Gary Larson Net Worth - Pulptastic

May 2024 · 3 minute read

What Is Gary Larson’s Net Worth?

Cartoonist Gary Larson has a net worth of $70 million, primarily due to his creation of “The Far Side” comic strip. The single-panel comic ran from 1979 to 1995 and appeared in over 1,900 daily newspapers. Larson’s work has been featured in numerous anthologies, greeting cards, calendars, and t-shirts, and even spawned two animated specials. After retiring in 1995, Larson published the illustrated “New York Times” bestseller “There’s a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm’s Story” in 1998. In 2019, “The Far Side” website announced a “new online era” of the comic, and Larson began releasing new cartoons in July 2020. Larson has released 23 books of collected “Far Side” comics, which have sold over 45 million copies.

Gary Larson’s Early Life

Gary Larson was born on August 14, 1950, in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Curtis Senior High School and later earned a communications degree from Washington State University. Larson returned to WSU to deliver the commencement address at the 1990 graduation ceremony.

Larson’s mother, Doris, worked as a secretary, and his father, Verner, was a car salesman. He grew up in a family with a “morbid sense of humor” and an older brother, Dan, who often played pranks on him. Dan also inspired Larson’s love of science, and the brothers used to build terrariums in their parents’ basement for animals they caught in Puget Sound. They even built a miniature desert ecosystem in their family home.

Gary Larson’s Career

Gary Larson began his career as a cartoonist in 1976 when he submitted six cartoons to Pacific Search magazine. His work was then published in The Seattle Times in 1979. He sold his strip, “Nature’s Way,” to the San Francisco Chronicle, which renamed it “The Far Side” in 1980. The comic ran until Larson’s retirement in 1995 and appeared in nearly 2,000 daily newspapers and was translated into more than 15 languages.

Larson’s most well-known comic featured two chimps grooming each other and sparked controversy with the Jane Goodall Institute. However, Jane Goodall found the humor in the comic and wrote a preface for “The Far Side Gallery 5” in 1995. After retiring, Larson did occasional magazine illustrations and even voiced himself in The Simpsons in 2010.

Larson’s work was showcased at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in 1987 and was later exhibited in cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Toronto. The California Academy of Science had a Far Side gallery that featured a gigantic microscope referencing one of Larson’s comics.

Gary Larson’s Personal Life and Interests

Gary Larson married anthropologist Toni Carmichael in 1987, and she became his manager. He has played jazz guitar since his teens and took lessons from Herb Ellis and Remo Palmier. Larson is an environmentalist, and wildlife protection is a top priority for him. He donated the proceeds from his 2006 calendars to Conservation International. Before his cartoonist career, Larson worked as a cruelty investigator for the Humane Society.

Accolades and Honors

Gary Larson won the National Cartoonists Society’s Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award in 1985 and 1988. He was also awarded the Reuben Award by the National Cartoonists Society in 1990 and 1994. Larson was recognized by the organization several times for individual strips. Dale H. Clayton, the head of the University of Chicago’s Committee of Evolutionary Biology, named a newly-discovered species of insect the Strigiphilus garylarsoni after him in 1989. Larson considered it an extreme honor and included a magnified image of the insect in “The Prehistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit.” The Ecuadorian rainforest butterfly Serratoterga larsoni was also named after him. “The Far Side” won a Webby People’s Voice Award in the Web category in 2020.

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