I believe Larson's The Far Side inspired a whole new generation of cartoonists, although most of them have never been able to maintain the amount of consistency he achieved. If one (in the U.S) looks at the comics section in today's papers, it is terribly bland. When I was a child, there were many strips that were dramatic stories, science fiction, detectives, espionage, etc. Most of this is all gone. A whole new generation of cartoonists is appearing on the Internet given them the opportunity to discuss subjects that newspaper editors would shy away from, and Larson created that crack in the door.
Larson made use of contradictory ideas such as in his panel showing a meat wagon about to crash into a vegetarian restaurant. The following cartoon appeared on a site called alarmingnews.com and the file name was 'unfunny joke' as someone did not like it but posted it from its original website. But the cartoon shows up the nature of hypocrisy, in which the human mind holds two opposing views at the same time. I feel Larson opened the way for cartoonists to deal with more an just simple-minded situation humour and although he typically did not delve into the darker side of human thought, he provided the inspiration for others to try these things out.
