Wiener Dog Art: A Far Side Collection

by Gary Larson

Gary Larson created eight original color cartoons exclusively for this collection--including portrayals of Wiener Dog Art in the style of the great masters. The book also exhibits more than 100 "Far Side" cartoons for the first time in book form, displaying in breadth of humor that "Far Side" fans have come to expect.

112 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 1990

About the author

Gary Larson was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. His parents were Vern, a car salesman, and Doris, a secretary. He attended Curtis High School before attending Washington State University and graduated in 1972 with a degree in communications. In 1987, Larson married Toni Carmichael, an archaeologist.
Larson credits his older brother Dan for his "paranoid" sense of humor. Dan would pull countless pranks on Gary, taking advantage of his phobia of monsters under the bed by, for example, waiting in the closet for the right moment to pounce out at Gary. Dan is also credited with giving Gary his love of science. They caught animals in Puget Sound and placed them in terrariums in the basement; even making a small desert ecosystem, which their parents apparently did not mind. His adept use of snakes in his cartoons stems from his long-standing interest in herpetology.
Since retiring from the Far Side, Larson has occasionally done some cartooning work, such as magazine illustrations and promotional artwork for Far Side merchandise.
In 1998, Larson published his first post-Far Side book, There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story, an illustrated story with the unmistakable Far Side mindset.

Reviews

[Jonathan Yan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book very amusing to read, I now believe the Far Side is at least in my top 3 most favorite comic series. Almost all of the comics in the collection made me amused. The jokes are good as well and creative and sometimes the joke isn't in the panel. That is how creative Gary Larson is. For example, SPOILER ALERT, at the end of the book there is an index so you can find the comic panel that you liked the most. The conventional and regular way to do this if someone does this is you would title a story on the topic, like if it's a comic about a bear falling, the title would be "Bear falling", so it will be in the "B" section. Instead of doing this, Gary Larson puts everything in the "T" section because he begins all of the titles with "The one about..." I also appreciate the SPOILER ALERT Wiener dog art section. I love how Gary Larson gives each piece a very serious sounding summary of the artwork. For example, there is a section about wiener dog wranglers and he creates a whole history and backstory about the painting. This is a great comic collection.

[Carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going old school