Remember When You Read the Comics Every Day?
Do you remember when you read the comics every day? I do and I miss it a ton.
I remember tearing open the paper to read the latest Far Side, something that was more important to me than the news itself.
In thinking back to those days, I had this very intimate connection with Gary Larson and the Far side: it was as if it was its own community. Gary, like me and many of my friends who loved the strip, was a math/science geek (I cried during the Calculus epic Stand and Deliver - need I say more?). His humor had a special appeal for those of us who found humor in the absurd which, after all, is what being a geek is about. At a time when geekiness was the butt of most jokes, it was vinidcating to have one of own out there in black and white (and color on Sundays) for the world to see.
(I still laugh with my friends when we talk about classic Far Sides like the one where the wife amoeba yells at her husband “Stimulus, Response! Stimulus, Response! Don’t you ever think?”)
I laughed and knew that others laughed with me. Really, The Far Side was a community gathered around the daily newspapers of the world.
But I don’t do that anymore. Why? Partially time (I’m a Dad now and have little time for anything), partially habits (I don’t read newspapers anymore), but also because I just haven’t found my strip. I haven’t found my new Far Side.
Where has it gone?
