At the last minute, The Far Side's editor suggested making it a more conventional comic strip, featuring recurring characters, a move that would likely have doomed Gary Larson's career before it even began. Thankfully, Larson was allowed to " do it [his] way ," setting the stage for a legendary career that is still being dissected to this day.

In The Complete Far Side , Larson recounted a meeting he had with the " head honcho " of Chronicle Features Syndicate, the company that sold Far Side and other cartoons to newspapers.

Far Side, January 1, 1980, crabs look at human children and think they look strange.

Larson was lectured on the commercial and creative " virtues " of ongoing comic strips, as opposed to his single-panel style, but ultimately, The Far Side was allow

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