If it’s true you should have no problems supporting it. Tamerlane has provided a secondary reference to it, but it’s kind of thin, and we have a competing claim that Larson has said he knew nothing of cartooning. So far you’ve only presented your own opinion. I asked for evidence.
The opinion that Kliban influenced Larson isn’t hard to find if you search for it, though half the claims misspell “Larson” so I’m not sure how much trust to put in those, and it’s also been claimed that Kliban invented the technique of a third person narrative outside the single panel cartoon. (This, to my mind, is clearly his greatest influence on cartooning, if true.) Saying Larson was just “ripping off” Kliban, however, strikes me as preposterous.
There’s ample “cite” in the examples linked to. If you choose to claim not to see the parallels, I’m personally not all that interested in trying to convince you. Your opinion doesn’t change the shape of my universe in the least, especially when it’s apparent you’re not really willing to come into the discussion–such as it is–in good faith.
Further, if you want to dismiss my experience as a sentient consumer of culture in the years that spanned Kliban’s meteoric popularity and Larson’s initial forays–basically call me a liar when I tell you that the similarity was a given at the time–then, again, not interested, don’t care. I’m thrilled you’ve found an issue important enough to you to defend to the death, but you’ll be doing it into the wind from here.
Oh come on. It is, of course, nice to have an expert on - well, damn near every cultural art - on this board. We certainly need someone to condescendingly correct us on all aspects of art. We’re glad you’re here.
It would, however, be nice if you could back up your pronouncements with some sort of critical consensus other than, “You’re just too blind to see it.”
I was born in 1957, and Kliban’s “meteoric popularity” somehow missed me. Larson’s didn’t. Tamerlane made a bit of a case; he provided a bit of evidence. You’ve done neither. You’ve only sneered.
What in the hell are you talking about? I asked a question. If you don’t want to answer it, or can’t, just say so.
I asked for something to back up your claims. I haven’t insulted anyone, done anything in bad faith, or called anyone a liar. I’m asking you to explain a rather dramatic statement. Do you or don’t you have some reason for saying what you’re saying?
I have sold about 20 Far Side coffee mugs on Ebay over the past couple of years and they have all be very good money makers. The one that did the best had the dog scientists trying to understand the doorknob principle while a cat sat just outside the window.
The second page of this article, from Time Magazine’s website, reads:
(emphasis added)
Personally, I didn’t see any resemblance whatsoever between Larson and the Kliban comics that lissener linked to. However, Kliban’s “Genghis and Sylvia Khan” is very reminiscent of Larson.
Even better: Tonto is shouting at a crescent-moon-door outhouse which, for no adequately explained reason, is standing out there in the middle of the badlands. Caption: “Kemosabe! The music’s starting! The music’s starting!”
Yeah I gotta agree. That was some of the lamest, unfunny shit I’ve seen.
As far as Far Side favorites:
Spamelopes.
The wolf and sheep love affair (the wolf was worried about what the pack would think and Agnes just kept eating the flowers)
The family who feigns death so that their guests, “sensing the sudden awkwardness” finally leave.
I think my favourite Far Side is one of the early ones showing two gorillas lazing under a tree after a full meal, and one of them says, “You know Hank, I really like bananas. Heck, I know we all do, but for me it goes much beyond that.”
Interesting to see the Kliban images (I’d never heard of him). I agree with what somebody said upthread that it’s very difficult to attribute influence or even plagiarism to this type of frame cartooning.
My possible favourite ever “newspaper” cartoon was one of Michael Leunig’s pieces (he can be funny, but his morality gets annoying to me sometimes - well, you can have too much of it): there was a single frame depicting a rather tranquil hillside with several houses on it. Here and there, were goats grazing on the lush grass. The caption read, simply, “A goated community”.
An elephant with an amputated foot is in a phone booth, talking to someone: “They turned it into a what?”
And the captionless picture of a building on fire and floating down a river toward some rapids. On the building is a sign: “Crisis Clinic”.
And another: A white whale in a car has rear-ended another car, and getting out of that car is Captain Ahab. The whale is thinking, “Cripes! Of all the cars in New York to run into…”
Um. Ok, I looked at it. I didn’t giggle even a little bit. It ranks about down there with Family Circus for me. I mean I can at least see what the joke is, I just don’t think it is done in a very funny way.
On a busy city street, a guy lies sprawled on the sidewalk with a boomerang next to his head and a crowd around him. A kangaroo stands nearby, peering sideways, thinking, “That was meant for me.”
