Paul BrownleeThis
There has always been some suspension of disbelief when it comes to turn-based games, but Ring Fit is the first one where I have actually had to take a several-minutes break due to the intensity of what I was personally trying to accomplish. It turns out that turbonerds may not have been the solution humanity was looking for.
Paul BrownleeAttn: Mike
Gotta love this little prank hack that Jeremy Yoder spotted on his run through the park a couple of days ago. Someone has turned an outdoor utility enclosure into a Star Trek Holodeck interface.
Too bad the images are blurry. In case you can't read the "screen," it says:
Early C21 Outdoor
"Los Angeles City Park"
Survival Mode
[UNREADABLE, version 7]
Spotted something odd on my run through the park tonight and ... I guess I have good news and bad news pic.twitter.com/kPQ8goygfW
— Jeremy Yoder
(@JBYoder) July 18, 2020
Update: According this this Tweet (from an account that appears to no longer be there), this guy takes responsibility for putting these signs in the park.
Image: Screengrab
A driver plowed through the Sears entrance of the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois this afternoon. The driver then continued on through the mall, destroying several kiosks and damaging storefronts before stopping.
Police have taken the driver into custody and so far, no injuries have been reported.
Twitter user @nipsfalloff posted this video from inside the mall:
So this just happened at Woodfield. I’m safe. Jesus Christ pic.twitter.com/fOfhtPkWvr
— ronin (@nipsfalloff) September 20, 2019
Stores At Woodfield Mall Placed On Lockdown (CBS2 Chicago) (Photo: Facebook Live screenshot/WGN-TV)
Paul BrownleeAh, yes. One of the more famous (imfamous?) issues of Doom Patrol.
Paul BrownleeNice
Paul BrownleeFun
Artist Tommy Siegel draws clever and funny comics featuring candy hearts that resonate very well with people because they show our honest feelings which we might be scared to share with others. A lot of us would probably agree that we have had some of these thoughts running through our minds at least once or twice in our lives. Did he miss an important example that you have experienced? Tell us in comments!
Following multiple Gearbox teases, the ESRB has released a rating for a Borderlands Game of the Year edition for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
The post Borderlands Game Of The Year ESRB Rating Appears For The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, And PC appeared first on Siliconera.
Host Kate Murphy—a 2018 Mercury Genius of Comedy as well as a delightful, goddamn hoot—will be joined by a freaking juggernaut of top comedy talent including Ben Harkins, Stephanie Patricio, and VERY SPECIAL GUEST Dino Stamatopoulos, a fantastic writer/comedian best known for playing Alex "Star-Burns" Osbourne on Community and as a writer for Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And he's also the creator of one of my personal fave animated shows ever, Moral Orel. I AM VERY PLEASED TO HAVE HIM ON THIS SHOW! So hurry up and get your tickets here!
Feeling lucky? Then fill out the widget thingy below for the chance to win TWO FREE TICKETS to this Wednesday's show! But get your tuckus in gear, because deadline for entry is noon tomorrow (Tues March 5)!
Paul BrownleeYes. This is actually real.
Paul BrownleeWelp, that leaves Iron Fist S2, Daredevil S3, Punisher S2, and Jess Jones S3 to finish Mike (did I miss any?)
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Paul Brownleecool
Aren't they beautiful? Here's how 'ghost apples' formed on this apple tree in West Michigan.
Ice forms on rotting apples, and as the apples decay, they slide down and out of the ice that is left behind hanging off the apple tree branches.
There's a longer explainer here:
Andrew Sietsema sent in photos of the hollow ice apples to ReportIt late Wednesday night. He said he came across the interesting formations while pruning apple trees earlier that day.
Sietsema said the freezing rain coated rotting apples, creating a solid icy shell around them. When he pruned the trees, they would shake, causing many of the frozen apples to fall off, ice and all. However with a few of them, the mush slipped out of the bottom of the ice casing, leading to a "ghost apple."
Sietsema the temperature provided the perfect recipe: it was cold enough for the ice to remain, but warm enough for the apples to turn to complete mush, since apples have a lower freezing point than water.
