"The Far Side" was created by Gary Larson, a cartoonist based in Seattle, Washington. Larson enjoyed drawing as a child but never thought he would become a cartoonist; thus, he never studied art in school outside of required classes. Larson had been inspired to draw comics when he was younger from the strip "Alley Oop", and later drew further inspiration from "MAD Magazine" and the work of Don Martin. He also enjoys comics from Gahan Wilson, B. Kliban and George Booth where humor was derived more from the comics' composition than dialog, which Larson considered "something almost organic going on between the humor and the art that conveyed it".