Ok, The Far Side by Gary Larson is not exactly a serious book with deep meaning and impact but his work is some of the funniest stuff on the planet. I have often been amazed at the humor Larson could create with a one panel cartoon. Michael Dirda of the Washington Post is a fan too. He decontructs the cartoons a bit but he is clearly a fan not just a critic:
As one turns the many pages of these two volumes, happily lost in a surreal and witty world, it’s all too easy to overdose on the Larsonian sensibility. But resistance is futile. In the newspaper the wackiness could be spaced out to a panel a day. Here, after gorging for an hour or so, the reader may end up feeling a bit like one of the cartoonist’s overstuffed anacondas.
He even picks his favorite Far Side of all time. I won’t spoil it for you. If you want to know read the whole thing.
