Ahhh. ‘Probe and Release’…I sure hope a small taste like this doesn’t cause a Farside addiction to spring back up.
Gotta say that was a pretty week return. The problem is when Larson was originally doing The Far Side it was fresh and innovative. But now you can’t throw a stick without hitting a Far Side-style comic.
It’s not directly the Far Side, but I thought folks here might get a kick out of “Searching for Mr. Larson”, the Documentary Now! S3E5 parody of “Dear Mr. Watterson”. It’s on Netflix. I thought it was a nice take on the self involvement and importance of certain “super fans” and why folks like Larson might be a bit reluctant to be involved with the internet in general.
“Bears eating Cub Scouts”. It’s a funny image but I feel I’m missing some sort of word play in that one.
Neither did Berkley Breathed. In one of the Bloom County anthologies, he reprinted a drawing Watterson had sent to him. I can’t find it right now for accuracy, but it was Breathed booting Opus, Binkley et al off a boat and roaring, “Don’t come back until your little fannies are on travel mugs!” or words to that effect. I know he used some quaint word for “ass”, and some example of cheesy merchandising. Watterson had been side-eyeing Breathed for licensing his characters while pursuing the expensive hobby of powerboating, like “Gee, think there’s a connection there, Berk?” 
Also, two C&H Sunday strips were inspired by the licensing war with the syndicate. Calvin loses his sense of perception, and everything is skewed from his point of view, and when he’s able to see things in perspective again, “You’re still wrong, Dad.” And the one where “The world has no hue, value or chroma!” All panels are in white-on-black, like photo negatives, and in the last and only color panel, Dad says “The problem with you is that you see everything in terms of black and white.” “Sometimes that’s the way things are!”
(And finally, we have a cat who is mostly white, but with black spots and a black tail. Guess what his name is.)
That one is a bit disappointing. But I thought about it for a while, and realized we’ve mostly seen selected cartoons, either in anthologies or Internet users’ favorites. Ones that weren’t as good haven’t shown up.
And I suppose it shows that I’m an old fogey and don’t like change, but I liked the simplicity and quirkiness and character of his drawing. The new cartoon that he considers an artistic improvement just doesn’t look as good to me.
Larsonesque levels of absurdity…
Does anyone here know B. Kliban, best known for his “Cat” comics? He did several books worth of absurd drawings. I heard that Larson was heavily influenced by him. I collected all the B. Kliban books starting in the 1990s, but alas he died a long way back.
I think the new comics (under “The Daily Dose”) only have today’s and the past two days. So I recommend checking the strip every couple of days, otherwise you’ll miss something.
I have “The Daily Dose” bookmarked and check it daily. Funny how memory works…we only remember the good comics. But Larson laid quite a few cow flops as well. I mean really bad.
Sturgeon’s Law is a heartless bitch.
OK, now I’m curious. What are the worst Far Side comics?
Just using the July 15 page:
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Makes no sense
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Moderately funny
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Meh
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Stupid and meaningless
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See above.
The man was capable of great things. But with that greatness came soul-sucking badness.
I think (2) - the canine decoder - is better than “moderately funny” - it’s one of his very best.
But that kind of reinforces your point - I don’t recall any of the other 4 in that selection, and they are all either “meh” or incomprehensible. What’s “calamari blanc” all about?
Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crap. Anything more than that 10% is a bonus and I think Far Side accomplishes that with ease.
I think it’s supposed to be one of those nature reversal things, like the one where animals are overseeing a pipeline that dumps stuff into a human house. That one was much more poignant though. I agree that this one feels like it’s missing something. Commenters don’t seem to have an easy answer for what’s going on.
Maybe a play on “Bears eating cubs” - which some do - but I think it would be funnier if they were eating baseball players.