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My mother used to drag me to the Hallmark store as a kid and she'd spend unreasonable amounts of time chatting with the workers and browsing who knows what. I t
by 7thaccount 3y ago
My mother used to drag me to the Hallmark store as a kid and she'd spend unreasonable amounts of time chatting with the workers and browsing who knows what. I think this was before I had a Gameboy and my only salvation was reading those Farside books. I both enjoyed them and was seriously creeped out by them. They also had Calvin and Hobbes which I adored.
- justworkout 3y agoThe creepiness is something nobody ever seems to mention about The Far Side and that's my biggest lasting impression of the comics. They're deeply unsettling and have a weird uncanny valley feeling to me. That's not to say they're bad. But something about them always has a tinge of horror to me.
- aksss 3y agoWell a lot of it is quite dark. One of my favorites being the jet pilots asking each other why there’s a mountain goat in the clouds.
- dspillett 3y agoSurreal humour and art seems to trigger a little of that disgust reflex that makes it feel darker than it might otherwise be, and it tends to have a dark tinge to start with. That Far Side is often just a little surreal can make this worse in an uncanny valley sort of way, also it often takes the sort of thing that might be a simple kid's joke¹ a step or few further which touches that “I'd have rather kept that bit of innocence, thanks” nerve. It isn't really that dark often² IMO, but it pushes your buttons and your head makes it so. Many people like that, some really find it creepy. -- [1] a simple joke for kids, not a joke for kids who can't get into Midvale! [2] except, of course, when it is!
- bell-cot 3y agoOh, yes - lots of unsettling, dark, and creepy. But within a kid-safe, G-rated context. And they're generally very cautionary (vs. any sort of pro-violence stuff). And with how good humans suddenly become at learning, when they see someone else make a mistake and immediately suffer the consequences...I'd even call The Far Side educational.