Talk:Gary Larson

Pictures in article

While I like the picture of Larson, why was the one of his home, taken by a Wikipedean so there is no copyright problem, removed? I think the castle part, especially the flag, is evocative of some of his cartoons and is therefore notable and encyclopedic. Is it considered an invasion of his privacy that he is known to value highly? Spalding 01:05, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)

whoever deleted the picture is a pedantic moron with too much time on their hands just like everyone else here —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.224.217.39 (talk • contribs) .

I'll bet you anything it was Knowledge Seeker. You won't believe how many images of mine he's deleted, hyperventilating over copyright issues, thinking that the world will end if one image doesn't have all rights released! I can't stand people like that--he obviously has way too much time on his hands--he has to if he can find time to stalk me and block me for every little comment I make on every little talk page that he thinks is "innapropriate". Hey, I like that--stalk and block! I think I've made a limerick! Scorpionman 20:34, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Then again, it could have been someone else, not meaning to insult anyone--Scorpionman 20:36, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

privacy

Since when do any public figures in North America have a right to privacy? User:Anthergene 14:10, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

• According to Robert Bork and others of his ilk, NO ONE has a right to privacy. Wahkeenah 17:23, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
  • I guess I need to go review my "Big Evil Book of Nasty Borkiness", because I don't seem to recall this bit.1Winston 18:22, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

• Have to assume/hope this is sarcasm. But it would depend surely on what 'public' means. People like politicians owe us some account of much of their private lives because it is tied to their credibility. It is their resume. But a film star or a book author (the latter more than the former) or a cartoonist owe the public nothing of their private lives. Their offering to us is a product of their imaginations. We don't rely on a knowledge of their private lives for our decision about whether we enjoy their "product". --50.68.140.76 (talk) 20:15, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Prehistory of the Far Side

I've just written almost the entire article of The Prehistory of the Far Side, and I've provided a link to it in the article on Larson. I wouldn't mind suggestions on it. Also, I recommend that the Larson article should have a list of Larson's books at the end, linkified if possible. marbeh raglaim 11:28, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Discoveries

Seems to be an attempt at vandalism... since I could not find any references about the discovery of the "Bozone Layer" and it had a large number of spelling mistakes... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ankon Ray (talk • contribs) 16:25, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Cease and Desist?

Is there any reliable information about the rash of Cease-and-Desist letters sent either by or on behalf of Larson? There's lots of webpages that purport to know someone who recieved a C&D letter, or that Larson is fanatical/obsessed with protecting his "children". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Halcyon1234 (talk • contribs) 06:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Why did he stop doing the far side?

Does anyone know? This was the readon I came to the page.

--> He stopped in 1995 because he didn't want his cartoons to become overly repetitive or stale. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.120.161.6 (talk) 15:08, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

The Jane Goodall incident

Has it been confirmed that the letter Gary Larson received in the Jane Goodall incident had actually come from the real Jane Goodall Institute? The way I understand the relevant section in The Prehistory of the Far Side, the letter did not come from the Jane Goodall Institute at all, and that it was a prank someone had pulled on Gary Larson. Any comments? -- leuce 15:10, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

All the information we have on the incident come from Larson and Goodall themselves, who have never indicated that the letter was a hoax. Potentially it could have been a publicity stunt crafted by both of them, but without any evidence to support this theory we have little choice but to take them at their word. In any case I don't think the stance of the letter was implausible, even if it was misguided. marbeh raglaim 01:22, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Having said that, I should add that I have had some doubts about the veracity of the protest letters Larson reprints in The Prehistory of the Far Side. Larson is a kidder if I ever saw one, and it's possible that more than a few of these "hate letters" are about as genuine as his purported childhood drawings from earlier in the book. (For example, am I to believe that someone really started an organization called the Cow Tools Fellows dedicated to solving the mystery of the notorious "Cow tools" cartoon?) marbeh raglaim 01:48, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

General Comments for page editing

The biography section and the 'Far Side' section are extremely repetitive. The should be merged or content taken out so they do not overlap so much. Iammaggieryan 22:53, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Biography

The biography section states that Larson graduated from high school and college in the same year (1972). Is this correct? 66.41.249.234 (talk) 03:03, 9 January 2009 (UTC) M

There's a Hair in my Dirt!

