Debuting in 1980, The Far Side, a single-panel comic strip written and drawn by Gary Larson, was different from anything previously seen on a comics page. Its offbeat and obscure humor drew epithets such as "tasteless," "sick," or "demented," but the cartoon became immensely popular during its fifteen-year tenure, appearing in more than 1,900 daily and Sunday newspapers and being translated into seventeen languages. More than twenty Far Side collections and anthologies reached the bestseller lists and were available in bookstores long after Larson stopped producing the cartoon in 1995. The Far Side made its way to greeting cards, T-shirts, and calendars—including the especially popular desk calendars of 365 daily Far Side cartoons, which are produced and sold each holiday season.

Unlike other comics, The Far Side did not feature the same characters in each installment, although it did repeat types of characters. Farm animals, especially cows...