The Chickens are Restless

"Gary Larson, The Chickens are Restless . This cartoon, The Far Side, used to appear in The Press and Journal , which was my local newspaper in Aberdeen, Scotland. So as a child I’d see this every week. They had Hagar the Horrible too. I used to cut out Hagar and Garfield and this. The Far Side was definitely my favourite. Well, maybe Garfield was my favourite for a while, but we’ll gloss over that. The Far Side is the working of a really strange mind. What really appeals to me about this cartoon – and you get it with all the people I’ve chosen, but particularly I think with Larson – is the way you go back into his world each time. Which means that something you might not have found funny when you weren’t acquainted with that world becomes funny simply because it’s on The Far Side. He needs to do less and less to be interesting. You’re just so happy to go back to meet these insects and cows in business suits. It’s not that attractive. He draws buildings in a nice simple way, but his people are horrible and his animals are pretty ugly. I do like nice drawing, but if the rest of it’s good enough you can accept it. Anyhow, everything, even the ugliness, lets you know where you’ve come back to. I’m trying to think. There are so many good ones. The dark, weird, subtle ones."