'The Far Side' returns: US cartoonist Gary Larson releases new digital art on his website

Larson's single-panel cartoon series 'The Far Side', was launched on Dec 31,1979, and ran through Jan 1,1995. Photo: FarWorks, Inc

For the first time in 25 years, The Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson has published new work on his website.

“Enter if you dare, ” reads the welcome message on the site. No doubt, fans of his work will not hesitate to do just that.

His single-panel cartoon series The Far Side, was launched on Dec 31,1979, and ran through Jan 1,1995. In that 15-years run, it was featured in nearly 2,000 newspapers and 40 million books.

When Larson, 69, retired the script, he cited "fatigue and fear" as the reasons to stop.

"If I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer, or at the very least ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons," according to a statement at the time.

The "new stuff" tab on his website – which he describes as “his journey into the digital world art” – is not exactly the same as his previous pen-and-ink earlier work.

But for fans, Larson presenting three new strips and promising more are enough reasons to rejoice. It looks to be an exciting journey ahead and Larson credits a clogged pen for his return to the world of cartooning.

After retiring The Far Side, Larson would occasionally have a reason to draw – like Christmas cards every year.

It was something that always involved the same ritual: “cursing at, and then cleaning out, my clogged pen”.

So a few years ago, he set aside his “reliably traitorous pen” and reached for a digital tablet.

“I know nothing about these devices but hoped it would just get me through my annual Christmas card ordeal. I got one, fired it up, and lo and behold, something totally unexpected happened: within moments, I was having fun drawing again. I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained. I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved. Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman, ” he writes on his website.

Hailing from a world of pen and ink, he shares that his foray into the world of digital art has been a steep learning curve.

“But as overwhelmed as I was, there was still something familiar there – a sense of adventure. That had always been at the core of what I enjoyed most when I was drawing The Far Side, that sense of exploring, reaching for something, taking some risks, sometimes hitting a home run, ” he says.

With his new digital art, he wants to remind everyone that he is “just exploring, experimenting and trying stuff”.

“I’ve got my coffee, I’ve got this cool gizmo, and I’ve got no deadlines. And – to borrow from Sherlock Holmes – the game is afoot, ” he concludes.