HN Reader

Been meaning to post this but if you're interested, I set up a RSS feed for the daily Far Side comic[0]. It's a simple scraper that runs daily on GitHub actions and creates an entry for the 2-5 comics and captions of the day. Source code is on GitHub.[1]

I'll have to look into this new section of the website and see about adding that to the feed.

[0]: https://sphars.github.io/rss-feeds/feeds/the_far_side/feed.x...

[1]: https://github.com/sphars/rss-feeds

The Far Side is like the Simpsons for me, many of the jokes have passed into everyday expressions. If I or my wife are on the loo when the other comes in, we’ll always quote one of my favourites:

https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/...

It is interesting to note the changes in style from his newspaper comic. I assume it is the result of drawing for yourself and being able to take the time to draw it how you want rather than a 7 comic a week deadline syndicated strip.

I had a teacher in high school, Mr. Miller, he taught the history half of World Humanities. On the first day of school, he passed out a Far Side comic he'd printed off to everyone, and said confidently that if we did not find that cartoon funny, we would almost certainly fail his class. He proceeded to teach the entire recorded history of human civilization over the course of a year with highly animated, almost shouted lectures, where he would get so enthused about what he was talking about that he'd frequently explode the chalk on the board trying to write as fast as he spoke. Not once through the entire year did he even glance at the textbook or his own notes.

I didn't do well in high school, generally speaking, I skipped a lot and had little appetite for doing homework. But I did really well in his class. The Far Side is fucking funny.

The one with the pilots announcing turbulence ahead…

Fantastic! I check this periodically, hoping for anything new from Mr. Larson.

Love that he took the time to honor Ms. Goodall one more time. What a class act.

If you like Gary Larson, check out Gahan Wilson, who has a very similar sense of humor.

https://www.kensandersbooks.com/pages/books/59859/gahan-wils...

That’s awesome that he a digital tablet enables him to create more art. I met a comic book artist recently who was drawing nonstop even while signing autographs and talking to fans.

FYI, this "New Stuff" is circa 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/arts/far-side-gary-larson...

I think it’s about time for me to confess: I really don’t get Gary Larson cartoons. I understand what each is about, but my amusement level doesn’t correlate with their popularity.

It’s a slightly odd, somewhat lonely feeling to see something so universally beloved and popular and feel nothing.

I had a client once in the 90's when Olive Garden was the first wave of consumer Italian spots to serve specials.

After we ordered our entrees the waiter left one of those coloring labyrinths. Well, I couldn't tell at the start of the sketch that it resembled a mandala.

As a comic book artist, his studies in a parapsychology were in the practice of comic strips.

Gary's work reminds me of that afternoon.

These are great, he's still "got it".

This is great!

Periodically, I'll go through one of Larson's cartoon books, laughing all the way. It's like housecleaning for my brain - afterwards everything is spic-and-span and in it's proper place.

The first Gary Larson cartoon I ever saw was "Freeze...OK now...who's the brains in this outfit?". When I saw it I had to see more:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c4/c4/75/c4c475c0a2fdc310a34c20722...

I should really start to read the Far Side comic... I've heard about it for the first time, along with Heathcliff and Pants, on the latest Solar Sands video "The Surreal Worlds of Single Panel Comics": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4npsyTE-m_k

No one is able to capture stupidity on a person's (or cow's, or chicken's) face quite like Gary Larson.

Very nice, I have been checking it for a while and this is the first new one I have seen in a while.

Nice cartoon for Jane Goodall!

Wow, thank you for posting (you have to click the green "Enter" button, it's not super obvious -- someone needs to have a sit-down with Gary about design conventions! It's also completely un-bookmark-able, as there's no URL leading to the latest comic every day).

This one made me laugh out loud for the first time in a while: https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/387/house-on-hillside He's still got it!

EDIT: Ahh, it's very, very small. I was excited by the "387" in the slug, but that seems to be meaningless (?). There's 8 total comics in no clear order, and the caption system is completely broken (it says they were all posted this past Wednesday) :(

This was such a better experience on mobile. I had first tried on my MacBook and it was inscrutable.