Gary Larson returns to “The Far Side” with new comics

Gary Larson, the cartoonist who retired his popular “The Far Side” strip on Jan. 1, 1995, has returned online with new comic strips.

Credit the digital tablet age with reinvigorating Larson!

As he wrote today in a letter accompanying the debut of new color toons, Larson said he bought a digital tablet a few years ago and, once he got the hang of it, discovered a newfound enjoyment in drawing.

The “New Stuff” that you’ll see here is the result of my journey into the world of digital art. Believe me, this has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I hail from a world of pen and ink, and suddenly I was feeling like I was sitting at the controls of a 747. (True, I don’t get out much.) But as overwhelmed as I was, there was still something familiar there—a sense of adventure. That had always been at the core of what I enjoyed most when I was drawing The Far Side, that sense of exploring, reaching for something, taking some risks, sometimes hitting a home run and sometimes coming up with “Cow tools.” (Let’s not get into that.) But as a jazz teacher once said to me about improvisation, “You want to try and take people somewhere where they might not have been before.” I think that my approach to cartooning was similar—I’m just not sure if even I knew where I was going. But I was having fun.

Well, go on. Dive in! TheFarSide.com.