[imagesource: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press]

Back in the day, before you took your phone to the toilet and had the world at your fingertips, books and magazines had to fill the great void within during an ablute.

If your ‘toiletside’ reading material game was strong, and you respected the sanctity of the bathroom, you made sure you had at least one ‘The Far Side’ book for perusal, adding a Madam & Eve and some Zapiro for local flavour.

Sady for fans of Gary Larson’s cartoons, of which there are many, he hung up his drawing tools back in 1995, due to “fatigue and fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer, or at the very least ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons”.

The likes of Conor McGregor may retire and then return almost immediately, but Gary stuck to his guns, until a chance encounter with a tablet a few years back, reports the Washington Post:

“Something totally unexpected happened: Within moments, I was having fun drawing again. I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained. I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved. Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman.”

… “Believe me, this has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I hail from a world of pen and ink, and suddenly I was feeling like I was sitting at the controls of a 747” with his new digital tablet.

We’re just glad to have you back, Gary, in whatever shape or form that is.

Before dropping three new cartoons on the general public (three is enough for a toilet visit, so feel free to take your phone to the loo at this point), he outlined a few important points on his site, thefarside.com:

I don’t want to mislead anyone here. This corner of the website—“New Stuff”—is not a resurrection of The Far Side daily cartoons.

(Well, not exactly, anyway—like the proverbial tiger and its stripes, I’m pretty much stuck with my sense of humor. Aren’t we all?)

…So here goes. I’ve got my coffee, I’ve got this cool gizmo, and I’ve got no deadlines. And—to borrow from Sherlock Holmes—the game is afoot.

Drumroll, before we reveal the new cartoons.

Off we go:

Welcome back.

He’s just “exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff”, and we hope that continues.

Right, back to scrolling aimlessly through Instagram to judge friends you once respected.

[sources:washpost&thefarside]