Gary Larson
Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to over 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. His twenty-three books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than forty-five million copies.
Early life and education
Larson was born and raised in University Place, Washington, in suburban Tacoma to Verner, a car salesman, and Doris, a secretary. He graduated from Curtis Senior High School in University Place and from Washington State University in Pullman with a degree in communications. During high school and college, he performed jazz on guitar and banjo.
Larson acknowledges his family has "a morbid sense of humor", and he credits his older brother, Dan, for his "paranoid" sense of humor. Dan pulled countless pranks on Gary, taking advantage of his fear of monsters under the bed by waiting in the closet for the right moment to pounce. Dan "scared the hell out of me" whenever he could, Gary has said, but Dan is also credited for nurturing Gary's love of scientific knowledge. They caught animals in Puget Sound and placed them in terrariums in the basement, even making a small desert ecosystem.
