The Complete Far Side Archive

Muddie writes "Amazon is carrying the complete works of The Far Side. Weighing in at about 19 pounds, it features over 4,000 cartoons, including 19 Larson made after retirement, letters from readers, and more packed into 1,250 pages in 2 hardcover books boxed as a set for about USD$95. My life is complete."

South of the Border

[Lane.exe]

The archive will be distributed by the feared Tyrannosaurus Mex.

Re:South of the Border

[NixterAg]

It was compiled by researchers at the Midvale School for the Gifted.

Buy book...ugh...

[cayenne8]

This book endorsed by Thag...

Has the 'Thagomizer' seal of approval.

:-D

Re:South of the Border

[red floyd]

I figured they'd use cows to distribute it.

Overstock.com

[Krackbaby]

Overstock.com has it for a little over $79 plus a couple bucks for shipping.

Re:Overstock.com

[Poeir]

What does it cost if you order internationally?

Referrer...

[Echnin]

Damn, now that's rude: using Slashdot to earn referrer revenue. Shouldn't the editors have spotted this? Oh well. Nice offer, anyway.

Re:Referrer...

[WTFmonkey]

What do those get per click, anyways?

Re:Referrer...

[ip_vjl]

What do those get per click, anyways?

From their 'associates' faq:

Referral Fees and Payment Schedule
Our online reporting conveniently keeps you informed of the progress of your site by tracking sales in a variety of ways. There are many ways you can earn referral fees via your Amazon.com Associate Links.

Depending on the number and type of products sold, you can earn between 2.5% and 15% on the sale of products sold through your links.

We pay you by Direct Deposit, Amazon.com Gift Certificate, or check

Re:Referrer...

[Neophytus]

Its anything from 5% to 15% per sale.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Referrer...

[vsprintf]

If it's just a normal Amazon sale, 5%. 2.5% for anything sold by another store or person through Amazon.com (like Target, Marshall Fields, Gap, or Marketplace sales). I think you get 15% for direct-linked books over $15. $20 for every amazon.com credit card sign-up.

-- Dr. Eldarion --

So do your patients get a discount for sitting in the waiting room while you're surfing Amazon and /. ?

Re:Referrer...

[rodbegbie]

Actually, the link in the story isn't a referrer link. No commission will be earned by anyone on it. Which is a shame, since you can get $15 for every copy sold.

So in an attempt to redress the balance, here's my cash-whoring attempt. Give ME your referral credit! [amazon.com]

Rod.

Re:Referrer...

[cgranade]

Pondering: Since the parent got +3 Funny, which is just enough to put it above most people's highlight threshold, will he actually get any money from that?

Re:Referrer...

[CustomDesigned]

I'd rather he get the money than Amazon, assuming I don't come across a more deserving link first.

Re:Referrer...

[Bombcar]

As you have a low UID, why not? :D

Re:Referrer...

[cgranade]

Nope:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740721135/ groovymother-20 /ref%3Dnosim/

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Referrer...

[rodbegbie]

No -- That's Amazon's internal click-monitoring, tracking how people move around the website.

Rod.

Re:Referrer...

[sharkey]

Shouldn't the editors have spotted this?

Slashdot Editors are to editing as Microsoft is to innovation.

Re:Referrer...

[rizzo]

While it may have seemed "sneaky", in the end, what does any of us care? We don't pay any more and if it doesn't go to this guy it would just go to Amazon.com of "One-click" patent fame. I don't shop at Amazon.com for that reason in the first place so I wouldn't have used his link. People should provide some links to other shops.

Re:Referrer...

[NanoGator]

"Damn, now that's rude: using Slashdot to earn referrer revenue. Shouldn't the editors have spotted this? Oh well. Nice offer, anyway."

What's the big deal? It's a book you want, right? Why not reward the guy who pointed it out to you? Honestly, of all the things to be annoyed by in the world, this is pretty low on the list.

Re:Referrer...

[nocomment]

Damn, now that's rude: using Slashdot to earn referrer revenue. Shouldn't the editors have spotted this? Oh well. Nice offer, anyway.

What's wrong with that? People who refer other people to amazon know how the system works and can remove the referal, and those that don't know, don't care. So what's the big deal?

Re:Referrer...

[Gudlyf]

Er, I'm trying to figure out why that's such a problem. You're pointed to a book by someone, you click on the link and buy that book. Why the heck not give the person some referral coin? Even still, why do you give a shite if he's making a few bucks on the side with a referal link? Methinks you're jealous you didn't submit the link before him.

Re:Referrer...

[Alien54]

This info on the book came out over this past weekend, and was featured in an article in USA Today on the 20th [usatoday.com], alonf with many other places if you know where to look [google.com]. I'm sure dozens of folks submitted the item since then, and even earlier [dmregister.com], but it only reached the smarter primates in the food chain today

but then, maybe this guy is a friend of a friend

Re:Referrer...

