Rating: 
Summary: Read this book with your favorite cow, bug or fat kid
Review: How many books have you read so many times you don't even know how many times you've read them? How many books do you have that -- when you broke up with your ex girlfriend -- you got all your old Russian literature back but not them? Yeah sure, you can get another copy of this book for a few bucks, but it's the principle of the thing, isn't it? So, if SOMEONE who happens to be reading this is feeling guilty, they know how to get the book back to me. Or at least, just fax the part at the beginning where Larsen drew that picture of his family dog, or the page where Larsen drew the inside of the trunk, or the page where Larsen drew the snake after it ate...well let's just say it was next to any empty play pen or even the page where Larsen talked about his famous "cow tools" strip. Or you could just fax the whole thing.
Rating:
Summary: ffffffffffffffffuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Review: i literly lafhged my but off. i had to have sugery done but it was worth it. it talks about the crative proceses and his childhood. one of my favorite parts was about all the misprints like when denis the menece was eating hamsters
Rating:
Summary: fun & functional
Review: I love The Far Side. It's one of my 2 favorite comics. I like this book because it's interesting to see the beginnings of Gary Larson's work. Though you can understand his later work without reading this, it gives the reader an extra bit of insight into the purpose of his work. It's not just hysterical - it's socially concious.
Rating:
Summary: Liberation by laughter.
Review: I opened this book and started to read. Within seconds, I had the attention of everyone around me, and I was laughing too hard to be embarrassed. I had just read one of Larson's most controversial cartoons. It's the one where the woman yells for her dog to run through the doggy door, but she's propped the door shut with a wooden board. This is my kind of humor: sick, but not sickening. I wiped the tears from my eyes and stumbled to the cashier, where I bought the book and drove home so I could read it and howl in peace. This book is marvelous. It reminded me of how much I miss "The Far Side". Luckily, I have "Red Meat" to give me my weekly sick humor fix now. But thanks to this book, I'll never forget where my taste in humor came from, and who introduced me to it. Thanks, Mr. Larson!
Rating:
Summary: The best Far Side book of all!
Review: I think that this is the best Far Side book ever because it has never before seen cartoons
Rating:
Summary: A writer revealing his process.
Review: I would have to say, without reservation, Mr. Larson has triumphed with this extrodinary work.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I've read it several times. And I am about to read it again. I believe every one of my friends I have let borrow this book have returned it with complete reverence.I was poking around Amazon for my most recent borrowee and he is about to send you an order. PROBLEM: You (Amazon) have so many of Larson's anthologies I am about to go broke buying myself Christmas presents. . .oh well.
Rating:
Summary: A 10th Anniversary Retrospective
Review: If you have ever wondered how Gary Larson started coming up with ideas for "The Far Side," this book offers a retrospective back to Gary's childhood days. The book is divided into five portions. The first portion takes Gary's past from his first drawings to syndication of "The Far Side." Along the path was a pre-Far Side comic called "Nature's Way."
In the second part of the book Gary offers his original sketches and captions in comparison to how the comics actually came out. In most cases the final version was better, but not always. At the end of this portion of the book is a short section titled "stories" that is what it says, comics with a lengthy caption that is at the very least a short story. In some cases the caption could be a novel, if you think about the concept very long, which I do not recommend. You might suffer further brain damage.
The third part is really interesting. It shows how Gary or newspapers made mistakes. The mistakes were often subtle, sometimes blatant. Some of the more interesting mistakes happened when the caption of adjacent comic was switched with that of "The Far Side."
The fourth portion of the book was humorous independent of the comics. Gary offers comments from various people offended by his art. Considering the art and the comments offered, I suggest that in many cases people saw something that was not there, which makes me wonder where THEIR mind was at. In other cases, people need to remember that Gary is offering a perspective on the world, in comparison to how people see things. It does not mean that Gary is interested in actually seeing the things in his comics happening; usually.
The fifth and last portion of the book offers Gary's favorites. I concur that most of them brought a smile to my face, and in a few cases an out right laugh.
Gary Larson succeeds in thinking outside the box, something that he does with great regularity. I suspect that he would be great at inventing. Of course, he is a self-described nerd, and I believe it. He also seems quite pleased that his comics find substantial popularity amongst scientists. Probably engineers too. If you think "The Far Side" is one of the greatest comics ever created, you will love this collection for its explanations. I recommend this collection highly for Far Side fans.
Rating:
Summary: Screamingly funny
Review: If you like the Far Side, you will naturally love this book. Besides being chock-full of Far Side comics, there are also sections with Larson's thoughts about specific cartoons, and a nice autobiography. But the funniest section is probably the rejected cartoons, pages of cartoons which were rejected, and the reasons why.
Rating:
Summary: Screamingly funny
Review: If you like the Far Side, you will naturally love this book. Besides being chock-full of Far Side comics, there are also sections with Larson's thoughts about specific cartoons, and a nice autobiography. But the funniest section is probably the rejected cartoons, pages of cartoons which were rejected, and the reasons why.
|
