It’s the birthday of cartoonist Gary Larson, born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1950. He sold his first cartoons, called “Nature’s Way,” to a local Seattle magazine, and it was later picked up by the Seattle Times. But in 1979, he took a vacation to San Francisco, where he showed his portfolio to someone at the San Francisco Chronicle. The editors loved it and wanted to syndicate it, though they wanted to change the name. “The Far Side” debuted on January 1, 1980, winning over legions of nerds and scientists and fans of anthropomorphic animals. When Larson retired from the strip in 1995, “The Far Side” was appearing in 1,900 newspapers and had spawned several best-selling books. Natural History magazine has dubbed him “the unofficial cartoonist laureate of the scientific community.”

The Complete Far Side 1980-1994

(Source: skydrive.live.com, via chocolatematters)