[cgranade]

Uh... amazon.com gets more money that way... you aren't fighting any establishment, you know...

"Noooooooooo..."

[Craig Maloney]

The sound of postal carriers everywhere.

Metric r00lz

[immel]

"Weighing in at about 19 pounds." That's about 8.62 kilograms or 84.5 Newtons

Re:Metric r00lz

[cgranade]

That's about 8.62 kilograms...
[lbs.]==[N]!=[kg]==[slugs]
The units of weight are Newtons and pounds, whereas the units of mass are kilograms and slugs (yes, that is an imperial unit...). Oh, and the [ ] means "dimensions of".

Re:Metric r00lz

[Bob Uhl]

How many French unit users actually weigh themselves in Newtons? Heck, even units equates pounds and grammes.

Re:Metric r00lz

[Theatetus]

Pounds as weight and slugs as mass are one version of the Imperial system; another uses pounds as a unit of mass and "poundals" as a unit of weight/force.

Re:Metric r00lz

[IthnkImParanoid]

The last time I weighed myself on a metric scale, it gave me the weight in kilograms. Should I say I massed myself instead?

The parent makes perfect sense, of course, because you can choose to correlate units of mass and units of weight as long the gravitational force is kept constant. Or did you think he was giving the weight of the book on another planet?

Re:Metric r00lz

[Mac Degger]

But only [kg] is SI! Don't confuse the poor JPL'ers who might be lurking here!

Wow.

[wankledot]

This would be a really really awesome Xmas gift, I need to make sure my SO knows about it. This is the equivalent of a boxed set of every Woody Allen, Monty Python, and Kids in the Hall. The Far Side is truly the best single-pane comic ever made, Larson is a genius of understatement and subtlety.

All we need now is a complete Bloom County with extra goodies.

Re:Wow.

[phoenix_orb]

Ask your Mom to get me one too :)

Re:Wow.

[sllim]

Complete Bloom County with extra goodies?
What rock do you live under?

www.mycomicspage.com
They have gotten permission and more importantly the artwork to run Berke Breathed's entire Bloom County run, in order, including Outland.

For $10, yes only $10 you get 5 panels delivered every other day, and every other day you get a Sunday panel. They take weekends off.

I have it delivered to my email at work. Gives me a reason to come to work.

When Slashdot originaly ran this people were bitching it wasn't free.
Sha

Re:Wow.

[dasmegabyte]

My compleat Monty Python box was $99 on Amazon too. Ah, the boom...

This article will come in handy now...

[night_flyer]

Amazon Hacks For Fun and Money [slashdot.org] to get around the reffrer

Re:This article will come in handy now...

[Valar]

Why do you care if it is a referral or not? It doesn't cost _you_ anything extra. Though it would cost you time to actually bother to remove the referral info.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Save some Dough

[akuma624]

Hey man its 10 clams cheaper at alldirect.com

Re:Save some Dough

[Savagemutt]

Hey man its 10 clams cheaper at alldirect.com

Please, no "B.C" references! It ain't been funny for over 20 years.

Re:Save some Dough

[DAldredge]

Not since you have to pay for shipping, it isn't.

Costco has it for $79.99

[Gavin Scott]

Picked it up at the local Costco here in the SF bay area the other day. They had a pallet-load of them for about $80.

Yes, it actually weighs 19.5 pounds.

G.

What's going on?!?!

[DocUi]

I keep trying to order that set and if i Hit the cancel button it won't confirm my order!

I don't know why! [d23.org]

~Docui!

Who get sued?

[onyxruby]

Does Gary Larson get sued when a significant portion of society stops working for about two days in a row?

Re:Who get sued?

[uberdave]

Maybe, but it works out to $40/volume. so he's still ahead.

Re:Who get sued?

[kalidasa]

Authors usually get 12% on the standard contract.

Re:Who get sued?

[hondo77]

SCO has patented not working so we'd all get sued.

on a related note...

[MarcoAtWork]

does anybody know if anything like this is planned for Non Sequitur? (my fave comic)

Calvin && Hobbes!

[Russ Nelson]

Okay, Gary Larson is fine, but I want my Bill Watterson fix!
-russ

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[Usquebaugh]

H: Bandits at 3 O'Clock
C: It's 2:45, what shall we do until then? :-)

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[scotch]

I'm a C&H fan, but this is a pretty obvious joke, probably been repeated in one form or another since pilots (or whoever) started using the clock face for position. Surely you can think of a better example demostrating watterson's quality? This one woouldn't draw flies to shit ;)

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[Nucleon500]

Verbing weirds language.

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[harks]

In his most recent book, he has long winded rants about the shrinking of the space available for comics. This quote was an example he hated of "throwaway gags" that are put into the first two frames of comics that can't have anything to do with the rest of the comic, because some of the newspapers wont allow room for these first two panels.

