. But after fifteen years of meeting deadlines, well, blah blah blah … you know the rest. The day after I retired from syndication, it felt good not to draw on a deadline. And after moving on to other interests, drawing just wasn’t on my to-do list. Things change. But then a few years ago—and returning to the subject at hand—­something happened in my life, and it started with a clogged pen.”

Larson added, “Despite my retirement, I still had intermittent connections to cartooning, including my wife’s and my personal Christmas card. Once a year, I’d sit myself down to take on Santa, and every year it began with the same ritual: me cursing at, and then cleaning out, my clogged pen. (Apparently, the concept of cleaning it before putting it away each year was just too elusive for me.) As problems go, this is admittedly not exactly on the scale of global warming, but in the small world of my studio, it was cataclysmic. Okay, highly annoying.”

He ended by saying, “Again, please remember, I’m just exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff. New Stuff. I have just one last thing to say before I go: thank you, clogged pen.”

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