Here at ComicMix, we can admit when we’ve made a mistake — luckily for us, we don’t make mistakes very often.

Nevertheless, we want to inform you that we were caught red-handed this week, having posted a cartoon from The Far Side in our Jan. 1, 2008, post commemorating the end of the popular Gary Larson series. 

After receiving a "Cease and Desist" notice from FarWorks Inc., the copyright owner for all of the Far Side art, we’ve removed the Far Side art from the article.

However, while C&D orders are a fairly common practice these days and the letter from FarWorks was pretty much your standard fill-in-the-blanks notification, a message tacked to the end of the C&D caught our eye. It’s a form letter that looks to be authored by Gary Larson himself, explaining the philosophical implications of his stance against unauthorized use of Far Side art,  as well as an anecdote or two in typical Far Side form.

We’ve pasted the message here to save you the trouble of posting Far Side art all over your website and waiting for a C&D of your own:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

I’m walking a fine line here. On the one hand, I confess to finding it quite flattering that some of my fans have created web sites displaying and / or distributing my work on the Internet. And, on the other, I’m struggling to find the words that convincingly but sensitively persuade these Far Side enthusiasts to "cease and desist" before they have to read these words from some lawyer. What impact this unauthorized use has had (and is having) in tangible terms is, naturally, of great concern to my publishers and therefore to me — but it’s not the focus of this letter. My effort here is to try and speak to the intangible impact, the emotional cost to me, personally, of seeing my work collected, digitized, and offered up in cyberspace beyond my control. Years ago I was having lunch one day with the cartoonist Richard Guindon, and the subject came up how neither one of us ever solicited or accepted ideas from others. But, until Richard summed it up quite neatly, I never really understood my own aversions to doing this: "It’s like having someone else write in your diary," he said. And how true that statement rang with me. In effect, we drew cartoons that we hoped would be entertaining or, at the very least, not boring; but regardless, they would always come from an intensely personal, and therefore original perspective. To attempt to be "funny" is a very scary, risk-laden proposition. (Ask any stand-up comic who has ever "bombed "on stage.) But if there was ever an axiom to follow in this business, it would be this: be honest to yourself and — most important — respect your audience. So, in a nutshell (probably an unfortunate choice of words for me), I only ask that this respect be returned, and the way for anyone to do that is to please, please refrain from putting The Far Side out on the Internet. These cartoons are my "children," of sorts, and like a parent, I’m concerned about where they go at night without telling me. And, seeing them at someone’s web site is like getting the call at 2:00 a.m. that goes, "Uh, Dad, you’re not going to like this much, but guess where I am. " I hope my explanation helps you to understand the importance this has for me, personally, and why I’m making this request. Please send my "kids" home. I’ll be eternally grateful.

Most respectfully,

Gary Larson

You have our most sincere apologies, Gary. Sorry about that whole "kidnapping your kids" thing. It won’t happen again.

Not too long ago, I served as editor of a college newspaper, meaning I also headed up the editorial board that oversaw the paper’s opinion pages. More than a few times, the editorial board would be hard-pressed to come up with some topic worthy of bloviating upon.

I can only hope such a desperate lack of material was what spurred the editorial board of The Ithacan, Ithaca College’s (New York) student paper, to lambast the college’s leadership for choosing Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis as the summer reading assignment for incoming freshman. The editorial, in all its glory, is available right here.

An excerpt:

The idea of a graphic novel goes against the grain of typical required reading and may be welcomed by the incoming freshmen, who are part of a generation that has grown up in a world of fragmented cultures of television news, video games and the Internet.  But by coincidence, the selection of “Persepolis” comes soon after a November study by the National Endowment for the Arts indicating declined reading comprehension levels in young adults. 

Perhaps the selection of a graphic novel was an effort to engage members of a generation that seem to have lost an appetite for literature. But at some point, this idea of catering to different tastes only furthers the declining reading comprehension. Graphic novels are little more than advanced comic books. The thematic material of this book is worth broaching but its literary value, in terms of building vocabulary and furthering comprehension, falls short.

I think a lot of us working in comics have seen signs that the medium is making some pretty great strides in terms of general recognition and acceptance, but this editorial serves as a reminder that some people still need convincing. "Graphic novels are little more than advanced comic books"? There’s a lot of ignorance in that statement.

How about, instead of writing angry screeds against these college kids, instead we offer to send them a copy of Persepolis (I’d say it’s a safe wager that whoever wrote this editorial hasn’t read the book) as well as a collection of the numerous recent news articles about schools and libraries using comic books to effectively encourage reading among children.

Peter Gross has been working in comics since the 1990s, when he self-published the black-and-white series Empire Lanes. He’s best known for his work on DC’s Books of Magic and Lucifer but he also did artwork for Marvel’s Dr. Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Hellstorm: Prince of Lies lines and for Dark Horse titles Chosen and The Mask: The Hunt for Green October. Gross also taught at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, where he helped set up a comic art program.

Cully Hamner has done art on such series as The Authority, Green Lantern, Uncanny X-Men, and Spider-Man. These days he’s best known for his work on the relaunched Blue Beetle series for DC, initially written by Keith Giffen.

In all honesty, I might never have encountered Rene Engström’s excellent webcomic Anders Loves Maria if it wasn’t for the following recommendation:

I didn’t think there’d ever be a good, heartfelt character development that took place while characters were naked & having teh buttsecks.

It felt necessary to include that quote, because now that I’ve spent some time with Anders Loves Maria, I realize that it really sums up one of the most impressive attributes of Engström’s daily strip about love, life and evolution of a human relationship. The Swedish-Canadian cartoonist’s ongoing tale of a late-20s couple on the threshold of a new chapter in life is filled with evidence of Engström’s knack for adding depth to her cast of characters at the most unexpected moments, and an ability to find the true emotional impact of any experience, no matter how intimate or mundane.

The process of interviewing Engström, who is based in Brunflo, Sweden, is also worth mentioning here. In order to create a more personal atmosphere, the cartoonist had a friend sit in and ask the questions I had sent her. I bring this up only because I believe it sheds some light on the creator’s approach to her work and, well, it’s just important to give credit where it’s due. So, my thanks go out to Rene Engström’s friend, whoever you are, for being my stand-in on the following interview.

COMICMIX: What are you up to today, Rene?

RENE ENGSTRÖM: Today I’m working on Anders Loves Maria, specifically for today. And I am eating vanilla yogurt with apple and cinnamon müsli. Besides Anders Loves Maria, I’m also working on some conceptual design for an animated film. That’s about it. Oh, and I’m also trying to get out t-shirt designs so I can make some money. I’m poor.

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