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There are, however, more discourses loosed in The Far Side than those of the various sciences, and one of the most interesting and persistent involves Larson's fascination with film and the act of watching films. In the 2455 cartoons contained in the 14 volumes published between 1982 and 1992, at least 139 cartoons have clear intertextual ties with particular films, and some 27 cartoons comment on the act of watching films.1 The intertextualities range from Abbott and Costello to Zorro, from The Birds and Dumbo to My Dinner with Andre and A Man Called Horse -- some 45 films in all, ranging over nearly 60 years, and at least seven of his volumes' titles allude to films or categories of film -- for example, Bride of the Far Side, Valley of the Far Side, and It Came from The Far Side.2
Consider the pointed commentary and the wry humor present in cartoons responding to the handful of films to which Larson alludes but once. "Trouble brewing," in Wiener Dog Art (WDA 38b), juxtaposes two small businesses, Doreen's Nursery and Ed's Dingo Farm. Ed's nine dingos press themselves attentively along the chain-link fence, {50} intently staring at two babies in a playpen in Doreen's yard. Doreen herself, inside tending to seven other infants, seems too busy to pay attention to the potential problem evolving outside. An audience which had never seen the 1988 film, A Cry in the Dark, staring Meryl Streep and Sam Neill, might not immediately catch the full force of Larson's filmic allusion. In the film, Streep plays Lindy Chamberlain, an actual Australian woman whose infant daughter disappeared while the family was visiting Ayers Rock in 1980. The mother, who maintained that she saw a dingo running from the tent with the baby, was indicted, tried and convicted of murder and was not exonerated until 1988. Here Larson's allusion may be a bit oblique, but most others are not. For instance in In Search of The Far Side, his third volume, Larson has considerable fun with one of the more shockingly memorable scenes in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. In "'Get a hold of yourself! . . . It was only a movie, for crying out loud!'" (SFS 8b), a couple, undoubtedly husband and wife, is leaving a showing of The Godfather, as indicated on the marquee. That the husband has a horse's head and tail explains why he has been so much more affected by the film than his wife, because the cartoon alludes to the famous "Made him an offer he can't refuse" scene in which a Hollywood mogul finds his prize racehorse's severed head bleeding on the silk sheets of his bed. Elsewhere, "What really happened to Elvis" (NCTD 38b) pulls together two highly recognizable icons from film and life -- Elvis Presley and Norman Bates. The cartoon foregrounds the Bates Motel sign and silhouettes Norman introducing "our new houseguest" to his mother. Occasionally, Larson's allusion depends purely on visual effect, as when, in "Rexbo" (HFS 98b), Larson adopts Rambo's bandanna, crossed bandoleers and bazooka, which were featured in virtually every advertisement of 1982's First Blood, the first of the Rambo films. More recently, in Cows of Our Planet, Larson made the most of one of the more notable box-office failures, by showing "Hell's video store" stocked with only copies of Ishtar (COW 28b).
As is evident from these five cartoons, The Far Side provides a topical comment on, a critique of, a parody of and, as appropriate, an extension of the world of film, and Larson situates his cartoons in relationship to the films in such a way that the audience must close the gap between the allusion and the alluded-to. There are, however, clear patterns in his filmic cartoons, because Larson has returned again and again to a handful of films: dominated by Frankenstein and its spinoffs (30 cartoons), but also including Tarzan (20),3 Dracula (11), Wizard of Oz (8), Godzilla (5), The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Night of the Living Dead, and King Kong (4 each). Larson's interest in film and in {51} these specific films announced itself early in "Nature's Way." Intertextuality has been an underlying theme of the cartoons from the first. In his 1979 strip for the Seattle Times, Dorothy and her Oz friends knock on Frankenstein's door to ask if they might borrow a heart and a brain. With his monster glowering menacingly behind the door, Frankenstein politely tells the wanderers from Oz "try the wizard up the road. I just used my last heart and brain" (PH 31b). The Frankenstein cartoons which follow this one become more than allusions; they give shape to the creative nexus binding Larson to his creatures.
Certain assumptions guide Larson in the creation of his intertextualities. First, he settles on a key scene or a famous line in the film. Second, he exploits a visual cue undergirding his allusion. Third, he often imagines a "real life" for the figures in which their past, future or occluded present become available. For instance, what happened to Walt Disney's Dumbo after his circus career ended? Larson shows us that like so many other show business children, Dumbo took a turn for the worse; he became a rogue elephant and "terrorized the world's flyways" by buzzing landing jets (WDA 47a). Fourth, he grounds these bizarre beings and acts within the frame of the ordinary suburban world of supermarkets, restaurants and lawns, or he turns them into animals, at times visualizing Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart as snakes. Consider, for instance, the aging, poorly sighted, now cane-dependent, senior-citizen Wolfman who still responds to the pull of the full moon but, as he gets out of his double bed, his quite human and obviously long-suffering wife snaps, "'Well I just think I've been putting up with this silly curse of yours long enough'" (FS 73b). Most tellingly, though, Larson responds to films which feature creatures clearly outside common human boundaries but who retain humanoid shape and human needs: Frankenstein's monster, the creature from the Black Lagoon, the straw and tin men, vampires, the living dead, resurrected mummies or those who enjoy near or actual superhuman abilities such as King Kong, Godzilla, Tarzan and Superman.