The section on "There's a Hair in my Dirt" says "It is considered the completion of a Gary Larson collection". What does that mean? It makes no sense. One could certainly buy it before getting all of the Far Side collections. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WorldAsWill (talk • contribs) 05:38, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Lutheran

Although Larson being a Lutheran is implied by the "Lutheran pages" stuff at the top and bottom of the article, I could not find any actual mention of his Lutheranism in the Article itself?Masternachos (talk) 01:17, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Dan - cause of death

This article - http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/9597 - says it was a heart attack, not cancer as stated here. 70.50.52.111 (talk) 03:31, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

He can't have died in 2009, because he is quoted in a CNN interview in December of 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/18/entertainment/gary-larson-far-side-return-trnd/index.html Gregorybard (talk) 04:57, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Dan is the brother. The enitre section of his brother's death seems to have been removed despite there being a page after the Jane Goodall story dedicated to his brother's death. Including a comic of what far side may have been like without his brother's influence. 2604:3D09:2276:C400:68BA:AB8:A2D9:F8B0 (talk) 15:55, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

Chimp attack

I added a reference to a 2002 article in The Spectator which mentions Larson being attacked by Frodo. Doesn't give the year that it happened. I looked in news archives but I haven't found contemporary news articles on it (the wikipedia article currently says it happened in 1988.)--Larrybob (talk) 07:52, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Retirement

I think that, seeing as Larson is retired, the infobox should reflect this. I shall change this, unless anyone objects. ☠ QuackOfaThousandSuns (Talk) ☠ 01:46, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

The Far Side - 2 remarks

2 remarks.

1. About "Themes in The Far Side", I think "Animals and other creatures were frequently presented anthropomorphically" is the main theme, and the surreal nature of the comics are a result of that.
2. the Jane Goodall issue deserves a section or sub-section of its own.

Thanks Kvsh5 (talk) 21:59, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Gary Larson Photo

Exactly how does this photo look ok? It's a picture of some sort of plastic mannequin. --Xyzzyplugh (talk) 19:24, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Have you seen any of his work? This image is perfect and from the cover on one of his books with essentially the same caption(although that might be considered a primary source and therefore not satisfy notability requirements). Besides, he's retired and the value to the article of a recent photograph is very small. Voiceofreason01 (talk) 19:33, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the photo was taken from one of his books. It's an obvious joke, as Gary Larson is not a plastic mannequin. So you think it's appropriate to have a joke photo in the article which is clearly not him? --Xyzzyplugh (talk) 19:47, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

conversation copied from here

I think that given the nature of Larson's work, the fact that this photo is from one of books with a caption identifying Larson and the small value to the article of having a more recent photo of Larson(since he is retired and apparently has no desire to be a public figure) that this photo is uniquely appropriate for the article. Perhaps if the photo caption noted where the photograph is from you'd be more comfortable with it's inclusion? Voiceofreason01 (talk) 20:00, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

The photo is a copyright violation as we don't have permission to use it, so it will be removed soon enough. If we had permission to post the photo, it would need to be posted as an example of his work, not in the infobox claiming to actually be him. Wikipedia is not Encyclopedia Dramatica, we don't post joke photos to make our articles funny. --Xyzzyplugh (talk) 20:11, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

While I rarely deal with copyright issues on Wikipedia, I think this image may be ok per non-free content criteria. Assuming there are no copyright issues, it would be far more appropriate to change the caption than to delete the photo entirely and leave the article without any images at all. Our job as editors is to build an encyclopedia and while that often means removing inappropriate material it is often better to use small changes to improve an article rather than simply deleting anything that at first glance we might find offensive. Voiceofreason01 (talk) 20:30, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

If you wanted to add it back as an example of Larson's work (and outside of the infobox, certainly) , I would not object. Although it would probably be deleted for copyright reasons. If we were to have examples of his work in this article, this photo would be an odd choice, since he is a cartoonist and not a photographer. Also, there is already one of his cartoons in the article. But I'm not too concerned over whether this photo is the best example of his work, I just want to make sure it isn't being posted in the infobox and being labelled as actually being him. --Xyzzyplugh (talk) 21:02, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Xyzzplugh, You are such a buzzkill. I'm going to go ahead and reiterate the question rhetorically-have you ever seen any of his work? The photo should be put back the way it was, and it does make unique sense in this circumstance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.176.148.72 (talk) 22:50, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Post Far-Side comics

I distinctly recall that after retiring, Larson continued to write the occasional comic. A couple times a year, the New York Times Science section would publish a new cartoon of his. Also, every year one new cartoon would be the subject of a multiple choice question in the New York Biology Regents (a standardized test generally taken by 9th graders in New York State). One comic featured a square paramecium being wheeled away into an ambulance while regular shoe-shaped paramecia looked on in horror. I could not find references to these cartoons online, can anyone verify a source and put something in this article? Yserbius (talk) 19:59, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

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Image of Larson

Photos of Larson himself seem to be short supply on the internet, although there is one here. So a free-use image may be difficult to find. There is a copy of a 1986 interview with Lynn Sherr on ABC's 20/20 on YouTube, but I guess this may be a copyright violation. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:25, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

