Back to ‘The Far Side’ — online

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kathy Hilliard
Vice President, Marketing
Andrews McMeel Universal
khilliard@amuniversal.com
(816) 581-7497

KANSAS CITY, MO (December 17, 2019) — 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. TheFarSide.com, the only official website, can be viewed here.

To the delight of legions of fans, TheFarSide.com celebrates Larson’s twisted, irreverent genius as never before. The digital destination site debuts today.

An unparalleled comic masterpiece, The Far Side revolutionized conventional considerations of humor in general, and of comics in particular. Its impact and influence cannot be overestimated; the panel has been revered by fans from all walks of life and every corner of the world. At the time of Larson’s retirement from daily syndication, The Far Side appeared in nearly two thousand newspapers; over the years, more than forty million books and seventy-seven million calendars have been sold, and it has been translated into more than seventeen languages.

The Far Side is without peer — no need for a reboot, remake or sequel — just a new way to discover and enjoy. Highlights of the new site will include:

  • The Daily Dose, an ever-changing, random selection of cartoons from The Far Side
  • A weekly themed comic collection
  • Sketches and doodles from Larson’s sketchbooks
  • Periodic unveiling of new work by Larson

Passionate throngs of established fans will be thrilled, but so will an entirely new generation of soon-to-be devotees. The Far Side has been a cross-generational and cross-demographic favorite since its origin, and TheFarSide.com will fuel its appeal to an even broader enthusiastic audience.

 

Well- and lesser-known facts from The Far Side®

  • Gary Larson has a species of chewing louse named after him: Strigiphilus garylarsoni.
  • The Far Side Off-the-Wall Calendar was the world’s bestselling calendar for eighteen years in a row, an unprecedented and unmatched achievement, with more than forty-nine million calendars sold.
  • The Far Side was voted the No. 1 cartoon panel in all major U.S. newspaper reader surveys for ten consecutive years.
  • Gary Larson received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) in 1990 and 1994. The NCS also named Larson Best Syndicated Panel Cartoonist in 1985 and 1988.
  • The Far Side of Science exhibit, featuring four hundred of Larson’s originals from The Far Side, delighted fans and broke attendance records across the country as the completely booked exhibit traveled to science museum venues ranging from the California Academy of Sciences to the Smithsonian Institution.
  • Initially in conjunction with the California Academy of Sciences exhibit in 1985, a 5- and ten-kilometer Run to The Far Side® was created. Thousands of serious runners from all over the world, as well as numerous fans who ran or walked the race in costumes representing The Far Side characters, participated in its more than twenty-year history.
  • The Far Side was awarded the Max and Moritz Prize for Best International Comic Strip/Panel by the International Comics Salon in 1993.
  • Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side, a CBS prime-time Halloween special, quickly became a cult favorite and was named to Time magazine’s Top 10 List for the Best Television the year of its debut (1994). That film and its sequel, Gary Larson’s Tales From The Far Side II, were selected for numerous international film festivals, including Venice, Brussels, and Telluride, and were broadcast in various foreign countries. Both were produced with traditional cel animation, completely hand-inked and painted.
  • Paleontologists refer to the previously unnamed distinctive array of tail spikes found on a stegosaurus as the “thagomizer,” thanks to a panel from The Far Side.

ANDREWS MCMEEL UNIVERSAL

Founded in 1970, Andrews McMeel Universal is an independent, multi-faceted, global entertainment company. Distinguished by a creator-first approach and the uncanny ability to tap into the zeitgeist of popular culture, Andrews McMeel specializes in comics, illustrated humor and inspirational content distributed across multiple platforms, with a remarkable roster of talent across syndication, book, calendar and greeting card publishing, digital consumer experiences, and entertainment licensing, including dozens of New York Times bestselling authors and Pulitzer Prize-, Reuben Award- and Emmy-Award-winning creators.