If Frankenstein has become this particular type of adult, he must have been this particular type of child, Larson reasons, following the Wordsworthian idea that the child is father to the man. Thus, we glimpse the young Frankenstein several times: first, sitting on his front stoop looking like any adolescent boy -- shoe untied, cap askew, arm around his trusty dog -- only this dog's front leg terminates in a duck's webbed foot, stitches are all too visible on his body and a bolt pierces his neck (BFS 13a); several volumes later, we see Frankenstein, correctly named this time, remaining after class one day to write repeatedly on the chalkboard as punishment, "I will not play in God's domain" (WP 79b).
{52} Several details make it apparent that Larson's Frankenstein cartoons allude to Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Son of Frankenstein, rather than to Mary Shelley's novel. Specifically, the cartoons highlight the bolt in the monster's neck, Igor and the mob which assaults Frankenstein's castle. Actually the protuberances from the monster's neck are electrodes, not bolts. Jack Pierce, who oversaw "the creation of every monster Universal put on the screen from 1931 to . . . 1947," explained the costuming and makeup thus: "The two metal studs that stick out the sides of his neck are inlets for electricity -- plugs. Don't forget the monster is an electrical gadget and that lightning is his life force" (Lanza 918). Larson, like many viewers, remembers them as bolts. Thus he gives us Frankenstein, the headless monster, and a dog searching for the head, over the caption, "Blast! This cinches it! . . . If we ever find it again, I'm gonna bolt the sucker on!" (SFS 25a). Recently, Larson seems to have picked up on this point, because he has drawn a motorist helping Frankenstein jumpstart the monster by attaching battery cables to the "bolts" (COW 57). The mob of villagers, intent on killing the monster and torching the windmill from which the creature has thrown Frankenstein to his death, remains as an image long after the film is over for most viewers, and this image began to manifest itself in Larson's cartoons during 1987 in truly unpredictable forms. In Hound of the Far Side, it appears as a group of outraged neighbors, unmistakably armed with the weapons of the mob in Frankenstein, confronting a tuba and banjo duo (HFW 76b); next, in Far Side Observer where one member of the mob heading towards the castle has an inspiration for a business venture and just possibly the world's first franchise chain (FSO 93); finally, in a bizarre twist in Wiener Dog Art, as a mob of chickens, carrying clubs and pitchforks under their wings, get ready to confront the farmer whom Larson's domesticated animals delight in besting (WDA 108b); and, with an even more deviant twist, Larson has shown angry cows carrying a milking machine, preparing to attack their farmer. The caption reads, "That night, their revenge was meted out on both Farmer O'Malley and his wife. The next day, police investigators found a scene that they could describe only as 'grisly, yet strangely hilarious'" (COW 43b). Igor, of course, does not appear in Shelley's novel; however, film adaptations gave Frankenstein a laboratory assistant from the first, variously naming him Fritz, Karl and Hans. In Frankenstein, Dwight Frye, playing the hunchbacked dwarf Fritz, authoritatively established the servant as being physically deformed and, in the 1939 Son of Frankenstein, Bela Lugosi delineated the verbal and physical habits of Igor so powerfully that the name Igor obliterated all the other names.
{53} Both the character of Igor and the images from The Bride of Frankenstein have repeatedly appealed to Larson, who decided that humor could be created by imagining the monster and his bride in ordinary domestic situations. One of the most memorable moments in the 1935 film occurs when Elsa Lanchester, as the bride, covered with sutures and wearing one of Hollywood's most memorable hairdos -- but certainly one of Hollywood's most glamorous monsters -- jerks to life through electric shocks and then hisses, grimaces, clumps and screams through the rest of the scene. Larson recreated this scene for the cover of Bride of the Far Side, but substituted one of his ubiquitous cows as the bride, complete with sutures, a deformed udder and a truly grotesque shock of orange hair. A boy and a girl so literally made for one another, though, must have an ordinary life, so Larson shows us Frankenstein introducing the bashful couple as they sit warily regarding one another from opposite ends of a sofa (FS 93a), just as they do in the film, and as the wedding party -- "The bride, best man, and ushers of Frankenstein" (ICFS 40a) pose for formal photographs. Igor, undoubtedly the best man, stands to the left of the monster; to the bride's right stands one of Larson's most truly unusual beings -- a knife and fork for one hand, an elephant's leg and foot glimpsed beneath one trouser leg. After the wedding, of course, come the wedding dance and the honeymoon. In the dance cartoon, the monster steps on the bride's foot, which immediately tears off at the seam (US 97). On the honeymoon, we learn that the groom may have even more things to learn about wedded bliss and carrying new brides through doorways (ICFS 17b), since he is shown breaking the wall with his bride's head as he carries her over the threshold.
