Gary Larson Shares His First 'The Far Side' Comics in 25 Years

Come check out the cartoonist's "New Stuff"

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Jul 9, 2020

Gary Larson — the artist behind The Far Side comics — has delivered his first new comics from the hugely popular series in 25 years.

This week, Larson posted a section on his newly relaunched website called "New Stuff," and as you might guess from such a title, it's now indeed been populated with new stuff. Larson has shared three new single-panel Far Side comics, marking the first he's done since retiring the long-running series on December 31, 1994.

Alongside the new comics, Larson shared a letter to fans, in which he writes:

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.

So a few years ago — finally fed up with my once-loyal but now reliably traitorous pen — I decided to try a digital tablet. I knew nothing about these devices but hoped it would just get me through my annual Christmas card ordeal. I got one, fired it up, and lo and behold, something totally unexpected happened: within moments, I was having fun drawing again. I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained. I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved. Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman.


And while his "New Stuff" isn't "a resurrection of The Far Side daily cartoons," Larson plans to fill his new digital space with "my journey into the world of digital art."

You can read his full letter and check out his new The Far Side comics here.

Latest Coverage