Since his debut in late 1979, Gary Larson’s The other side Comic strips are one of the industry’s greatest success stories. Looking back at the evolution of the strips and Larson’s career, it’s truly amazing that a one-part series of completely absurd parodies of everyday life could become such a long-lasting phenomenon.

On the other hand, The other side has long had some of the best collected editions of any newspaper comic. While many of these are collected in chronological order in anthologies, there are strips like Calvin and Hobbes And The other side have benefited from their variety of recurring gags and themes, most of which provide more than enough for their own curated titles. Of course, not every omnibus edition is suited to the same reader, although the best of them are nevertheless almost universally worthwhile.

10 The Curse of Madame “C” is Prime for New Far Side reader

While The Curse of Madame “C” is not a collection of The other side Comics, it is possibly the most unique production the series has ever produced. Rather than simply a series of previous The other side Comics, The Curse of Madame “C” is the story of the creation of Gary Larson’s greatest comic strip. It all revolves around the fact that its creator was cursed by an evil cow.

From there The Curse of Madame “C” sees a fictionalized Larson facing many recurring characters who helped The other side famous. It is certainly questionable whether a proper collection deserves more mention. Nevertheless, The Curse of Madame “C” is so often overlooked, even by diehard fans of the series, that it deserves nothing less than a special mention, if not a place of its own on the list of the best The other side collections.

9 Looking for the other side is perfect for adventurous readers

Many of the recurring themes and gags in The other side revolve around nature, exploration and the animals that live alongside humanity. As in Looking for the other sideHowever, in Gary Larson’s world, these things are rarely as benevolent or gentle as they are outside the comics sections of newspapers.

Looking for the other side takes readers on ominous excursions to the zoo, through the wilderness of a prehistoric Earth, and up close to a particularly astonishing court case involving one of the greatest pop culture icons of all time. Along the way, readers will discover that anywhere from the dog park to the duck pond can be a hotbed of absurd humor, at least in The other side.

8 Valley of the other side is a Jurassic foray into Gary Larson’s best comics

Through The other sideGary Larson proved that he had a deep affinity with prehistoric times, especially with the animals that populated the earth millions of years ago. Unfortunately, these prehistoric creatures had not always fared so well, least of all the dinosaurs of The other side.

Valley of the other side does not consist exclusively of comics about dinosaurs, but they are the focus of the collection. Fortunately, Larson produced dozens of such issues of The other side during its decades-long run, so a fair number of them have been reviewed and collected to create one of the best-known compilations of the series to date.

7 Dog of the other side Makes for slightly spooky light reading

While most other The other side Collections are relatively dense reading, although they consist of single-image comics, Dog of the other side is anything but that. This is one of the biggest criticisms of this particular collection, although it should be considered one of its greatest strengths.

Dog of the other side offers many slightly spooky editions of The other sidein a condensed format that allows for quick and easy reading. For those who The other side in their backpack or luggage when they have just enough free time to sit and read, Dog of the other side is probably the best option available.

6 The observer from the other side Contains some of the most absurd headlines of all time

Like Cow Tools and Thagomizers, newspaper headlines and the stories behind them have a long and eventful history in Gary Larson’s The other sideAnd for fans of this very special kind of humor there is The observer from the other side.

Published in 1987, The observer from the other side is a loosely connected collection of The other side Comics that generally have some kind of journalistic orientation. Like Dog of the other sideit is not an overly long or large collection, which makes it ideal for light reading, although it is more extensive than Dog of the other side as a whole. Nevertheless, it is still one of the best collections of The other side which are relatively easy to find.

5 The original gallery “The Far Side” is a classic for good reason

The Far Side Gallery is considered by many to be the best anthology collection the series has ever printed, and for good reason. The complete other sidethe series gallery These issues were the closest fans got to an omnibus volume, and the first one is by far one of the best.

The Far Side Gallery contains Strips printed from 1982 to 1984 And contains many of the series’ most iconic characters and concepts. For the most part, these characters and concepts are not fully developed, which might be disturbing to some readers, but anyone who knows where The other side Those who are there at the end will be able to experience the development for themselves.

4 “It Came from The Far Side” is as exciting as Gary Larson can be

Apart from aliens, dinosaurs and armed cowboys, The other side had many other dangerous and exciting threats thrown in the way of readers. Usually these threats were much worse to look at than they were otherwise, and that makes so many of them perfect to be seen in the pages of It came from the other side.

As sixth The other side Collection, It came from the other side contains a variety of iconic characters and gags from the series’ heyday, as well as some truly unsung classics that are often overlooked. Most of these comics come from a time when The other side gradually took on a somewhat more disrespectful tone than at the beginning, which regular readers of The other side will surely appreciate it.

3 Viennese dog art is a carefully curated The Far Side collection

Viennese dog art was the eleventh The other side collection when it was published, but it was always much more than that. In addition to the various editions of The other side that it collected, Viennese dog art comprised over 100 issues that had never before been printed anywhere other than in the comics sections of newspapers.

And more importantly: Viennese dog art contains eight full-color cartoons that Gary Larson created specifically for this collection. They were not available anywhere else at the time, and since Larson is notoriously careful about where his art ends up on the Internet, these eight comics are often difficult to track down on the Internet for even the most experienced search engine guru.

2 The Far Side Gallery 4 is immediately recognizable

What The Far Side Gallery began, numerous further iterations were continued and The Far Side Gallery 4 is probably the only issue in these collections that both casual and diehard fans of the series would recognize from across the room. This could be due to the time in which it was released and the overwhelming popularity of The other side in the same window, but it is much more likely because it is so funny The Far Side Gallery 4 it really is.

Published in 1993, The Far Side Gallery 4 includes many of the best The other side Comics of all time. Every classic character can be seen somewhere and almost every joke is a classic in itself. The Far Side Gallery 4 is not perfect, but it is very close, and for that it is only matched by the most complete collection of The other side Fans can secure it.

1 The complete other side Has everything – almost

The complete other side is exactly that – complete. Contains every single The other side Comic, which appeared in print from the first to the last issue in 1994, The complete other side is everything except the comics that Larson created for himself and published online.

Better yet, The complete other side contains extra material that most authors would rather forget about. These include letters of complaint from angry readers, the content of which is sometimes just as funny as the comics themselves. The complete other side also includes numerous thoughts and reflections from Larson himself that help put everything fans know about their favorite comic strip into new context.