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[falzer]

Try this one on for size.

C: "I imagine bugs and girls have a dim perception that nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the intelligence to really comprehend the magnitude of it."

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[benjamindees]

Here's one [ucomics.com] that gives a good example of C&H wit.

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[scotch]

I think I love you!!!!

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[Jardine]

It's not a hard copy and there are ads on the page, but this [ucomics.com] might be the comic you are looking for.

Re:Calvin && Hobbes!

[elemental23]

And if you use an RSS reader, you can do what I do and get your daily fix by subscribing to the feed someone made of it:

http://dwlt.net/tapestry/ch.rdf [dwlt.net]

Bit Torrent?

[nurb432]

Its gotta be scanned by now..

Sounds like the Far Side of a hernia to me

[kfg]

"Honey, Where's the forklift? I wanna curl up in bed with my new book."

You could always put it on one of them permanent bookstand thingies that some people put Bibles on, which is kinda apropos actually, but I'd be sure to reinforce my floor first.

Otherwise you might be starring in your own Far Side cartoon.

KFG

Alternatives to Amazon.com?

[rizzo]

Some of us are still boycotting that joint. Anyone care to collect some alternatives?

Buy.com [buy.com] has it for $89.77.

Leather bound version 750?

[pstreck]

Did any of you guys see this [amazon.com]? Why on earth is the leather bound version seven times as much? I wouldn't even want to open the thing at that price.

Re:Leather bound version 750?

[u38cg]

That's about standard for leather bound books of this size/scale. The Piobaireachd Society collection(of bagpipe music), which is slightly shy of A3 sized and about three inches thick costs about 350, and that's only one volume.

Skins for bookbinding are pricey - I enquired about it once, and found that a normal (ie not top-grade) skin would cost about 80 minimum, and the actual binding work plenty on top. Bear in mind this is all done by hand.

This stuff is mainly for clowns who think they'll make a fo

Re:Leather bound version 750?

[aardvarkjoe]

Maybe it's $750, but it ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. That more than makes up for it, right?

Far Side Reference

[drivers]

Man, Far Side is so old. Anyone remember Cheers?

Woody: I don't get the Far Side.
Cliff: Well you see... [explains joke]
Woody: What I meant was the newspaper in Hanover didn't carry the Far Side but thanks for treating me like an idiot!

(paraphrased)

Re:Far Side Reference

[vistic]

I think the fact that it was in Darkwing Duck (which I never considered worth watching) makes it obscure for the most part. Not that the reference itself inside of the cartoon was hard to get.

He works here

[Camel Pilot]

I love the early Dilbert. I use to think my experience in corporate america was unique until I started reading Mr Adams strip - it was than I realized that my experiences were very similar to other peoples - either that or Scott Adams worked in the same building that I did.

Re:He works here

[Tancred]

How would you like to read a book by someone who actually did work a couple cubes down from Mr. Adams?

Check out You Got Nothing Coming: Notes From A Prison Fish [amazon.com]. The guy went to prison for voluntary manslaughter. No joke, and it's a seriously good read, even if it's not the kind of book you're typically into.

Brilliant, but..

[adeyadey]

Cow tools - what does it *mean*?

Searchable?

[3Suns]

So now the full text of ever far side comic ever is now searchable [slashdot.org]? Cool!!

Re:Searchable?

[jamesmrankinjr]

Do you remember the index in the back of one of the compilations? All the letters are entry-less until you get to "T" where you find "The one about..." for each comic in the book.

Peace be with you,
-jimbo

For the *TRUE* Collectors

[Chibi]

There is also a leather-bound collector's edition. Rather than have people paranoid about a hidden referral link, just look for it yourself. :) The title is "The Complete Far Side Leather - Bound Edition." $750.00 List Price !!

I don't get it...

[Gudlyf]

On the amazon.com page, it says:

Buy this book with The Far Side Out To Lunch 2004 Desk Calendar [amazon.com]

So if it's the complete works, shouldn't you already be getting the strips in the calendar??

Re:I don't get it...

[thebigmacd]

You ARE

Last time I checked you couldn't practically use a 1200 page book as a calendar.

too bad...

[MoFoQ]

too bad they don't have a DVD-ROM version, weighing alot less.

Re:too bad...

[Viking Coder]

Good call. Any time I buy a book which is for reference purposes, I get more and more angry all the time, that there isn't a CD-ROM that I can get with the book. Just a PDF file, and maybe also an RTF file, too.

buy.com has it cheaper

[neile]

Buy.com has it for $89.77 with free shipping [buy.com]. If you set up an account at fatwallet.com [fatwallet.com] and order through their referral link you can also get 2% cash back.

I'd love to see an online/electronic version.

