CNN/Money is running a Reuters Story on “The Complete Far Side,” a two-volume, 1,250-page collection of 14 years of the iconic comic panels drawn by artist Gary Larson.
It costs more than $130 and weighs about 18 pounds, and its cover features a pair of chefs hiding in the reeds and hunting for flying cows.
Summing up those 4,300 cartoons was not as easy as it might seem because once Larson agreed to do help compile the retrospective, the process took three years.
Out of copies online
At both Amazon.com and BN.com they are out of new copies. You can buy copies from people that are selling copies directly but they have jacked up the price. The book was going for $85 at Amazon at one point. (Retail $130) Now people are selling used copies for $150. The used copies are probably all new though, just bought up for resale. Here is a link to the book at Amazon.com
Never return to comic pages?
Much as I love The Far Side, I am dismayed to see its return to many daily comics pages, which coincided suspiciously with the release of this collection and forced new strips into either smaller spaces or off the pages entirely. How are the emerging comic artists to gain an audience like Mr. Larson did if they must make way for “repeats” that are available to fans in books and collector editons like this one?