The PreHistory of the Far side

The fifth gallery collection. This volume collects his books Cows of Our Planet, The Chickens are Restless, and The Curse of Madame C. It includes a foreword by Jane Goodall that explains the small controversy over Larson's strip about her. Turns out she herself was quite amused. A favorite strip in this volume was the one about "be a virus, see the world," which in our times of COVID-19 remains seriously relevant. As in previous volumes, this book features a selection of strips in full color. This continues to be nice comfort reading for me and always worth reading for the bizarre humor.

My least favorite Larson. Still pretty good.

While 100 pages of this book are simply reprints of (albeit extremely funny) cartoons also contained in the famous Far Side Gallery books, the 180 other pages are the interesting part. Here Gary Larson shows us several shades of how his mind works, including very early unpublished works, rejected cartoons and sketches of unfinished cartoons, as well as misprints and reader feedback – all accompanied by charismatic explanations and annotations.

Quite simply: indispensable.

A bittersweet reading since this collection has the last six months of Far Side's run. However, Larson left at the top of his game with much humor and fun. This is one of the books I reread, along with other Larson books I have, when I need a smile.