New Website for Far Side coming, from CNN

It seems that Gary Larson is launching a new website for The Far Side. Here is a CNN article: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/18/entertainment/gary-larson-far-side-return-trnd/index.html Gregorybard (talk) 04:55, 19 December 2019 (UTC)

Age

He turned 70 today, not 69. The Mo-Ja'al (talk) 23:54, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

His birthdate (as cited in the article) is August 14, 1950. The age calculation is triggered at midnight UTC. By the time you read this it is likely correct in your time zone. - SummerPhD^v2.0 04:27, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

So this means that, for all readers not in the UTC time zone (or in the BST-1 time zone in Summer) the ages of all Wikipedia BLP subjects calculated in this way, will be wrong, for at least an hour ever year? If your lucky enough to live in New Zealand, all these ages will be wrong for 12 hours every year? That's surprising. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:34, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

How could it be otherwise? Even if the template could adjust to your time zone, it would have to do some backflips to handle where and when the subject was born and where the subject is right now.

The only compromise I can imagine would be for it to not display a calculated age for 48 hours every year. - SummerPhD^v2.0 18:04, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

Garylarsonus beetle

I tagged the sentence The Garylarsonus beetle carries his name. with a {{Better source}} back in 2017: [1]. As I said in my |reason=, that source (and many others others I've seen repeating this claim) doesn't provide any information as to who named it after him and when, or anything about the genus other than its name and namesake, and I also cannot find any such genus name in the literature about beetle taxonomy. I'm certainly skeptical that we should use "Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature" as a reliable source for this. The best sources I have been able to find in terms of providing specifics are:

Perhaps the ultimate scientific compliment will be paid to Larson by a Smithsonian Institution scientist who studies water beetles. Entomologist Paul Spangler said he is now trying to pick the perfect South American diving beetle from among several new species he collected on a recent expedition to name "larsoni" after the cartoonist.

— Hooper, Celia (April 19, 1987). "'Far Side' Strip has Smithsonian Rolling". Sun-Sentinel.

This exquisite specimen will be celebrated throughout the scientific world as the newest of 300,000 known beetle species - beetle garylarsonus. Museum of Natural History entomologist Paul Spangler is combing the darker, danker corners of the globe for just such a creature to commemorate the approaching extinction of the only cartoon on the funny pages he ever reads - The Far Side.

— Barry, John (January 23, 2015) [December 9, 1994]. ""Far Side" Fans Honor Cartoonist Gary Larson". Greensboro News and Record.

So at the very least this was only ever going to be a species of beetle, not a genus. And perhaps people took his intention to formally name a beetle species after him as a fact and just relayed that as such. He certainly intended to name a species after him, but I've been unable to find out if he actually succeeded in doing so. Not sure if we want to just strike the sentence altogether or mention his intention in doing so. Hopefully knowing it was a species and that it was Paul Spangler who wanted to do so helps people find more sources if they do exist. Umimmak (talk) 06:09, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

I've looked. It's a dead end, and it should probably be stricken. The story was written in 1987. The entomologist, Paul Spangler, had a long career until his death in 2011, (Google scholar seems to have the year wrong as 2010) and you would think he would've made something official long before his death. The original author of the news story, Celia Hooper, last published in 2014. I sent an email to the Smithsonian to see if they have any links or published info (to avoid WP:OR). MartinezMD (talk) 14:40, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Well I've taken the liberty of removing it, curious if you got any response from the Smithsonian though, MartinezMD. Umimmak (talk) 02:06, 13 June 2021 (UTC)

No response from them. :( MartinezMD (talk) 12:19, 13 June 2021 (UTC)

If nothing else, Garylarsonus, with an -us, would be against the naming conventions of zoology, even if there were already another animal species with the proper -i form of the name. It could be a genus name, but the way it's written out as "beetle garylarsonus" makes me think that somebody made a mistake.... for example, it could have been a placeholder name that was never intended to make it into the published story. It's worth noting also that twenty-one years between the original story and its update is quite a long time. —Soap— 17:45, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

References

Commencement addresses

Gary Larson was also the commencement speaker at WSU 1986- College of Science and Arts Charwkh (talk) 01:58, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

You'll need a reliable source to include it in the article and what made it notable. MartinezMD (talk) 13:14, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Ian and Sylvia videos

There are a number of videos on Youtube of the music of the Canadian folk duo Ian and Sylvia, the credits of which say they are the work of Gary Larson. IF this is the same person, they are certainly worthy of inclusion. Toyokuni3 (talk) 17:39, 1 January 2024 (UTC)