[antdude]

Be able to search for specific keywords based on the captions. It sort of like Dr. Fun [ibiblio.org]'s cartoon online.

FarWorks, Inc.

[Tancred]

I used to work on the same floor as FarWorks, Inc. in the 2 Union building in Seattle. It took a few months before I realized that they were the Far Side people. They looked pretty normal. But I always had the urge to peek into the back offices, just like Bart Simpson on his visit to Mad Magazine. Ah, the regret...:(

Videos

[ShawnDoc]

Since retiring, Gary Larson has made 2 Far Side animated anthologies. I can only seem to find them on VHS. Does anyone know if they are available on DVD? Are they any good?

Wow.....

[NeoSkandranon]

...1,250 pages in 2 hardcover books boxed as a set for about USD$95. My life is complete.

Mine will be too.

Once i can afford it.

What's so great about Far Side?

[QuackQuack]

For some reason, someone in my family thought I was a Far Side fan, and I kept getting FS books for Christmas every year. But I've read the books, and each book maybe had one funny strip each.

I just don't find most FS strips very amuzing at all. It's not that I don't get the humor/punch line, I do, but I don't find it very humorous. Am I the only one?

Poop with more laughs!

[niko9]

Since I can't bring the PC into the bathroom, someone should approach Mr. Larson about producing some Far Side wallpaper.

Then again, can one poop and laugh at the same time??

--

Final Nail...

[euxneks]

It's kinda sad to see it go away now.. I mean, I really enjoyed the Far Side comics and now that this "complete" book has been released, with no more calendars, it just seems like the final nail in the coffin..

I guess it's sort of like how I'll feel when the LOTR trilogy comes to an end. =D

!Searchable

[mattr]

It would be useful to be able to keyword search the captions of all these cartoons so you could find appropriate ones for any given situation. Perhaps someone would provide a reference on line? Otherwise it seems utterly impossible to use unless you set up a whole learning infrastructure along the lines of Bible/Torah studies and have scholars dedicate their lives to studying it. Arguably profitable but..

Searchable Far Side archive via Amazon!

[Gavin Scott]

This is a late comment, so probably nobody will see it, but Amazon's new full-text search feature can be used to search for your favorite Far Side cartoons (and similar things). For example: go to amazon.com and enter "vampcow" as a search term. It will give you a link to Page 6 of one of the Far Side collections which you can click on and it will actually display the scanned page from the book with the cartoon.

G.

Re:take back your time machine...

[Gavin Scott]

Instead of working the extra time to spend $80 - $100 for this, just buy the 5 volumes at $5 - $15 (depends on new or used, paper or hardback) that are already out.

But the new version includes something like 1,100 strips that are not in any collection.

Also over half of the strils in the book have been very nicely colorized by various artists using watercolors, so even if you have the original (black and white) books, the new one is worth having too.

And the colored strips really do look quite nice.

G.

Re:take back your time machine...

[God! Awful 2]

Really... 1,100? That's surprising since the story said that only 19 were published after his retirement.

Here's what I don't get:

Customers who bought this book also bought:

The Far Side Out To Lunch 2004 Mini Wall Calendar by Gary Larson (Author) (Calendar)
Last Chapter and Worse: A Far Side Collection by Gary Larson (Paperback)

So if you just bought the complete Far Side collection, what are you buying all that other crap for?

-a

Re:Not searchable!?

[Anonymous Crowhead]

I think the old farside books had indexes with the only the letter 'T' having any entries. Each cartoon was indexed like this:

'The one about the chicken and the cat.'
'The one about the man trapped on an island'

etc

Re:Obligatory Far Side Quote

[nucal]

only if it was said by an alien cow ...

Re:Very cool, but...

[geekoid]

why, can't your linux run itself? :)

Re:Com Baaack Gary Larson!!

[c_oflynn]

has 1100 comics not in any other collection, so even if you have all the books its still good!

Re:Larson

[MrBlackBand]

Far Side is no Family Circus...

Thank God!

Re:Larson

[vistic]

My reaction as well....

Re:Larson

[GreyWolf3000]

I believe you're talking about the Prehistory of The Far Side.

My favorites among the section that got bad reader response was "Cow Tools," "Tethercat," and the one where the old lady nails wood onto her doggie door and beckons her dog, Fifi, to run straight into it.

Re:Larson

[Mattcelt]

I agree The Family Circus [hostdepartment.com] is very funny!

Re:Least funny comic of all time

[Nodatadj]

When I read the collections, there was usually something that raised a smirk every 4 pages or something, but no, I never rated it as a hilarious comic strip (unlike Calvin and Hobbes).

I do on the other hand rate it as a very important comic strip given that it did seem to push the boundaries of what was acceptable in cartoon weirdness though.

Re:Least funny comic of all time

[Nodatadj]

Oh, and also...surely "Least funny comic of all time" has to go to User Friendly?