Going far out and out on top

Gary Larson grew up in the Seattle, Washington

area. While he was a young man working in a

music store he discovered he had surplus time

to draw and doodle. He decided to try his hand

at cartooning and drew several cartoons, sub-

mitting them to a Seattle-based magazine. He

followed by contributing to a small local Seattle

paper, and later to the Seattle Times. The paper

liked his work and began publishing it on a

weekly basis under the title Nature’s Way.

In an effort to make some extra money from

cartooning, Larson pitched his work to the San

Francisco Chronicle, which bought the strip and

sponsored it for syndication through its own

Chronicle Features syndicate. The syndicate

also suggested he change the name to The Far

Side.

The Far Side ran for 15 years, ending with

the announcement of Larson’s retirement on

January 1, 1995. Larson chose to end the car-

toon because he didn’t want to fall into predict-

ability. Larson went out on top, and as of 1995,

The Far Side was carried by nearly 2,000 daily

newspapers, had been collected into 22 books,

and was reproduced extensively on greeting

cards, which continue to be popular today. In

addition, two animated specials were produced

for TV. Most recently, Larson published a 2009

calendar and is donating all his author royalties

to conservational organizations.