The world ofThe Far Sideis famously bizarre, so maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are so many giant monsters terrorizing its cities. From big names like King Kong, Godzilla and Mothra to giant animals and humans, Gary Larson loved the visual of a gigantic creature lurching past skyscrapers.
Here are the 10 bestFar Sidecomics starring gigantic monsters -be sure to vote in our end-of-article poll and pick your #1, as well as other readers' favorite strip.
10Other Cities Get Giant Gorillas
Penguins Are the Secret Stars of The Far Side
A lot of the giant monsters that made the genre iconic are simply enlarged monsters, but at least there’s some dignity in having your city wrecked by an inherently threatening species. Sadly for the humans of this strip, their city has been targeted by a gigantic penguin, and one that - judging by its expression - has a major grudge against humanity. It’s bad enough having your car crushed underfoot without the added indignity of watching the perpetrator waddle away afterwards.
Penguins appear acrossThe Far Side, with Larson often focusing on their isolated Antarctic environment and identical appearances.Open the image gallery below to see more of Gary Larson’s penguin comics.
The first comic in the image gallery above - showing a penguin singing about its individuality - wasaccidentally ruined onFar Sidemerchandise. The merchandizing process involved variouscolorists preparing Larson’s artfor sale on mugs, calendars and clothing, and the ‘individual’ penguin ended up being depicted as bright yellow.
Since the gag hinges on the fact that the penguin clearlyisn’tunique in appearance, Larson points out that"the entire point of the cartoon had been reversed"(inThe Prehistory of the Far Side.) He also points out the comic was an odd choice for colorization, given that"the cartoon featured nothing but penguins and ice, which didn’t lend itself to color."
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9Giant Clown
Clowns as a Separate Species in Far Side Lore
In this strip, Larson focuses on the solution to a giant monster rampaging through the city. Given the giant in question is a clown, this city has opted for a giant pie to the face, hoping this traditional combination will prove to be their attacker’s Kryptonite.Clowns are one ofFar Side’s weirdest subjects. Larson depicts them as almost a separate species to humans, obsessed with custard pies and causing havoc for its own sake.Open the image gallery below to see more of Gary Larson’s clown comics.
Larson shows clowns pieing innocent civilians, hiding from their natural predator (polar bears) and messing around with nuclear weapons, seemingly with no care for their own survival. In that context, this might actually be the most threatening monster on this list.
8Small World!
Larson Never Passes Up a Chance to Pun
In this comic, two city-wrecking monsters happen to bump into each other while at ‘work,’ with one greeting the other like a casual co-worker, despite the mayhem around them.Larson also hides a pun in the strip’s caption, as the phrase ‘small world’ both emphasizes the coincidence while also being literal - for a monster that can pick up a car in one claw, the human world is indeed pretty small. Finally, calling a huge, Godzilla-like monster ‘Dave’ is a classic Larson gag.
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7Giant Mailman
Far Side Loves Pushing Cartoon Enemies to the Extreme
SinceThe Far Sidegenerally only uses a single panel for its comics, Larson has to take every opportunity to tap into pre-existing knowledge or assumptions. In this case, he usesthe concept of dogs hating mailmen, turning canines into the heroes when a gigantic mail carrier begins terrorizing the city. It’s the same core gag as the clown/pie comic, but with a little more character, as one hero dog rallies the city’s other hounds for a counter-attack.
6Shoot the Varmint
The Rare Far Side Comic Where Humanity Wins
Humans are rarely the heroes of Gary Larson’s comics, portrayed as either harmlessly foolish or outright villainous. Indeed,when Larson was interviewedby20/20in 1987,the interviewer saw fit to ask him whether he prefers humans to animals. Larson replied,“I don’t know. I’ve never met an Irish Setter I didn’t like.“And yet in this strip, a down-home hero saves the city from a marauding monster after concluding that the towering threat is nothing more than just another"varmint.”
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5The Giant Locusts
Sometimes Far Side Comes Up with Amazing Horror Stories
There’s a fine line between comedy and horror, with both relying on presenting the unexpected and unusual in novel ways. Because of that,Larson often serves up comic strip gags that - from another creator - would make amazing horror stories. In this case, an old woman turns on the TV, only to learn that the city has been evacuated due to a plague of giant insects, leaving her alone to fend for herself.
While the image of the woman gripping a fly-swatter with grim determination makes this comic funny, it’s possible the dark concept will stay with readers longer than the joke. It’s no wonderStephen King is such a bigFar Sidefan.
4Seems a Giant Tentacle Smashed Her Door In
The Giant Squid Is a Surprisingly Frequent Stock Character
While Far Side never used recurring characters, it does use a lot ofstockcharacters - designs that reoccur without any link between their depictions. The giant squid is one of the best, with Larson taking joy in depicting a world where giant squids are a common household pet, seemingly equal in popularity to dogs and cats. The giant squid’s size varies across itsFar Sideappearances, at one point big enough to sink a ship and in another fitting inside a standard living room.
What makes this particularly funny is that the giant squid clearly doesn’tbehavelike a household pet. It’s hard choosing thefunniest comic starring Larson’s giant squid, but the strip where it eats the neighbor’s dog is particularly great. The owner’s suspicion is funny by itself, building to the punchline twist that his giant squid isn’t the only one in the building. The ‘acting’ is particularly great, with the giant squid clearly knowing it’s in trouble.
3Toby vs. Godzilla
No ‘Giant Monster’ List Is Complete Without the King of Monsters
For all the giant monsters on this list who look suspiciously similar to Godzilla, it’s nice to see the real-deal get a namecheck. The joke pits a tiny but determined dog against a monster so big it doesn’t even fit in the panel, while using language that makes it sound like a clash of titans.Larson was clearly quite a fan ofGodzilla, considering the kaiju’s far less famous colleague Mothra also made it into aFar Sidecomic.
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2This Is Gladys Murphy
Far Side Expertly Combines the Extreme and Mundane
Larson made an art form out of combining extreme circumstances with incredibly mundane responses. In the case of Gladys Murphy, a gigantic eyeball appearing at the window hasn’t robbed her of her common sense, coming up with a genuinely smart way to figure out what she’s dealing with.
1Which Monster Did This?
King Kong Stars in Many of Far Side’s Best Monster Comics
Gary Larson’s King Kong comicsform many of his best ‘giant monster’ strips, but we made the decision to only give the great ape a single spot on this list. We’ve chosen the gag above - where King Kong leaves his handkerchief behind after destroying a city - as the best of the best, however the comic where Kong hides the human Ann Darrow in his mouth to avoid being gunned down is also an all-time great (the last in the image gallery below.)
The handkerchief gag is one of Larson’s best comics, as the police have to figure out what exactly attacked their city, somehow missing not just the giant monster that was presumably stomping past their windows minutes before, but also the clue offered by a dropped, monogrammed handkerchief.InThe Prehistory of The Far Side, Larson shares the original version of this comic, originally imagined from the monster’s perspective. It shows how diligently Larson reworks his jokes to find the very best form of the gag.
Those are Gary Larson’s 10 funniestFar Sidecomics about giant monsters -remember to vote in our poll (below) to pick your number one, and let us know any we forgot in the comments.
The Far Side
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
