The Far Side ® Gallery 4 (Paperback)

~ (Author), Robin Williams (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A new compilation of zany humor includes selected cartoons from three best-selling Far Side collections--Wildlife Preserves, Wiener Dog Art, and Unnatural Selections--and features more than twenty pages in full color. Original.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0836217241
• ISBN-13: 978-0836217247
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,706 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant cartoons from a gloriously warped mind, November 12, 2000

By	Michael J. Mazza (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Every one of Gary Larson's books has been a work of twisted genius, and "The Far Side Gallery 4" continues that tradition. A collection of hundreds of Larson's distinctive cartoons, this book will sometimes shock, sometimes mystify, but always amuse.

Larson's overall vision is a bizarre, yet oddly coherent blend of fantasy, science fiction, horror, theological speculation, anthropological/zoological observation, and cultural criticism, all distilled through the mind of a master parodist. His trademark technique--the anthropomorphization of the unexpected--is on abundant display in "Gallery 4." Larson's is a world in which squirrels read newspapers, alien juvenile delinquents abuse human astronauts, tapeworms go on vacation, bowling pins hold cocktail parties, and buzzards give poetry readings.

Larson will take on the most taboo subject in order to get a laugh, and he usually succeeds--often brilliantly. Trichinosis, obesity, conjoined twins, suicide, political protest, Native American culture, cryogenics, suffocation, old age, serial killers--nothing is off limits in "Gallery 4." Larson even makes fun of his own cartoon series.

Another of the pleasures of reading "The Far Side Gallery 4" is the fact that you never know who you'll run into next. Larson's deranged imagination captures a whole host of fictional and historical figures: Albert Einstein, Humpty Dumpty, Tito Puente, Dr. Jekyll, Stephen King, and many, many more. When the floating head of Zsa Zsa Gabor threatens the crew of the starship "Enterprise," you know you're in Larson territory.

The short foreword by Robin Williams (he describes Larson's vision as "a National Geographic special on Prozac") is an added bonus to this collection. For fans of "The Far Side," this is an indispensable collection; for those who haven't yet sampled the insane genius of Gary Larson, this is a great introduction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read With Glasses On Or Off But You Must Own This Comedy Classic!, January 15, 2007

By	James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Gary Larson has created the funniest cartoons in the history of mankind. Unlike other comics you do not need to read them in a series as each individual cartoon tells its own hilarious story in a stand alone fashion. Therefore you do not need to have read the previous volumes to enjoy this edition to its fullest.

Fourth in the series of Far Side collections, the 1994 originally released Gallery 4's cartoons come from the smaller books Wildlife Preserves, Wiener Dog Art and Unnatural Selections. This volume is forwarded by Robin Williams who gives a four paragraph opinion on Larson and his work. Far Side Gallery 4 also have a unique cover where the lenses of the woman's glasses have been cut out, meaning when you open the cover, still viewing the exact same drawing, the glasses are on their own on the next page. This however does mean Gallery 4 has the most fragile cover of all the galleries.

A mixture of four comics to a page and full page comics make up this volume, most are black and white but with the occasional coloured pages every now and then. Classic Far Sides in this volume include aliens with the moon landing astronauts in a jar about to shake the jar to see if they'll fight, the hospital for mothers whose children stepped on sidewalk cracks, the famous Mr Ed verse Francis the talking mule debates, punk accountants and many more hilarious cartoons such a chicken reading a sign on the other side of the road saying Why Do You Need a Reason?

This like all Larson's work is a must own!

1.0 out of 5 stars MOST TOXIC INK I EVER ENCOUNTERED IN PRINTED MATERIAL, November 2, 2009

By	Ben Franklin (Oregon) - See all my reviews

About one minute of exposure to the inside print ink (could be paper too, but was probably the ink) gave me a migraine within a couple of minutes, that lasted more than a 24-hour day.

I am severely chemically sensitive to multiple varieties of chemicals (mostly man-made synthetics), but was never exposed to ink this toxic, not in newsprint, laser copy, or anything printed.

It is printed in China, but so are a lot of innocuous books I've read. i.e. Maybe I just got a batch wreaking of shipping container fumigant or some other contaminant - who knows?

Plant-based ink doesn't bother me, but even petro-based ink never gave me a migraine this severe, lasting this long.