31 Years Ago, These 4 Comics Competed to Become the Next Far Side

The Far Side's end was a shot at a fresh start for these rival cartoons. In late 1994, Gary Larson announced his retirement, setting off a scramble in newsrooms across the country. Publishers now had a big gap to fill in their funny pages. At least one paper put it to a public vote, letting readers select The Far Side's successor.

In December '94, The Southeast Missourian asked its readers to pick between four potential replacements for The Far Side in the paper's comics section.

The options were: Bizarro, Farcus, The Quigmans, and Rubes. Let's look back on this moment in time, at the end of The Far Side's famous run, to see what readers were in the mood for next.

In The Mid-1990s, One Midwest Newspaper Let Readers Vote On The Next "Far Side"

Gary Larson's Retirement & The Far Side's Replacement Candidates, Explained

The Far Side ended its run on January 1, 1995. There was symmetry to this. The Far Side had begun on New Year's Day 1980. At first, it was published in just one newspaper: The San Francisco Chronicle. When Gary Larson bowed out, his final Far Side comic appeared in thousands of papers across the United States.

In a "Letter From the Editor" announcing the "contest" to decide its Far Side successor, Southeast Missourian Editor R. Joe Sullivan described the paper as "besieged by comic syndicates who want to sell us a replacement for The Far Side." That was when Sullivan and his staff decided to have some fun with the selection.

After considering over a dozen applicants, the Missourian staff picked four finalists. The Bizarro, Farcus, Quigmans, and Rubes panels at the top of the page ran in the December 4, 1994 issue. (That was a Sunday, for those of you who were wondering.) The winner debuted on January 3, 1995, two days after the final Far Side.

Of course, we'll tell you who won in a moment. But first, let's learn more about the finalists, and consider how they fit as The Far Side's heirs, at least in the pages of one Midwestern newspaper back in the day. Then, of course, we can ask ourselves the real question: did the Missourian's readers make the right choice?

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Breaking Down Bizarro, Farcus, The Quigmans, & Rubes

Just from the sample selection The Southeast Missourian offered readers in December of '94, Far Side readers can see echoes of Gary Larson's work in all four finalists. Bizzaro's joke is about new arrivals in heaven, a frequent Far Side subject. Farcus features a bit of cartoonish body-horror, also familiar to Larson fans, while The Quigmans makes a joke about Christopher Columbus watching TV. Rubes, meanwhile, offers up a joke about a "diabolical scheme for a rate increase" by the Postal Service.

More generally, all four are single-panel cartoons, like The Far Side usually was. Each has a touch of The Far Side's off-beat quality. Of course, there's a reason syndicates pitched these comics to papers as Far Side substitutes, and why the Missourian picked these four out of the bunch. Their humor is weird, and a little bit cerebral.

Collectively, Rubes, Quigmans, Farcus, and Bizarro might not have wanted to be The Far Side, but they wanted to appeal to The Far Side's audience. And to be clear, none of these cartoons were brand new in 1994. Farcus was the youngest of the quartet; it launched in 1991. Rubes was a decade old, having debuted in 1984. Bizarro started in '85, and Quigmans in '86.

Whether The Far Side inspired these cartoons individually isn't the point. What The Far Side did was make comics like these more commercially viable. These comics were picked up for syndication and placed in papers, at least in part, because of The Far Side's mid-80s explosion in popularity. But then for the next decade, they had to compete with The Far Side. Until Gary Larson's retirement.

Who Readers Picked To Replace "The Far Side" In 1995 & What Happened To All Four Finalists Afterward

And The Winner Is...

So, which cartoon did Southeast Missourian readers pick to replace The Far Side in the paper? Editor R. Joe Sullivan revealed the winner two weeks later, in the Sunday, December 18, 1994 edition: Bizarro. Sullivan called it a "clear choice." Funnily enough, Bizarro creator Dan Piraro was born in Missouri, though its unclear if enough readers would've known this for it to influence the vote.

And how did Bizarro do as a successor to The Far Side? It never achieved the success or cult status of The Far Side. At its apex, the comic was published in just a few hundred papers. Still, it has eclipsed Gary Larson's cartoon in terms of longevity. Bizarro is still being published in 2026. At 40+ years, that puts it in more Peanuts and Garfield territory, compared to just 15 years of The Far Side.

Since 2018, Bizarro has been written by author Wayne Honath. The Far Side's shadow still looms large over the comic, even three decades since it replaced Far Side in The Southeast Missourian. In a way, it feels like a Christmas Carol-type glimpse of what The Far Side could've become. What Gary Larson stopped it from turning into by retiring.

What about the other finalists? Farcus continues to be published online today. So does Rubes. The Quigmans ended in 2011; even that 25-year run surpassed The Far Side by a decade. None of them was syndicated in more than several hundred newspapers at a time, nor did they carve out a cultural niche equivalent to Larson's work.

Fans Of "The Far Side" Should Check Out All Four Cartoons That Tried To Be Its Heir In The 1990s

The Hipster Argument For Quigmans, Farcus, Rubes, and Bizarro In 2026

If we're being brutally honest, the legacy of these comics is largely as footnotes to The Far Side. But that doesn't mean they were bad, or unfunny, by any stretch of the imagination. Each of these comics has something to offer to readers who already love The Far Side, especially now that they are not in direct competition.

Look at it this way. For many people, '70s exploitation films are a footnote in film history. For Quentin Tarantino, they're his favorite genre. It might actually be the cool thing to do to get into The Quigmans now, or read every Bizarro ever published, instead of fixating on The Far Side. That said, Gary Larson is still the GOAT, and a look at the cartoons that tried to be the next The Far Side when it ended validates the idea that his work could be replaced, but never replicated.

What do you think, Far Side fans? Which of these four comics is the true heir to The Far Side?