When I sat down and cracked open Gary Larson's The PreHistory of the Far Side it'd been a long time since I'd read the strip. It's as hilarious as ever. This treasury is particularly wonderful because it contains the origins of the strip, how Larson got his start, and Larson's commentary on some of the cartoons. I found particularly intriguing a chapter containing rejected cartoons, and the reasons for their rejections, and readers' letters of complaint. The book ends with a selection of the cartoonist's own favorite panels. In PreHistory, Larson shows us the bones in the Far Side soup, and its a lot of fun. ( )

Few cartoonists could do as well as Larson does. ( )

FAR too much Hardy Har Animal Cruelty along with a few good funny cartoons and commentary ( )

The PreHistory Of The Far Side; A Tenth Anniversary Exhibit (1989) by Gary Larson. How could you not love The Far Side comics. They are brilliant. Obtuse, involved, bizarre, weird, sometimes mistaken for art, sometimes mistaken for not being art, but funny to the end. If you don’t understand them all, don’t worry as Mr. Larson doesn’t understand them all either. No one understands them all, so don’t feel bad. The point is, these are meant to be funny, like it or not.
I enjoyed the view into the past. There is Pre-Far Side that talks of the artist’s youth. Then we delve into the process that brought Mr. Larson through early days and on into syndication. We can see influences, such as Gahan Wilson, on his early work. Following are panels that were mistakes and the reasons why they were considered as such. And we learn what Mr. Larson learned from that experience. We then go through a section on panels that were rejected as being too… whatever, either by editors or the artist himself.
Finally there is a large section containing many panels of Mr. Larson’s favorites, although the panel I love the most is not included. Rather it is on page 41, an untitled masterpiece.
This is a damn funny book that is only a portion of the brilliance that is the warped Mr. Larson’s gift to the world. Eat it up! ( )

This is a collection of anecdotes, sketches, and yes, cartoons too, showing the humble origins of The Far Side.

Allow me for a moooment to chew the cud, as I ruminate on the many merits of The Far Side. It makes chickens chortle. It makes goats guffaw. It makes spiders snicker. It makes T-rexes titter. It makes bovines bellow. (Certain people seem to find it funny, too.) Mooove over Garfield, because this cartoon takes the cow pie! And maybe I am milking the cow references a little much, but what the hay, right?

Five stars (because cows don't have thumbs). ( )

Its a Far Side book- and its way better than the yearly compilations that have come out. While this book only contains a small selection of Gary Larson's Output, it contains some of his best work. The commentary adds so much to the book, as well as his first draft sketch. He even alluded to the caption mix with Dennis the Menace, which is hilarious. I found it sad that some of the comics had hate mail, which makes no sense for a goofy comic. ( )

The beginnings of Far Side. ( )

Highly enjoyable collection of Larson's work, in part because he shows a number of unpublished cartoons, and explains the process of editorial review. Plus, there's large numbers of cartoons that no doubt adorn the office walls of scientists to this day. Recommended. ( )

Finished this roughly around 330-430am. Sometimes having insomnia is nice (for reading/getting things done).

This was a fun overview of The Far Side, and was interesting to see early pre-Far Side cartoons, sketches, rejected cartoons, and other tidbits throughout the first 10years of The Far Side's 'life'. Fun, entertaining, and good for a fair number of laughs. ( )

too much at once. ( )

Far Side comics with exposition by the artist? Brilliant. ( )

Essential book for "Far Side" fans: So you've got the massive two-volume "Complete Far Side" and figure you're all set, Gary Larson-wise. If so, you're a few cows short of a herd, because you need this book to round out your collection. It's not just a collection of his comics. The book has a discussion of how his career as a cartoonist got started and has examples of his previous effort, a one-newspaper comic in the same style as "The Far Side." It goes on to show particular cartoons, with his comments on them, both positive and negative, on how they worked, where ideas came from or even the mechanics of drawing them, amongst other criteria. He also shares some sketchbook drawings, some of which led to final, published comics and some which did not. (One of the latter, about a frontiersman named Jeremiah and rhubarb, would have been a good one.) And he discusses how editing had sometimes unexpectedly changed his cartoons, and he relates the letters from people about specific cartoons, some very negative as you might imagine; for certain ones, he engages in a detailed discussion of what he tried to do, contrasting this with how others saw it upon publication. Larson also shares some UNpublished panels, some of which are hilarious. There's also a giant picture of a louse. He ends with a generous helping of his favorite panels, some in color. All in all, it's a lot of fun, and it gives a lot of insight into how Larson went about creating his famous comic that so many of us miss seeing in our newspapers daily.

The author Larson is even funnier than the cartoonist Larson, because he has more space for the humorous dramatic tension. My favorites are the purportedly childhood sketch of the Halloween "black ghost" and his comment on a friend's suggestion for a better caption: "He was right, dammit."