Sietsema said Jonagolds are one of his favorite apple varieties, "but we'll call these Jonaghosts."
PHOTOS by Andrew Sietsema, shared courtesy of WOOD TV 8 of Michigan, via their Facebook page.
Paul BrownleeAlways love seeing these
In this funny parody series entitled “Men-Ups”, photographer Rion Sabean captured men in stereotypical pin-up poses typically associated with women. The series was so successful that it even spawned a calendar which promptly sold-out.
Paul BrownleeWell, this could make the Mike/Paul John visits easier, assuming we are still in the same area. Also, I'll be in my 50's
Oregon, Washington and British Columbia governments are hoping to take a far-flung vision of bullet trains spanning the region and turn it into a reality by 2035.
Imagine stepping on a train in Portland at noon and stepping off about two hours later in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Passengers would whiz past Seattle in less than an hour.
Oregon, Washington and British Columbia governments are hoping to take that far-flung vision and turn it into a reality by 2035. High-level transportation officials from each will meet Tuesday for a second discussion this year about what a so-called ultra-high-speed rail line connecting the three cities would look like.
The rail discussion is in its infancy, but the governments hope to work with private companies to set the groundwork for bullet trains in what they are calling the "Cascadia megaregion." Government, business and academic leaders are hosting the annual Cascadia Innovation Corridor conference in Vancouver this week.
No ultra high-speed trains currently operate in the U.S. The fastest train, Amtrak's Acela Express, hits maximum speeds of 154 miles per hour but averages about half that speed on its route between Washington D.C. and Boston.
Amtrak's Cascades route already connects Portland and Vancouver via the passenger rail network, but it runs only four times each day between Portland and Seattle and infrequently to Canada.
According to an initial report from the Washington Department of Transportation released in February, the Cascadia route could cost $25 billion to more than $40 billion to build.
Who would pay for the mega project remains unclear, but it could be a public-private partnership.
Gov. Kate Brown called the effort the first of its kind for the region. "It brings together public and private partners such as Microsoft to build the business case and make it a reality," she said in a statement. "This could provide big returns for the State of Oregon and a much-needed transportation option."
Cascadia is one of what planners say are 11 megaregions in the country, those geographic swaths with shared economies, infrastructure and ecosystems. The region is already connected by its "educated and skilled workforce, similar public policies, academic institutions and a culture of innovation," according to the report, but as of yet the economics have been disconnected. With population in the three cities expected to hit a collective 11.2 million by 2040, the governments believe a high-speed rail connection would bridge that economic gulf.
The freeway network is expected to hit capacity, and "speed constraints limit regional mobility, and economic development and global competitiveness."
One option could be a magnetic-levitation train with speeds greater than 250 miles an hour, with seven stations between Vancouver and Portland. One route would put the station at the Rose Quarter Transit Center, others would place the station at Portland International Airport.
According to an economic feasibility analysis, paid for by Microsoft and published earlier this year, the plan could create 38,000 construction jobs for a decade, driving an estimated $29 billion in labor income. The analysis indicated the rail network would require a workforce of 3,000 employees to operate.
The rail project, a long-standing dream for transit leaders, re-emerged two years ago as a talking point of ways to boost regional economic partnerships.
Janet Matkin, Washington Department of Transportation's rail communications manager, said a more in-depth study is underway. That study should shed more light on potential travel times, but estimates show it would take less than an hour to get from Portland to Seattle.
"The business case study currently being conducted will re-look at all station options to identify costs, ridership, economic impacts, and other factors that will be used to evaluate the viability of this project," Matkin said in an email.
-- Andrew Theen
atheen@oregonian.com
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen
Paul BrownleeAgree?
If you were to ask a group of experts in various entertainment segments to point to a single year as the greatest in medium’s history, you’d likely get a slew of different answers with different rational. For example, when it comes to film, there’s no clear agreement between critics and film buffs about a particular year you can point to as being objectively superior in terms of the releases compared to other candidates. Dates sometimes thrown around include 1993- the year Schindler’s List, Philadelphia, The Fugitive, The Piano, Jurassic Park, Groundhog Day, Sleepless in Seattle, Rudy, Cool Runnings and The Sandlot came out; 1984, which saw the release of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Karate Kid, Footloose, Gremlins, Terminator and Beverly Hills Cop; and even, oddly, some suggesting 2013, which saw the release of the likes of 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, and Frozen…
In fact, the closest you can get to a loose consensus amongst film critics in term of a definitive best year in film is 1939 which saw the release of Gone with the Wind, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
In contrast, when it comes to video games, while there’s always room for debate in these things and you’re never going to get universal agreement, critics and gaming historians tend to have a far more cohesive answer- usually pointing firmly to 1998 as being the greatest, or perhaps more aptly, most influential year for the medium as it stands today.
The reasons given vary somewhat, but the argument generally starts with the astonishing number of extremely influential games that were simultaneously successful from both a critical and commercial standpoint and how these games increased the perception of video games in the sphere of media and entertainment as a whole. It’s also pointed out that several titles that year launched some of the most influential game making companies from then ’til now. 1998 was also arguably the year where 3D interfaces finally matured to the point where they added to gameplay, instead of so often detracting.
So what games came out that year? To begin with we have The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which is often put forth as one of the best video games ever made. Next up we have Resident Evil 2, which shattered the previous record for sales on opening weekend and spawned dozens of pieces of spin-off media including a film series where Milla Jovovich karate kicks zombies. Following that, there was Pokemon Red and Blue, a game series which is now a literal globe-spanning merchandising behemoth.
In addition to this, the year also saw the release of smaller, perhaps less well-known games that are considered classics today including Spyro the Dragon, Banjo-Kazooie, F-Zero X, Parasite Eve, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango and the author of this piece, Karl Smallwood of Fact Fiend fame’s, personal guilty pleasure, the skeleton adventure simulator MediEvil.
In regards to commercial success, 1998 also saw the release of one of the best selling fighting games of all time in Tekken 3 (which sold over 8 million copies), the best selling driving games in Gran Turismo (which sold in excess of 11 million copies worldwide) and a Crash Bandicoot game that sold 7 million copies.
Critically speaking, 1998 was a year when at least half a dozen contenders for the title of “best videogame of all time” were released, at least going by their consistent placing on lists ranking this. Examples include the aforementioned Grim Fandango, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Resident Evil 2, along with titles we haven’t yet mentioned like Half-Life, Rainbow Six, Baldur’s Gate, Thief, StarCraft and Metal Gear Solid- all of which received perfect or near perfect ratings on release and continue to receive critical praise to this day.
Singling out specific games there, some of the most influential to the medium as a whole include Half-Life which critics generally consider to be the definitive first person shooter (a dominant genre in the market today) and Metal Gear Solid which set a bar for storytelling and player interaction few games have managed to top since.
Culturally you have games like StarCraft which was so ingrained in the fabric of South Korean society at the apex of its popularity that the country’s Air Force had a professional StarCraft team and millions would regularly watch games that were televised from massive stadiums. Today “esports” as they’re known are a massive, billion-dollar business that owes much of its success to the groundwork laid out by games like StarCraft and the cult-like following they had in a time before social media and ubiquitous access to the internet.
Similarly you have the aforementioned Pokemon Red and Blue which were the first games in the Pokemon franchise- a franchise so massive you may remember that a mobile game evoking the nostalgia of that original game was a literal global phenomenon in 2016.
In terms of these influential games released in 1998, the site Gamespot perhaps sums up most succinctly:
“1998 was a year of firsts. The first narrative-driven shooter. The first three-dimensional Legend of Zelda game. The first modern stealth simulator. The first Japanese role-playing game that would drive us to catch them all. The first game to emulate cinematic techniques and direction. And the first RPG from a developer that has now become the genre’s leader.”
1998 also saw a significant boost in perception of this form of entertainment as a matured medium, with, for example, Shigeru Miyamoto (the creator of Mario) being recognised by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for his contributions to the world of entertainment, being the first official inductee into their Hall of Fame.
Of course, this being the internet there are always those who disagree with the experts who assert that 1998 was the best year in gaming history. So what do you think? Was there a better or more influential year in gaming history?
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
The post The Greatest Year in Gaming History appeared first on Today I Found Out.
Paul BrownleeAttn: Mike
Oh, wonder of wonders: Our first look at Spelunky 2 gameplay has arrived! And you can play it this weekend in the PlayStation booth at PAX West!
If you never played the original Spelunky, you missed one of the greatest platform games of all time. It’s a remarkably hard act to follow, but it looks like Mossmouth and Blitworks are bringing out the big guns. Rideable mounts! Online multiplayer! And a lush visual overhaul that retains the simple beauty of Spelunky while adding in visual flourishes like gloopy new liquid effects and particles out the wazoo.
We caught up with Derek Yu, creator of Spelunky, to learn more about what’s in store when Spelunky 2 launches sometime next year.
Left to right: Ana Spelunky, Margaret Tunnel, Colin Northward, Roffy D. Sloth
PlayStation.Blog: So, first things first: What is Spelunky 2?
Derek Yu: Spelunky 2 is the sequel to the roguelike platformer Spelunky and takes place after the events of the original game. Since Spelunky 1 was released a lot of great roguelike-inspired games have come out and pushed the genre in cool new directions, but I think Spelunky is still very unique in terms of the freedom it offers the player and the way different elements interact, where one event can trigger a cascade of consequences that have to be dealt with. That’s something we’ve been building on – not just adding lots of new things (which we’re doing!), but also making the world feel even more interconnected. And that includes storytelling (both developer-created and player-created) as well as game mechanics.
PSB: I understand this game is very, very different from Spelunky 1 – why? What guided that decision? Why not be safe and just do another like he already did?
DY: At its core, Spelunky 2 is not too different, actually. My opinion about sequels is that they are extensions of the previous games, so I want fans of Spelunky 1 to jump in and feel like they’re playing a continuation, both storywise and mechanically. The big question on my mind was “What makes Spelunky, Spelunky?” I wanted to figure out what those ideas were and take them to their limit without anything getting in their way. Sometimes that means adding, sometimes that means remixing – it can also mean subverting expectations created by the original game.
PSB: What will Spelunky fans “get” about the game right away? What’s similar? What’s different?
DY: I think they’ll immediately get into the flow of playing the game. Which is great, because with Spelunky 1 we had a hard time explaining that to people. Now that they get it, we can spend more time making the experience deeper and richer. There are a lot of differences that, when added up, really make the game feel different. For example, each level will have a second layer that you can go back and forth between. Sometimes the entrance is right there and sometimes it’s a hidden shortcut. Even though the gameplay is still 2D platforming, this adds a feeling of a third dimension to the exploration.
We’ve also added liquid physics that are really fun to play with – combined with the destructible terrain you get things like dynamic water or lavafalls that you have to deal with on each run. The world breathes more. And then there’s all the expected new areas, items, monsters, and traps. It really is a lot.
I’m still very much thinking about new players, though. But my philosophy has always been to attract new players by making the world more interesting and inviting instead of focusing on tutorials and things like that. Spelunky is still Spelunky and it will be very challenging – my hope is that new players will want to persevere because we made the effort worth it. Spelunky 2 will have very strong themes of family and friendship and I want new players to feel cared for even as we put tough obstacles in their way.
PSB: Are the levels randomized? That’s super hard to do; what was the approach?
DY: The approach is the same as with Spelunky 1 where we generate a “safe” path to the exit using room templates. However, with new features like the second layer we’re finding lots of surprising new ways we can make random level design even more interesting. As I said before, it feels like there’s a new dimension to it. And BlitWorks is doing the programming on Spelunky 2 and has built tools for creating and testing levels that we didn’t have the resources to build the first time around. It’s been a lot of fun going back “into the lab” with our previous experience and a lot of new technology.
PSB: How is the flow/pace? How does that change when moving to this new gameplay style?
DY: To me it feels more fast-paced but also more expansive. I imagine that runs may take a little bit longer beginning to end, but the main goal is not extending the game’s length but making the stories that emerge even more rich and personal.
PSB: Is it safe to assume there will be lots of secrets?
DY: Oh, of course!
Paul BrownleeUnderstandable, like every one else, he just had to get his anime romance game fix.
Paul BrownleeSheesh, tiny holographic wives are pretty high maintenance.
Gatebox's Boku no Yome (“My Wife”) has been released in mass production for 150,000 yen (US$1,352). The holographic character stands about 8 inches tall and talks to her husband from behind a cylindrical plastic barrier. In addition to the upfront cost for Boku no Yome, husbands must pay a subscription fee of 1,500 yen (US$13.52) per month to keep their wife from getting outdated.
Image: Gatebox
Paul BrownleeAttn: Mike
We wanted to provide advance notice to our PlayStation Vue customers about an upcoming price change to PS Vue’s multi-channel plans. Starting July 24, 2018, the price for all PS Vue multi-channel plans – Access, Core, Elite and Ultra – will increase by $5. Current subscribers will see this change reflected on their billing cycle after July 31, 2018. PS Vue’s add-ons and standalone channels will not be affected by this price change.
At PlayStation, we are always evaluating the PS Vue service to ensure we are providing a compelling value to our customers. Unfortunately, we must increase the price of our multi-channel plans to keep pace with rising business costs and enable us to continue offering a better way to watch the best in live sports, entertainment, and news.
PS Vue customers will continue to enjoy the rich features that come with their monthly plan, including an industry-leading five simultaneous streams, powerful cloud-based DVR, and unique features, such as multi-view on PS4 – all at no extra cost. Customers will also continue to experience one of the most robust line-ups of channels from top networks such as Discovery, AMC, Disney/ESPN, HGTV, Food Network and Turner, as well as local broadcast stations and sports league networks. We’ll also continue to offer standalone channels without the need of a multi-channel plan, such as HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and more.
We vow to continue providing exceptional service to our customers, with plans to add more broadcast stations and content that resonates with fans, as well as ongoing feature enhancements. PS Vue was recently listed as the top pay-TV streaming service by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, and our goal will be to maintain this positioning as we continue to enhance the service. As a reminder, if you do not wish to continue your subscription, you can cancel at any time, either on PlayStation consoles or online at psvue.com/subscription.
We thank you for your continued support.
...Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson will voice Bean, who, in the four promotional photos released by Groening on Reddit and the show’s official Twitter account, carries either a sword, scimitar or a pint of beer, suggesting no ordinary princess.
Bean’s sidekicks Elfo and Luci will be voiced respectively by Nat Faxon, who in 2011 won a best adapted screenplay Oscar for The Descendants, and the comic Eric Andre, last seen partaking in bachelor-party shenanigans in Rough Night. Supporting the main trio is a group of celebrated voice actors including Futurama’s John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, David Herman, Tress MacNeille, Jeny Batten, Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding and Lucy Montgomery.
...In a statement last summer, Groening described Disenchantment, which has been picked up for 20 episodes, as a show “about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you”.
https://twitter.com/disenchantment/status/999001971012112384
images via Netflix
Paul BrownleeNice if I had one.
While one of the best things about having a gaming-spec PC is the sheer freedom you have in input devices, it really does help to have a reliable, widely supported gamepad. My current go-to is the XBox One controller, but there might be another competitor on the horizon. You’ll have to opt in to the latest Steam beta to use it, but you can now use a Nintendo Switch Pro controller on Steam, remarkably useful gyro-aiming and all.
Paul BrownleeI have. Admittedly, it didn't seem this exhausting when I was playing it.
Paul Brownleecrypyocurrency fight
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Paul BrownleeAttn Mike - Part 2
Listen, Portland. We love you. And we love pizza. So the Portland Mercury is teaming up with our pals at Jim Beam, Tetra Cannabis, and dozens of local pizza shops to bring you the third annual Portland Pizza Week—$2 slices for everyone!
Here's a map of all of the pizza week locations:
Paul BrownleeGood read, the Far Side was one of the strips I loved reading during my childhood (and still good today).
For 15 years, Gary Larson took millions of readers over to the “Far Side.” Using anamorphic animals, chubby teenagers, universal emotions, a simple drawing style and a really bizarre, morbid sense of humor, The Far Side became one of the most successful – and praised – comic strips of all time. But like many cartoonists, Larson has remained rather elusive. In 1995 (about 11 months before the creator of Calvin and Hobbes did the same), he abruptly ended the comic strip – perhaps even a bit prematurely according to many of his fans. So, how did Larson get to the “Far Side?” And what was with his fascination with making aliens look stupid?
Larson was born in 1950 – in the midst of the baby boomer generation – in a blue-collar neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington. His father was a car mechanic, someone who didn’t mind getting a bit dirty, which was a trait he passed on to his two sons. Larson has often reminisced about how he and his brother would wade in the nearby Puget Sound looking for critters like octopi and salamanders, several of which would end up in his later comics.
As he explained to the New York Times in 1998, this love of wildlife has continued throughout his life. He originally was even a biology major at Washington State University before deciding that he wasn’t into all that schooling. “I didn’t want to go to school for more than four years, and I didn’t know what you did with a bachelor’s in biology,” Larson told the Times, ”so I switched over and got my degree in communications. I regret it now. It was one of the most idiotic things I ever did.”
Throughout his adult life, he was a keeper of exotic pets including tarantulas, African bullfrogs, Bermuda pythons, Mexican king snakes, and carnivorous South American ornate horned frogs. Also, through high school and college, he got really into jazz, both listening and playing. And he was pretty talented, especially on the guitar and banjo.
All of this is to say that being a cartoonist was not originally part of Larson’s career plan- he was never even terribly good at drawing. Unlike many cartoonists of his era, Larson says that he more or less fell into it.
In the mid-1970s, his jazz career was slowing getting better and better until he was passed over for a gig he thought he was going to get with an established band. Upset, loathing his job at a music store (establishments which are, as he put it, “graveyards of musicians”), and in need of money, Larson began to draw animals, poorly.
While at the aforementioned day job at a music shop in 1976, he drew one-panel cartoons featuring animals making pithy, weird jokes. Then, Larson sent them into local Seattle magazine Pacific Search and, much to his surprise, they purchased six of them for $90 (about $400 today).
He thought this was the easiest money he had ever made, so he kept doing it. Soon after, a small weekly Tacoma publication called the Sumner News Review purchased his cartoons – which he had now named Nature’s Way due to the fact that it was mostly about animals – for $3 a pop.
Looking at Nature’s Way today, one can spot many similarities to Far Side (which was still a few years away). The comic humanized animals, making them talk, banter, and act like we do. As for the humans, they were often chubby, goofy-looking and not particularly bright. In other words, it seems rather clear that Larson has always held animals in a higher regard than his fellow humans.
After a brief hiatus from publication, around 1978 or 1979, the Seattle Times gave Nature’s Way a weekly space next to the “Junior Jumble” puzzle, with Larson now earning five times as much per week- a whopping $15 per comic (about $50 today).
While a paid cartoonist, $15 per week isn’t enough to live off of so Larson went to work as an animal cruelty investigator for the Seattle Humane Society. According to a story he told Salon, on the way to the interview for the job, Larson accidentally hit a dog with his car…
To him, that was signal that perhaps this line of work wasn’t meant to be for him. (He also said that the dog ended up being okay.) So, on the side, he kept making his comics.
Trying to gain a second revenue stream, he drove to San Francisco in an attempt to sell Nature’s Way to the San Francisco Chronicle. Admittedly, it was a stab in the dark. He sat for hours in the reception area and later called in twice a day to see if anyone had looked over his work. The most he got in response at this stage was a bit of sympathy from the receptionist.
It was set-up to be a disappointment, but much to his astonishment, when the paper did finally get back to him, it turned out the editors not only loved his comic, but instead of running it weekly, they wanted it daily. On top of that, they weren’t just going to run it in one newspaper, but were going to syndicate it to start across 30 newspapers! Their only request was that Larson switch the name from Nature’s Way to one they had come up with- The Far Side.
As to that name change, Larson stated, “They could have called it Revenge of the Zucchini People for all I cared.” The point was that between the switch to daily and being syndicated, he could now make a living doing the comic full time.
This was a fortunate turn of events as that very same week the Seattle Times sent him a letter noting they were canceling Nature’s Way citing that they were getting too many complaints that the comic was weird and offensive.
If he hadn’t just gotten the deal with Chronicle, he later told Rolling Stone Magazine, that “I’m certain I would have bagged it all.”
As noted, the San Francisco Chronicle put the comic in 30 newspapers nearly immediately and quickly audiences took to the weird, morbid humor. Well, at least, some did. Through the comic’s decade and a half run, newspapers across the country got an assortment of complaint letters about the comic, mostly with people stating that they found the cartoon disturbing or offensive. Some said that Larson needed “psychotherapy” while others just wanted their “Annie” back.
In the early days, the San Francisco Chronicle editors, unlike the Seattle Times‘, simply didn’t care. They thought the comic was the work of genius.
But as for the steady stream of complaints, this always took Larson by surprise with him telling the Associated Press in 2003, “You start off thinking that everyone in the world has the same sense of humor as your six friends. I was surprised at just how upset some people could be.”
Among the massive fan base that The Far Side would eventually develop, interestingly scientists and academics were among the first to take to the comic, despite Larson’s frequent jabs at this very same group. For example, perhaps the most famous Far Side comic shows an image of a chubby boy with glasses and holding books attempting to enter the “Midvale School for the Gifted.” He’s trying to push the door open while it’s clearly marked pull. Or the one where a group of scientists are trying to figure out an equation only to be interrupted by the ice cream truck. Or this classic where the scientist realizes the glass he’s holding is lemonade and not a culture of amoebic dysentery. Next to him another scientist is casually sipping a glass of what he thinks is lemonade.
The strip also had a tangible impact on the world of paleontology. In an 1982 comic, a group of cavemen are in lecture hall being shown a slide of a dinosaur. The caveman instructor is pointing to the spiky tail of a Stegosaurus while saying, “Now this end is called the thagomizer…after the late Thag Simmons.” As it turned out, in real life, no one had actually given that part of the Stegosaurus’ tail a name. Despite Larson’s fudging of the facts (in actuality, dinosaurs and humans missed each other by more than 140 million years), paleontologists adopted “thagomizer” as the official name of the spikes on a Stegosaurus.
A decade and a half and over 4,000 comics later, with a new premise for each cartoon (as opposed to normal comic strips, which could extend a premise for weeks and use repeating characters to further simplify things) and Larson was burnt out. In 1994, he announced his retirement citing that he wanted to avoid “the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons.” The final strip was published on January 1, 1995 and it was different than any other Far Side. It was two panels.
At the peak of his comic’s run, it appeared in over 2,000 newspapers and, all told, Larson has sold over 50 million Far Side books; that’s not to mention the annual desk calendar version that Larson describes as tantamount to “printing money” every year.
Today, Larson lives a quiet life in Washington state, constantly maintaining that he wants to remain out of the spotlight. Among a few other projects, he’s gone back to jazz and can be sometimes seen performing in clubs with his band, and even the occasional wedding. While it’s been more than two decades since Larson retired from drawing cows, snakes, and chubby kids, the comic still resonates. Where else could you find out the real reason dinosaurs went extinct?
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
The post On The Far Side appeared first on Today I Found Out.
Paul BrownleeI guess that means buy the PS4/PC version. Some people will be mad, but I think I can live with that. DQ8 was my favorite so I'm hoping the similar style is a return to form.
Dragon Quest XI is arriving on PS4, and for the first time ever for the series on PC, on September 8. However, the 3DS version won’t be coming Westward at all, and the Switch version will arrive “much later.”
Read Dragon Quest XI Not Coming To 3DS In The West, Switch Version Arrives “Much Later” on Siliconera!
Paul BrownleeInteresting. Being naturally left-handed, I always assumed the buttons were on the right because you usually have more kinetic action there from pushing them. Most people's dominant hand would be better suited there. Turns out, it was all just to fuck with right-handed people (a rare thing).
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