Of all the characters in the Frankenstein materials, however, Larson is most drawn to Igor, for whom he has created a life both inside and outside the laboratory. We learn that Igor attended the College of Laboratory Assistants where a hunched back is more important for admission than high grades (ICFS 20a) and that "his buddies" introduced him to the fine art of grave robbing (WDA 103b). We also learn that Igor yearns for life beyond the castle chambers, that he is extremely forgetful, that he has a playful side and that he is the one who truly needs the brain. Igor constantly misunderstands Frankenstein; thus we see him attempting to pull a train engine through the laboratory door while Frankenstein wonders, "'How long does it take Igor to go out and bring back a simple little brain, anyway?'" (SFS 50a); another time, he allows the monster's head to go through the laundry and shrink terribly (WDA 80a). Igor is so forgetful that he even misplaces the brain several times. In Valley of The Far Side, he inquires after it at a cafe and the cashier, {54} adorned with Larson's usual hornrims and bouffant hair, inquires nonchalantly of a waitress, "'Hey, Arlene! Anyone turn in a human brain left here yesterday? . . . medium-sized, sort of pinkish'" (VFS 65a). Once, as Igor holds a wolfman puppet before the about-to-be galvanized monster, Frankenstein shouts, "'Boy, sometimes you really are bizarre'" (ICFS 65a). Igor, though, can always vent his frustrations at the local bar where in conversation with two other men he complains that his boss "don't appreciate me either" (FSO 62b) and loudly calls for another beer. Originally, Larson had Igor telling this to a woman whom he was obviously trying to impress (PH 81c/d).
Nine of Larson's cartoons involve the rebukes Igor experiences from Frankenstein. For example, as Frankenstein tightens the bolt in the monster's neck, he turns to Igor to say, "'Fool! This is an eleven-sixteenths . . . I asked for a five-eighths!'" (BFS 66b). This is the single most important of Larson's Frankenstein cartoons, because it offers the key to understanding Larson's fascination with the Frankenstein materials. In The PreHistory of The Far Side, Larson confessed the autobiographical nature of this cartoon. He recalls working with his dad on "some mechanical project," but he was always giving his father the wrong sized wrenches. Thinking about the monster's bolts, Larson says, "sparked the memory of those stormy lightning-filled nights when my dad, with his own little Igor, tried to bring life to a dead lawnmower" (PH 78b).
Unlike Victor Frankenstein, however, Gary Larson has recognized, owned and nurtured his creatures. He, like Frankenstein, has brought into being an entire world populated by misshapen, bizarre, grotesque and wildly unusual creatures. He has said that he creates these beings "under the influence of nothing but coffee . . . I don't resort to current events4 or other stimuli. I don't read or watch TV to get ideas. My work is basically sitting down at the drawing table and getting silly" (Bernstein 104). He further told James Kelly, "'A strange juxtaposing of things takes place that I don't understand. It just happens'" (Current Biography 353). In the terms of the myth so problematically shaped by Mary Shelley, Larson has adopted the role of Frankenstein the creator, the power capable of generating an alternative world to our own and, by his own admission, Larson stands in awe of this power, whether manifested by Frankenstein in his laboratory, by his father in his shop or by himself at the drawing board, once "wedged in a corner of his bedroom between the copier machine, the stuffed warthog head, and the framed shark jaw" (Shute 114). Simultaneously, though, he has not outgrown that sense of being Igor as well. Larson needs the Igor figure to bring him the raw materials of the world on which his creative powers can then effect a transformation. In a very real sense, the Frankenstein
{55}
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The Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson is reprinted by permission of Chronicle Features, San Francisco, CA. All rights reserved.materials, transformed as they were by films, become the founding, the authorizing myth for Larson's Far Side.
Larson is fully conscious of the risks run by intertextual cartoons. In the "Subtle things" section of the PreHistory, he comments on "some of the more intangible aspects of cartooning" (PH 134) and offers one of his cartoons which he feels creates "that perfect marriage between the drawing and the caption" (PH 141). He notes of the cartoon, "visually, I wanted to capture the look and feel of a scene from an old Bogart film." The intertextuality may not be immediately available to his reader, but I think no one would miss his celebration of intertextuality in a frame which captures The Far Side's rise to prominence on the cartoon page {56} and popularity among the American audience. In it, a man shows his den to his date. Hanging mounted on the walls are the heads of Pink Panther, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Wile E. Coyote and Garfield (whom Larson has killed several times in his cartoons) and standing mounted are Bullwinkle and Rocky. The caption: "'Oh, for heaven's sake . . . They're only cartoon animals!"' (PH 71).