I loved this cartoon when it was running in the paper - it's the sort of thing that teenagers with a naturalist bent eat up. The best cartoons, like the ones that Larson includes as his favorites, are pointed commentaries on things humans take for granted, often using the animal kingdom to point out our weird view of the world. ( )

The Far Side, with its single panel format strips about cows, chickens, dorky people, and random oddity, set the standard for quirky, weird humor. This collection serves as a sort of "behind the scenes" look at the development and history of the strip, as well as including some of the funniest panels produced by Larson.

The book is divided into broad sections. The first "The Fossil Record" is, in my opinion, probably the least interesting. Larson purports to include a collection of drawings he made as a child, but they seem to me to be fairly obviously a made up collection he penned specifically for the book, which makes them funny, but not particularly so.

The book picks up speed from that point - in the next chapter Larson discusses his odd path to becoming a cartoonist, shows pages from his sketchbook and compares them with the final product that arose from the initial sketchbook idea (or which he believes arose from a particular sketchbook idea, his memory seems fuzzy on some points), and shows unused ideas his sketch book (including the infamous "Jesus risen from the dead" sketch). Finally, Larson spices up a handful of strips with some background storylines.

Larson then goes on in the next chapter to show some bizarre mistakes that cropped up in the process from artist table to editor to newsprint. He also shows some subtle elements of some strips featuring some of the drawing tricks the single panel format require him to use. He then shows a series of cartoons accompanied by the various angry letters he has received from outraged readers (usually because they were misinterpreting a strip) and a gallery of cartoons rejected by one editor or another (often accompanied by a subsequent modified version that was accepted).

The book finishes off with a large collection of Larson's favorite panels from the run of the strip. As he explains, a collection of the most popular strips would be boring, but a collection of the strips he liked best can serve to give insight into the mind of the cartoonist. And this book does that very well, from start to finish. For any fan of The Far Side reading this book is a necessity. It may not be as interesting to someone who is not a fan of the strip (I guess someone out there might fit that description, even if I haven't met them), but even for those not enamored of talking cows and evil chickens it remains a fascinating glimpse into the creative mind at work. ( )

This is a gem for any "Far Side" fan. Comic artist Gary Larsen takes us through the history of this beloved comic, from its beginnings, early sketches, many drafts, to a highlight of some of the more famous panels. My favorite part is the bloopers, where Larsen shows what went wrong along the way. He admits his own mistakes, such as the infamous one-panel head-scratcher "Cow Tools," to newspaper editors' oopsies, like when the caption to "Dennis the Menace" was switched with the caption of "the Far Side," with hilarious results.

Larsen's geeky sense of humor is prevalent throughout, and in this volume he uses it to tackle self-awareness. Readers get a taste of audience reaction, from hate mail to a certificate announcing that a bug has been named for Larsen. It's all fascinating, pure fun. ( )

As always, Gary Larson delivers. Prehistory of the Far Side is funny, provocative, and insightful, like all of Larson's books. Unfortunately, as with most comics strips, it's either all or nothing, love it or hate it. If you like Larson, then you are guaranteed to love this book. If you don't care for Larson...why are you here? ( )

Yes, this book tells us quite a bit about the history of the Far Side, and it’s fun to join the ride, and there’s quite a bunch of regular, and outstanding, Far Side cartoons thrown in for good measure. But is it a true history? In the sense of being real? I’d be reluctant to acknowledge that—the whole book’s content-cum-commentary is very controlled in its way. In the Larson-way, one might be tempted to say, and maybe that’s exactly what it is. The resulting work from the combined anecdotes, mess-ups, take-outs, favorites, and cartoonist’s comments are possibly one gigantic, elaborate, and hugely entertaining Far Side cartoon the connection of which with the “real” world and the “real” author might be as subtle and as tenuous as it would be, finally, irrelevant.

This was a fun read, not only for the great cartoons included, but Gary Larson's personal thoughts on his work and the responses others have had to it, make for an entertaining evening of reading. I was pleased that I understood the humor in most of the cartoons which had caused problems for him. Is that a dubious pleasure, or what? ( )

It's strange to think that there are people only a few years younger than me who have no memory of the tradition of sitting around the breakfast table trying to figure out what the joke was in today's Far Side. I'd almost forgotten it myself, now that Far Side mostly only shows up in old calendars and t-shirts.

But this 10th anniversary book brings it all back, as Gary Larson takes you on a guided tour of the origin and the backstory of the cartoons, explains a few of the more infamous ones, lets you into his sketchbook, and then ends the book with a gallery of his favorite cartoons from the first ten years. (Of course, there's still one in that gallery that i *just don't get*, but it wouldn't be The Far Side withough that.

Great cartoons, and a fascinating look behind the scenes as well. ( )

Funny doesn't even begin to describe this collection. Seeing is believing! ( )

An interesting "history" of the evolution of the cartoon series. ( )

Greatness evolving from a seriously warped mind. Thank God. ( )

Thank you Gary Larson. Thank you for life. ( )

Excellent behind the scenes look into the wierdie mind works of a classic humorist! It has explanations, variatiosn and history in his own words. V. cool for Far Side fans! ( )

741.5