“The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson

1278 pages of my beloved comics from my childhood, The Far Side. The comic that was weird, quirky, and with a healthy streak of dark humour. The comic that wasn’t afraid to poke fun at torture, God, the Devil, and other things humans hold sacred.

One of my favorite comics is one where God is ‘cooking’ up Earth. Behind him there are bottles of ingredients like dark-skinned people, light skinned people, birds. He’s just about finished making the earth and he is shaking one more bottle on the Earth. A big bottle of ‘jerks’. He thinks to himself ‘And just to make things interesting…”". This is the kind of humour that won Larson praise, and many angry letters from people.

I’m glad that Larson made this monumental collection of all his work. He was a master. He could make you laugh with one frame, and a caption. I see he’s updated his website https://www.thefarside.com/ so go check it out if you’re unfamiliar with his work.

This box set lays out all his comics in roughly chronological order. At the start of every year, he has written an essay about his work and what it was like making comics. I really enjoyed some of the angry letters he put into the book too. Some of the comics have an angry letter, or a letter of praise beside it. They are a delight to read.

I am a tad sad I did not spring for the hard-cover of this box set, but I am still glad I now have this on my bookshelf. Anytime I’m feeling a bit down, or angry at this crazy world, I’ll take it down from the shelf and laugh.

Rating: ★★★★★ Book #87 in my #ReadingChallenge2021 #GaryLarson #comics #boxset #humour",