I was born in 1989, a bit too late to enjoy most of The Far Side as it was published in the daily newspaper. However, I was lucky enough to have a grandfather who owned most of the collections; collections that I would read every time we visited, which would amount to quite a bit.
What truly made The Far Side memorable was that it was so different from the rest of the comics that it shared the funny pages with. It was brief, but never trite, it was non-episodic, but was instantly recognizable and cohesive, it was daring, but hardly ever frustratingly obscure. The Far Side made its own niche in newspaper comics, and was consistently funny for years. Best of all, Gary Larson had the foresight to end it in a suitable amount of time, rather than letting it stagnate; to run out of jokes or novelty or both.
Apparently not everyone got the memo. Go to any comic page you can get your hands on, and you are sure to find one or two absolutely horrendous Far Side knock-offs, which attempt to replicate Larson’s sense of humor or art style, always failing in the first case, and embarrassing themselves in the second. This isn’t to say taking cues from The Far Side is a bad thing to do, but plenty of comics simply try to be carbon copies, without taking into account what made The Far Side so successful in the first place, and that’s unfortunate. It’s also kind of baffling, since I can’ t begin to imagine imitating Larson’s art style for any period of time.
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