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Far Side 

This collection includes the last six months of Far Side cartoons from newspaper syndication, plus 13 new cartoons drawn by Gary Larson since his retirement. 

Larson is back, kind of. This book has 13 new cartoons and more than 140 that have not been collected. The included strips include the usual assortment of talking cows, dogs, and chickens, devils trying to run Hell, cowboys sitting around campfires, cavemen, witches and all the other familiar motifs that reoccur in Larson's strips. It should go without saying that the strips all feature the bizarre, off-kilter perspective on the world that is the staple of the Far Side. Standout strips include God pouring jerks into creation, just to spice things up, an inmate in Hell explaining that the sandwiches sometimes have scorpions in them, because it is Hell after all, research scientists taking classes in maniacal laughter, and the mob putting people in glass boxes covered in mim makeup as a means of retribution.  

Gary Larson was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. His parents were Vern, a car salesman, and Doris, a secretary. He attended Curtis High School before attending Washington State University and graduated in 1972 with a degree in communications. In 1987, Larson married Toni Carmichael, an archaeologist.

Larson credits his older brother Dan for his "paranoid" sense of humor. Dan would pull countless pranks on Gary, taking advantage of his phobia of monsters under the bed by, for example, waiting in the closet for the right moment to pounce out at Gary. Dan is also credited with giving Gary his love of science. They caught animals in Puget Sound and placed them in terrariums in the basement; even making a small desert ecosystem, which their parents apparently did not mind. His adept use of snakes in his cartoons stems from his long-standing interest in herpetology.

Since retiring from the Far Side, Larson has occasionally done some cartooning work, such as magazine illustrations and promotional artwork for Far Side merchandise.

In 1998, Larson published his first post-Far Side book, There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story, an illustrated story with the unmistakable Far Side mindset