The Complete Far Side

Behold, it is here: the ultimate collection of cartoons by Gary Larson, whose “Far Side” revolutionized comics. “The Far Side” brought irony, non-traditional drawing styles and dry wit to the daily comics pages and inspired a generation of cartoonists, including yours truly, to try new approaches to the form. And now, for a mere hundred bucks, you can own an OED-thick collection of every single Far Side strip, a thousand of which you’ve never seen in another collection.

Many of the previously uncollected strips aren’t quite as funny as the ones you’ve seen in the calendars, T-shirts and older collections. But they’re still damned great, and they provide a better-rounded picture of the strip and its artist than the “greatest hits.” And there are a few gems you probably haven’t seen.

I would never go so far as to call a book that weighs 22 pounds “essential,” but this one is about as close as it gets.