David Sarkies's Reviews> The Far Side Gallery

Back in my University Days
25 December 2018 - Adelaide

I remember reading these back when I was much younger and at university. In fact this, and Calvin and Hobbes, and in fact a bunch of comic strips, were really popular among us, though I’d probably say that I found that the Far Side comics were the best. Okay, while I have been commenting on a lot of super hero comics, these comics, or should I say cartoons, sort of fall into the category of what I call ‘newspaper comics’ in that they basically appear in the comic sections of your local newspapers – the Phantom certainly seems to be a popular one.

However, the Far Side, and I must admit that having come back to them something like twenty years after I first read them, I would probably have to say that they are, well, somewhat silly. Hey, that doesn’t necessarily mean that silly is bad, rather it is just different. Then again, sometimes it is the absolute absurdity of these cartoons that actuallty make them rather fun, or at least they used to do so.

I guess I have probably grown out of them now, or maybe I just simply view them as, well, so 1990s. Things have change so much since I read these comics, and in particular, what I find amusing has changed as well. I guess in a way, Facebook, and the internet as a whole, has opened up a whole new world of jokes, and comedy, that back in the 90s (and even the 80s) was really only limited to the luck of the selected few. Then again, I suspect that not many of the internet comedians these days really make all that money, though I guess, once again, only the really lucky artists have ever made decent money.

What I will do is share something more recent that I found rather amusing: