There was a rule! You couldn't change your Far Side calendar until it was tomorrow and it wasn't tomorrow until the time you normally would have woken up, had you bothered to go to sleep.
Now there's a new rule. Friday, December 21, 2007 stays on the calendar because it may be the last good Far Side that ever graces my desktop. Mr. Larson has been retired for, what is it, almost 4-5 years now! The 2007 calendar that collects a reminiscent dust upon my desktop was Gary's version of a 'Retirement Sucks' tour. It became the one last thread that I now cling to, as I dream of days past when I could look forward to a new and twisted piece of artistic humor every morning.
I once got a letter from Mr. Larson. I had written him, asking if I could post one of his comics on Pedro's website. ("Two days after it's invention, the rubber band is tested.") For your entertainment pleasure, I will give a snippet of my letter here.
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Dated: 5/10/2004
Mr. Larson,
Through extensive research, I have discovered that you do not like people distributing your cartoons on the internet. I have read your letters to various web sites and completely understand your feelings that your cartoons are your children. I have a similar fatherly feeling towards one of my creations, Pedro. Pedro is a rubber band ball I created about five years ago, whom I have grown to love.
It is with the understanding and respect only a father could understand that I ask this question, "Can one of your kids come over and play with my kid?"
If you wish to view Pedro's site before making this decision (a parent should always know who their child's friends are), you can find the address . . .
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Not surprisingly, and at my request in lieu of a uninteresting and undignified "NO" response, Mr. Larsen (or at least one of his close associates) was kind enough to send me his absolutely wonderful 'cease and desist' letter! (You can read someone else's copy of the letter here - mine is safely filed away in some currently unknown location).
Yet all that reminiscing leaves me here, still looking at the same comical frame for the last year and a half, still wishing I could open a box and begin anew my comical adventures. Perhaps Mr. Larson needs to take another page from Ozzy's book. Perhaps it's time for a 'Retirement Still Sucks' tour.
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