Perhaps the all-time best. Cavemen playing rocks,paper,scissors and they all keep throwing rocks and saying “Tied again.”
A family sitting around a dinner table. The dog, standing and pointing a gun at the man’s head. Caption reads “Listen, buddy, I’m through begging.”
I also used to love “I’m moving over 500 donuts a day and I’m barely breaking even.” Every time I’m in a restaurant and I see a very large employee, I always think a variation on that, (“I’m moving 500 tacos a day and I’m barely breaking even.”)
Wasn’t there also one where a dog is getting breakfast and he says, “I’ll have the ham and eggs.” and everyone else in the restaurant is a chicken or a pig.
“What dogs are really saying.”
With images of dogs doing doggie things all over town (i.e., hanging out of car windows, chasing the mailman, etc.) going “Hey!”, “Hey, Hey!”, “Hey?”.
[QUOTE=Encinitas]
“What dogs are really saying.”
With images of dogs doing doggie things all over town (i.e., hanging out of car windows, chasing the mailman, etc.) going “Hey!”, “Hey, Hey!”, “Hey?”.
[/QUOTE]
Also, the “What We Say/What Dogs Hear, What We Say/What Cats Hear” is classic. Not only is it funny, but I’ve gone on from the point I first read the comic stip believing it’s pretty much true.
On my Far Side desk calendar today is one of my all-time favorites: A torturer is standing at the entrance to a dungeon. Three chained-up prisoners chorus, “Good MOOORNing, Mr. Johnson!”
I hate having my net off at home, and coming into the end of these three-page threads on my first day back at work.
Larson was pretty dang funny, but I bristle a bit at seeing him described as the “best there ever was,” considering that he pretty much started where B. Kliban left off. For years I was unable to look at a Larson cartoon without getting pissed off that he was so thoroughly ripping off Kliban.
[QUOTE=lissener]
Larson was pretty dang funny, but I bristle a bit at seeing him described as the “best there ever was,” considering that he pretty much started where B. Kliban left off. For years I was unable to look at a Larson cartoon without getting pissed off that he was so thoroughly ripping off Kliban.
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Ah, yes, Kliban. I remember one: Two ladies dressed like 18th-Century nobles, with high wigs and big dresses, are walking in what might be the grounds of the palace at Versailles. We see a walrus barely concealed behind a balustrade, peeking through it with one eye. One lady says to the other, “Did you ever have the feeling you were about to be raped by a walrus?”
looked up a bunch of B.Kilban, I don’t see it… From the large amount of comics I found online, I didn’t see a single funny one. Sorry, but IMHO Larson is much better.
[QUOTE=Surbey]
looked up a bunch of B.Kilban, I don’t see it… From the large amount of comics I found online, I didn’t see a single funny one. Sorry, but IMHO Larson is much better.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, Larson went for the punchline. As I said, he was very funny; Kliban was more “conceptual.” But there’s simply no question that Larson’s drawing style is about 85% Kliban. And it seems very clear to me that early Larson was simply B-grade Kliban.
Some examples of Kliban:
Seems pretty clear to me.
Those are great, lissener, but my two most memorable Kliban images are: “Never eat anything bigger than your head,” and the cat folksinger:
Oh, and I forgot a third one. Cats courting: *If I had two dead rats, I’d give you one."
Yeah, those weren’t my favorites, just the first particularly larsonesque I came across in searching. “Whack your porcupine” might be my favorite. Although “Fig 1 and Fig 2” is definitely in the running.
And then there’s “How to tell a cat from a meatloaf” . . .
Flying saucers piloted by dogs overhead. The pet dog looks at his erstwhile master and says “So they’re finally here. Before I go, roll over and play dead.”
And the bored dog driving a car, with the super-enthusiastic guy hanging out the window with his tongue flapping in the wind.
As far as Larson’s “ordinary stuff reimagining” goes, I’ve always had a soft spot for “La Brea Carpets.”
Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, sans head, searching through tall grass. Caption: “That does it. This time we’re bolting the sucker on!”
Apropos of that, two of my favorite Frankenstein Far Sides:
“As he got off the plane, Doctor Frankenstein (looking into his carry-on bag) was horrified to discover he’d left his brain in San Francisco.”
and (this one wasn’t published as a Far Side cartoon, but came from the Prehistory book):
The quartet from the Wizard of Oz is at the door of Castle Frankenstein, and the Doctor tells them, “I’m sorry, but I just used my last heart and brain - maybe try the Wizard down the road.”
[QUOTE=lissener]
Yes, Larson went for the punchline. As I said, he was very funny; Kliban was more “conceptual.” But there’s simply no question that Larson’s drawing style is about 85% Kliban. And it seems very clear to me that early Larson was simply B-grade Kliban.
Some examples of Kliban:
Seems pretty clear to me.
[/QUOTE]
I dunno. Those are pretty funny, but neither the drawing nor (except for the first you listed) the subject-matter is terribly similar to that of Larson.
In terms of drawing style, Kliban is more detailed, Larson more stylized; in terms of subject-matter, Kliban as you note is more “conceptual”, and the focus is different - Kliban’s humour is more likely to be focused on sex and its absurdities, Larson on science.
I see them as very different, myself. I like both, but for me Larson has the edge because I prefer the focus of his humor.
Just saw a reprint of this one recently…
Two cavemen standing inside a baited box trap, with saber tooth tiger sneaking up on it. Caption is “Be Quiet! Here he come!”
Actually laughed out loud…
Regards
FML
View through a rifle’s scope. The bear in the crosshairs is pointing pleadingly at another bear.
Farmer catches cows looking at an anatomical diagram of a human being, with different cuts of meat marked on it. “Somewhere, far off in the distance, a dog barked.”
God is winning a TV trivia contest by a score of 8,098,762 to 0. The other player, “our defending champion,” has his hands on his hips and looks annoyed.
[QUOTE=lissener]
But there’s simply no question that Larson’s drawing style is about 85% Kliban.
[/QUOTE]
I’m curious as to why you think that. I don’t see it. What about his style is similar? (Or, to be more precise, more similar as opposed to what you’d expect between two single-panel cartoonists.) In your fifth link, Kliban appears to be aping Johnny Hart.
I must have not read any early Larson because I don’t remember him being that dull. I don’t see any more connection between Kliban and Larson than I do between, say, Jim Unger and Larson.