Tentatively at first but with increasing frequency, Larson has also developed a handful of cartoons exploring the experience of viewing films. This actually becomes one of the few motifs to undergo development in Larson's strip. Several immediate generalizations may be made. Whether they are insects watching "Return of the Killer Windshield" (SFS 38a), cattle watching "Cowcula" or the "Vampcow" emerge from his coffin (BRFS 28b), snakes watching the leading lady hiss at the leading man, "I'll come back to you, Sidney! . . . But I won't crawl" (BRFS 86b), dogs watching "Man Throwing Sticks," worms settling in for "Beak II" (WP 91a) or ketchup bottles upset by the onscreen violence of shattering another ketchup bottle (US 19a), the audiences are large; the theaters are full -- not an empty seat in sight and the audiences are intently watching the screen. Second, the theaters have individual projectionists, proscenium stages with curtains that obviously open and close before and after the feature film. Larson has frozen his movie palace at a pleasant moment in history before eight, ten, or twelve screens, computerized projection and supermarket lobbies became the norm. Third, the visual revolution of films has also moved from the theater into the privacy of the individual's living room, whether for the showing of amateur home movies, shadow play or triple-x rated films.
In the 14 volumes of The Far Side published to date, Larson has thus recorded his own interest in films, creatively filled gaps in their narration and fully exploited the intertextual interaction between film and frame. "Cartoons are, after all," writes Larson in The PreHistory of The Far Side, "little stories themselves, frozen at an interesting point in time" (PH 113). The many cartoons involving scientific matters may form the bulk of The Far Side world, but the subtexts reveal insights into his creativity and attitude towards his materials. Cartoons on film are one of the major subtexts but there are others -- fairy tales, fiction, television and, yes, cows. We must remember, however, that before Larson began to pen cartoons in 1979, he had attended any number of motion pictures and these have stood him well in his art.
2. See Appendices A, B, and C for tabulations of the cartoons, films alluded to, and a selected frequency listing.
3. It is quite likely that the Tarzan comic books influenced Larson more than did any particular Tarzan film. The Current Biography entry notes that "as a child, Larson also enjoyed reading Tarzan comics, Mad magazine, and Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book" (351).
4. Indeed, topicality figures little in the Far Side; however, Larson could not resist seeing the recent Chicago River flooding a number of downtown Chicago buildings as being anything other than the successful plot of a descendent of Mrs. O'Leary's cow.
Lanza, Joseph. "Frankenstein." International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Ed. Nicholas Thomas. 2nd ed. London: St. James, 1990.
Larson, Gary. Beyond The Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1983.
______. The Bride of The Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1984.
______. Cows of Our Planet. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992.
______. The Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1982.
______. The Far Side Observer. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1987.
______. Hound of The Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1987.
______. In Search of The Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1984.
______. It Came from The Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1986.
______. Night of The Crash-Test Dummies. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1988.
______. PreHistory of the Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1989.
______. Unnatural Selections. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1991.
______. Valley of the Far Side. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1985.
______. Wiener Dog Art. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1990.
______. Wildlife Preserves. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1989.
"Larson, Gary." Current Biography Yearbook (1991).
Miller, Thomas R. "The Far Side of Science." Natural History May 1989.
Richmond, Peter. "Creatures from the Black Cartoon." Rolling Stone 24 Sept. 1987.
Shute, Nancy. "Scientists Meet Their Alter Ego on The Far Side." Smithsonian 15.1 (Apr. 1984).
| Cartoons | Films | Watching Film | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Far Side (1982) | 204 | 12 | 0 |
| 2. Beyond TFS (1983) | 200 | 12 | 1 |
| 3. In Search of TFS (1984) | 200 | 11 | 1 |
| 4. Bride of TFS (1984) | 200 | 9 | 3 |
| 5. Valley of TFS (1985) | 200 | 9 | 1 |
| 6. It Came from TFS (1986) | 200 | 13 | 1 |
| 7. Hound of TFS (1987) | 187 | 7 | 3 |
| 8. TFS Observer (1987) | 175 | 14 | 2 |
| 9. Night of the CTD (1988) | 175 | 10 | 5 |
| 10. Wildlife Preserves (1989) | 175 | 7 | 2 |
| 11. PreHistory of TFS (1989) | 55 | 3 | 0* |
| 12. Wiener Dog Art (1990) | 161 | 13 | 0 |
| 13. Unnatural Selections (1991) | 164 | 8 | 4 |
| 14. Cows of Our Planet (1992) | 159 | 11 | 4 |
| Totals | 2455 | 139 | 27 |