At the last minute, The distant side The editor -in -chief suggested making it a more conventional comic strip, with recurring characters, a decision that would probably have condemned Gary Larson’s career before she even begins. Fortunately, Larson was authorized to “do it [his] path“Prepare the field for a legendary career which is still dissected to date.
In The complete distant sideLarson told a meeting he had with “Honcho in chief“Of Chronicle Syndicate functions, the company that sold Distant side and other cartoons in the newspapers.
Larson was given commercial and creative lectures “virtue“Currents in progress, as opposed to its unique panel style, but ultimately, On the other side was allowed to be what it was.
Before “The Far Side” made his debut, Gary Larson faced a pressure to make him more conventional
Gary Larson told a central meeting in The complete distant side
According to Gary Larson, at the end of 1979, he had a meeting with Chronicle Feature Syndicate Boss Stan Arnold, to discuss the comic strip that the publisher had just acquired from Larson. At this point, Chronicle had already renamed the band On the other sideof its original title The way of nature. Eager to please, Larson probably entered the meeting prepared to set up other notes.
However, what Arnold said was the most devastating thing as possible. “”Stan, studying my meager wallet, suddenly asked me if I would plan to make a band. (Comic, not dance), ” Recalls Larson, adding that he “was terrified“At that time. If the artist had played badly that moment, it could have been a turning point, for the worst, because The distant side.
In Larson’s account, Stan Arnold continued, explaining why the comics were more vessels and more profitable On the other side Creator absorbed in rigid silence. At the end of all this, however, keeping silent turned out to be the right decision. When he finished thinking, Arnold decided to take a chance on the young artist anyway. “”Let’s go and do it in your own way“He said.
If Gary Larson had made “The Far Side” a traditional band, it would have lost what made him unique
On the other side Could have been sabatoge before he started
Writing on this 1979 meeting nearly twenty-five years later, Gary Larson explained that he was not opposed to the comics, but rather on the contrary. He didn’t have the impression of having what it took to write a long term. As the author / artist said:
The truth is that I have always been impressed by the comics. I used to think, how do these guys do it? As a child, I have always had an affection for Alley Oop, and later, I constantly appreciated the work of some contemporaries, Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) and Berkeley breathed (Bloom County). But I could never enter the heads of caricaturists of the band. Even those I loved. Obviously, I was wired differently.
However, with his career in play, how was a young Gary Larson supposed to explain this to the editor Stan Arnold?
“”I was not even Gary Larson“, At the time, he wrote The complete distant side. “”I was just a piece of self -doubt in doubt in the office of a publisher. “In other words, if Arnold had pressed the problem, it is quite possible that Larson could have yielded to pressure and having tried to do On the other side A “regular” comic strip.
The way this experience would have proven to be, of course, a question of speculation. However, it is just to offer that the chances of success On the other side would have dropped spectacularly because Gary Larson would not have been faithful to himself, which means that he might not have produced a unique and immediately recognizable work.
“The Far Side” was the opposite of “Peanuts”, which helped to solidify it as a blow
On the other side Proven readers loved a strange humor
Of course, when you tell how Stan Arnold briefly tried to convince him to do On the other side As a band, Gary Larson used Peanuts“Charlie Brown as a prototypical example. Larson talked about his meeting with the publisher:
“People like to see characters they recognize,” [Arnold] said. It is the old thing of familiarity. The bands engage readers in a more intimate way, like an old friend who comes to visit around every day. And this leads to the loyalty of readers. The unique panel cartoons are like foreigners who appear at your door. No one opens their door to foreigners. However, if you look at and see the good old Charlie Brown, it’s like, why, of course, open the door! Go to Charlie! … hey, wait! Fast! … Close the door! There is a fucking cow there!
As Larson described it, he was sitting there how to tell the publisher that he “was not going to be good to develop a band. “”
Over the next fifteen years, On the other side would prove this logic as defective, by developing an unconditional base of readers who readily welcome cows, chickens, cowboys in Larson and more in their homes. Even as, in the words of the Creator, his “Constantly evolution characters have been crunched, launched, drawn, beheaded, eaten, stuffed, poisoned and run about twice a week. “”
Larson’s sense of humor was expressly intended for autonomous jokes, using simple panels. Over time, his style was validated by success, but before that, he could have proven too much bet for his publisher and for newspapers across the country. So, while Gary Larson believed in On the other sideMany other people had to believe it too.
Gary Larson mastered the form of comics, but he did it in his own way
The distant side Humor needed room to breathe
Being obliged to write a band could have derailed Gary Larson’s career, had his meeting with Stan Arnold On the other side gone differently. However, it should be noted that while On the other side Did not present a recurring cast, but rather used archetypes of recurring characters, Larson turned out to be able to use the band as a comic form, when it suited him.
In fact, a lot of classic Distant side The comics broke the mold with a single panel with an image. In essence, this underlines how the restriction of the drafting of a band to which Larson fell was not a question of form, but instead, was a question of content. A static cast would have limited The distant side Range, the possibility of going anywhere and doing anything for Bit’s good.
On the other side came to embody the opposite of Stan Arnold “Familiarity-Greeds-Fondness“Argument. Peanuts, Or Garfieldcould never deliver something really unexpected, which has become the Modus Operandi of Gary Larson with On the other sideThis is why his work continues to be an endless source of fascination, even decades after his retirement.
