1 Far Side Comic Proves Creator Gary Larson’s Humor Was ALWAYS That Dark

Gary Larson began publishing his notorious comic strip The Far Side when he was nearly thirty years old – though as one installment made clear, his signature sense of humor developed much earlier than that. Larson once published one of his drawings from when he was just seven years old, and it was pure Far Side.

In 1986, at the height of The Far Side’s original run in syndication, Larson published one of his adolescent drawings as that day’s comic. Were it not to bear the artistic signature of “Gary Larson, age seven,” many readers might not even have realized it wasn’t a contemporary creation.

Depicting a group of stick players playing volleyball with the decapitated head of one unfortunate member, the formative drawing contains all the elements that would later constitute a successful Far Side panel.

Gary Larson’s Dark Humor Originated In His Adolescence

Darkness was an essential characteristic of The Far Side, which often took its absurdist perspective on human – and animal – folly to its most macabre conclusions. Characters often met gruesome ends in Gary Larson’s comic, or were depicted at the moment just before their doom. As the childhood drawing Larson shared demonstrates, this tendency toward dark and intense moments, in service of humor, began when he was young. With the volleyball lying in the sand nearby, one player holds another’s head in their hands and cries out in horror: “This isn’t the ball!”

For those familiar with The Far Side, the formative nature of the work is evident upon closer examination. Though Larson used stick figures at times during Far Side’s run, the line work is not as precise here as in his mature drawings. Similarly, the punchline is too overt for his later tastes, which ranged from inventive to quixotic. That said, the drawing has the tone and the form of The Far Side. It gives readers the impression that the creator was always destined to produce his iconic work, the singular quality of which has made it endure in popularity even decades after ceasing daily publication.

The Far Side’s Humor Came From Years Of Practice

The adolescent quality of Larson’s “age seven” drawing that stands out the most in parallel to his later style in The Far Side is the way the body of the headless stick figure vibrates, while its detached head looks up at the other players with a look of serene befuddlement. This aspect of the drawing approximates the panels where The Far Side managed to hit the perfect mix of bleakness and silliness, thrillingly walking a comedic tight-rope act in order to achieve a laugh-out-loud punchline.

This insight into Gary Larson’s childhood makes it clear that The Far Side’s humor was long-gestating, having developed over decades before even a single panel had been published. Larson’s sense of humor became infamous over his strip’s fifteen years in newspapers, inspiring controversy and praise alike, while helping to contribute to the development of millennial humor. Despite how it may have seemed at times, the strip was never a throwaway; rather, every installment of The Far Side was a deliberate deployment of a well-honed comedic sensibility.