Andrews McMeel Universal
Iconic comic strip The Far Side launched its official website today, which debuted with a selection of classic cartoons, doodles from creator Gary Larson’s sketchbooks, and a letter from the cartoonist himself. Despite the strip’s cultural ubiquity in the form of books, calendars, and posters, the official website marks the first time the comic has ever been authorized to be available online. To mark the 40th anniversary of the strip, which was syndicated from 1980 to 1995, thefarside.com will periodically post new comics from Larson in 2020.
Larson’s letter explains his understandable hesitation to embrace the internet, mainly over issues of copyright infringement. “[Y]ears ago, when I slowly started realizing I had a second publisher…