Fun fact: Gary Larson has a species of louse named after him.
Two Safari hunters peering through the tall grass at elephants on swings, coming down slides. “Egad Simmons, we’ve found it: the secret elephant playground!”
A group of cowboys sitting around the campfire. “Hey, Johnson here just uttered a discouraging word.”
Pretty much. There’s no doubt Larson is the more populist (and popular) of the two, but I also think he’s more consistently funny. Kliban’s humor is quite different from Larson’s and has never had me laughing out loud. It’s really apples and oranges to me and someone who likes Kliban I wouldn’t necessarily expect to like Larsen and vice versa.
Overall, I prefer Larson by quite a bit.
Exactly. Larson took Kliban’s style–which was more conceptual than humorous; almost zen–and used to to make jokes. Some very funny jokes. There’s no question that Larson was funnier, but neither is there any question where Larson got his style from.
I hate to press, but do you have any evidence - say, commentary from Larson - to support this hypothesis? You phrase your claims as if it’s established and documented fact.
Classic: To the left, we see Tarzan riding an elephant, at the head of a whole herd of elephants charging down a city street toward an intersection. To the right, rolling down a sidewalk toward the same intersection, we see a nerd on rollerskates innocently grooving to his Walkman – a building blocking his view of the elephants.
Caption: “Brian has a rendezvous with destiny.”
These don’t even make me smirk.
Havbe any of you guys come across the Perry Bible Fellowship?
I love this guy’s work. He seems to have the whole package.
Beautifully detailed, but funny
There’s dozens on his website. Check 'em out & tell me what you think. There are a few duds but I’d credit him with about a 95% hit rate.
D’oh. Could a passing mod please fix the coding in that last post? Thanks.
I’m boggled that you think such a quote is necessary. It was pretty much a given, when Larson first appeared on the scene, that he was a Kliban follower; it’s there in every panel. When Larson’s work first started appearing, Kliban was at that time pretty well known. There was even something of a subgenre of books parodying his hugely successful *Cat *book. *Cat *was a publishing phenomenon. His followup books became progressively weirder, and then he died. And then The Far Side came along, and it was simply a given where the drawing style and the askew humor sprang from.
Not that Kliban didn’t do lots of drawings that weren’t like the ones that most inspired Larson, and not that Larson didn’t eventually evolve his own distintinctive style. And not that the random grab of Klibans I linked to above are utterly indistinguishable from Larsons. But in a culture saturated with Kliban imagery, as it was at the time, there was simply no question as to the giant on whose shoulders Larson stood.
Just out of curiosity, I googled this and found not only considerable argumentation backing lissener’s take, but also this quote:
His writing and cartooning show the effects of his interest in biology, though Larson fully acknowledges that he has been influenced by the cartoonists Don Martin of Mad magazine, George Booth of The New Yorker, and most particularly by B. Kliban.
That said, I prefer Larson. Muck like Qadgop, I don’t particularly consider him the “greatest”, which should legitimately take into account issues like innovation and impact on the field. But he is a personal favorite. But then I have a streak of bio-geek in me…
- Tamerlane
FWIW, in The PreHistory of The Far Side, Larson states, “Other than an interest in *Mad * magazine during my adolescence, and an appreciation for Gahan Wilson’s work in Playboy, I knew nothing about the cartooning world.” He also states that he never studied art other than required classes in grade school and junior high; what he loved was science.
The only influence he credits directly, in fact, is caffeine: "I get a couple cups of coffee into me and things just start to happen.
Another classic (and one of Larson’s personal favorites):
Two deers are standing in the middle of a forest, talking. One has a bulls-eye right in the middle of his chest.
Caption: “Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.”
Tamerlane, on preview I see you’ve found a quote that doesn’t seem to quite agree with mine. What was the source of your quote? Does it mention when Larson said this?
Got it from this literature guide teaser:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefAuxArt.aspx?refid=701703700
So I assume he mentions it in his book There’s a Hair in My Dirt!, the work in question.
- Tamerlane
This one just cracked me up: http://www.coldbacon.com/pics/kliban/bkunjust.gif
I think I must be broken. That’s so funny and I couldn’t possibly ever explain why.
Heh. That is pretty good. And rather Larsonesque, at that :p.
- Tamerlane
Trouble brewing.
Originally posted by Tamerlane:
I’m doubtful. I’ve never read it, but Amazon describes it as an ecological fable written in the style of a children’s book. I don’t think it would include autobiographical commentary ala the PreHistory. Excerpts from the book bear this out. The biographical blurb on the back cover (included in the excerpts) states, “As a kid he liked to draw but never formally studied art or considered being a cartoonist.”
Another one:
An old man is sitting in his study reading an Indian Dictionary. The thought bubble over his head reads, “Oh, here it is…‘Kemosabe: Apache expression for a horse’s rear end’…What the hey?..”
Caption: “The Lone Ranger, long since retired, makes an unpleasant discovery.”
On preview, I have to agree about that cartoon. If I hadn’t know it was Kliban, I would’ve guessed Larson.
My favorites?
“Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.”
“Cat FUD”
The bear in the scope cross hairs pointed at the other bear.
One that I don’t think that has been mentioned. The wife bear (w/apron) is holding a fry pan and looks pissed. The husband bear has an ear tag that says #5. There is a large #5 shaved into his fur. He has a radio collar around his neck. He has a completely befuddled wtf? look on his face. The wife is asking why he is late for dinner. ( I don’t recall the exact wording)
“Mr. Osborne, may I be excused, my brain is full.”
“Suddenly the bunglers found themselves looking down the barrel of Andy’s Dobie-O-matic”
The two panel one where in the top panel the cows are all standing around on two legs. A lookout shouts car.
The second panel shows them on all fours eating grass.
The flip switch for the aeroplane: “Wings stay on/Wings fall off”. 
I am petrified, horrified and generally all-out freaked when travelling by plane, but I *still *find that cartoon hilarious.