COMICS: The Far Side's creator reveals limits

Andrew Firestone, ScreenRant, 2/17/23; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

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Far Side's creator reveals the one animal he was never allowed to use

Gary Larson dared to be a brilliant genius.

Despite beginning publication in 1979, Gary Larson’s The Far Side comic remains an enduring fixture.

In the age of internet meme culture, it inspires everything from paleontological terminology to the scientific names of multiple insects.

• VIDEO: The Far Side by Gary Larson

However, despite Larson's characteristic appreciation for the animal kingdom, there's one creature he was surprisingly never able to include in his work.

The Far Side's creator reveals the one animal he was never allowed to use (©ScreenRant)

Hey, Mendelbaum, workin' hard or hardly workin'? - Shut up, Flanagan! Can't you see I'm busy?

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Cow Dharma is bovine comedy.

Often featuring all manner of critters and creatures, Larson's work is famous for drawing surreal humor from the animal kingdom, but he was too frightened of censorship to use one specific species.

Serializing his final strip in 1995, Larson has published numerous collections of his cartoons in full-sized books, including his anthologies, dubbed The Far Side Gallery in parody of high art.

Great material is easy to milk.

One of these comic collections, published in 1989, is slightly different from all the rest, for it features a detailed account by Larson on his creative process and history, along with other curiosities of his career.

Entitled The Prehistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit, the book is full of many interesting minutiae and factoids regarding the acclaimed series, including a section of rejected cartoons, with one comic featuring an insect unused in the entirety of the strip: the dung beetle. Hey, Gary, dung beetle comics exist.More  COMMENTS

• Related: Gary Larson's Misunderstood Far Side comic was deemed offensive and sick
• Dung beetle life stages comic (Swamp Cartoons)