Summary

• For cartoonist Gary Larson, the production time for illustrating cartoons was more manageable than for writing longer stories. He leaned more toward illustrating because it avoided the fear of losing years rather than days on a failed project.
• Although Larson was intimidated by the thought of forgoing creative satisfaction in the context of a long-term writing project, Larson’s entire body of work—written over nearly fifteen years—is novelistic in size and scope.
• Larson retired from animation in 1995 and left behind
  The other side
  in a sense unfinished, even though it consists of thousands of individual cartoons that can all be viewed in isolation.

Gary Larson, creator of The other sideonce gave a fantastic account of the natural overlap between his work as a cartoonist and the travails of prose writers, fiction and nonfiction alike, everywhere – identifying what he called the “big difference” between the two types of artists.

Like Larson in The Complete Far Side Volume Twothe separation was only a matter of time. found that the production time for a cartoon is much more manageable than, for example, the time needed to complete a short story – let alone a novel or series of them.

Essentially, The Far Side The creator admitted that he was intimidated by the thought of “losing time” in the way, or at least to the extent, that writers often do. Interestingly, though, looking back, his entire body of work is novelistic in both size and scope.

Gary Larson on the big difference between authors and comic artists

Time is on the side of the cartoonists

Gary Larson argued that the length of time over which an author’s failure could have an impact was too terrifying a prospect for him.

Although he spoke with his trademark wit about the gap between writer and cartoonist—and also their many connections—it’s obvious that Gary Larson’s perspective on the difference between cartoonists and writers was rooted in the need to get work done. More specifically, Larson was self-aware enough to recognize that he needed to feel the creative satisfaction he needed from finishing something he started on a daily basis. Writers, especially novelists, know that this is anything but a given when they sit down to write.

Despite the many similarities between writers and cartoonists, They seek – and achieve – that satisfaction in different ways and, more importantly, at different paces.As Gary Larson put it:

I think cartoonists have more in common with writers than they do with comedians. The parallels between writers and cartoonists that come to mind are: loner, quiet room, favorite chair, hand puppet (just me?), and our trusty writing/drawing tools. But there’s also a big difference: if we screw up, we lose a day. If a writer screws up, they lose what – a year? Two years? Personally, I prefer a job where I might screw up my day, not my year.

Although Larson’s humor is evident here, as in virtually everything he wrote, he describes a very real fear shared by all but the most uninhibited artists: namely, the very strong, very daunting prospect of failure. As Gary Larson argued, the span of time over which failure could impact a writer was too terrifying a prospect for him.

A literary “what if?”

Gary Larson needed the short-term satisfaction that came from drawing cartoons, but his attention to detail and the range of his creativity were essentially those of a novelist.

Readers who are familiar with The other side will probably see in Gary Larson the potential to be a novelist had he chosen a different creative path in life. Larson’s idiosyncratic approach to life, the fluency of his ideas, his ability to take on a variety of different perspectives and character voices, and off the page his dogged determination to sit down at his desk at night and work – all this makes Larson one of the great “what if?” questions of 20th century literature.

Nevertheless, his contributions to American humor and pop culture cannot be underestimated; given the reach of The other side As a nationally syndicated newspaper cartoon, it’s fair to say that Larson’s influence exceeds that of literary giants like Don DeLillo or Thomas Pynchon, at least as far as the average reader is concerned. This is perhaps too close to putting them in competition, but the comparison is only to show that Gary Larson’s work has more in common with those authors than anyone ever seriously gave it credit for.

What separates these two creators is not their ability, but rather their patience. Gary Larson needed the short-term satisfaction that drawing cartoons gave him, but his attention to detail and the range of his creativity were both fundamentally that of a novelist. In some ways, cartoons provided Larson with the ideal middle ground between the long-winded satisfaction of prose writing and the complete immediacy of stand-up comedyThis allowed him to work quickly while maintaining a careful distance from his audience.

As an artist and author, Gary Larson pushed himself to the limit

Better burn out…

Maybe (Gary) Larson just believed in the maxim that “
better to burn out than to perish
.”

Of course, Gary Larson produced, apart from a few longer breaks, The other side For 15 years he worked on creating thousands of cartoons on a tight schedule. That said, his rejection of prose writing as his creative medium was by no means a matter of his ability to commit to a long-term project—and in fact, it’s possible that it would have saved Larson from the increasing burnout that eventually led to his retirement and the end of The other side as a pillar of the American comic pages, alongside greats like Garfield And Peanuts.

Gary Larson’s longest break from drawing came when he spent the entire year of 1989, working on reprints of earlier
Wide side
Comics appeared in newspapers instead of new material. Larson returned somewhat refreshed in 1990, although the comic only continued for five more years after that.

As early as the mid-1980s, Gary Larson had begun telling people that the hectic pace he was going through as a prolific cartoonist would eventually make him quit. Although cartooning routinely gave him artistic satisfaction by producing one image after another and sending them in batches to his editor, it proved untenable for him, as it did for other experienced cartoonistslike Jim Davis and Charles Schulz. But in the end, Larson may simply have believed in the maxim that “better to burn out than to perish.”

Great art is never finished, it is only abandoned – and the other side is great art

Gary Larson’s unfinished opus

While someone
Wide side
The panel may be great—hilarious, profound, outrageous, or a mix of all of the above and more—but overall, the full range of Gary Larson’s work is an incredible, ambitious display of creative prowess.

Another famous quote that is difficult to assign and comes in many different variations is this: “Great art is never finished, only abandoned.” This applies to The other side on both levels: the daily panel and the overall trajectory of Gary Larson’s career. On a micro level, any work of art created under a tight time frame and with a looming deadline is bound to be compromised in some way. Even if it doesn’t ultimately “harm” the art, it does have an impact on it.

In some ways, this can be a virtue; Larson also sometimes noted that finishing cartoons on time kept him from endlessly tinkering with panels and punchlines until they were forgotten. On the other hand, the pressure created by constantly confronting success and failure proved to be no less intense than the possibility of “losing” years to a failed novel. Ultimately, on a macro level, Gary Larson had to give up. The other side for the sake of his own mental well-being.

Fortunately, his hard work and success up to that point allowed him to step down from his post with a certain degree of dignity. there is something unfinished about it The other sideas even Gary Larson admitted afterwards. One thing is certain: While every Wide side Panel may be great – hilarious, profound, outrageous, or a mixture of all of these and more – but overall, the entire scope of Gary Larson’s work is an incredible, ambitious display of creative ability. In this way, The other side is undoubtedly an outstanding work of 20th century art.

Source:
The Complete Far Side Volume Two