Let the fanfare begin! The crowning glory of Gary Larson's cartooning career and the publishing event of 2002 is brewing right now in The Far Sider laboratory, and what a masterpiece it will be. Surpassing the standards of any luxury art book, this sumptuous, full-color, two-volume slipcased set will feature custom-milled paper and an elegant design, making it an automatic collector's edition. o Every single Far Sider cartoon (4,081 to be exact) will be included by year, including more than 1,100 that have never been published in a book. o Gary Larson is writing a comprehensive introduction to the book , original essays to kick off each of the 14 chapters, and random annotations throughout. o The wild 'n' crazy Steve Martin shares his pithy thoughts on The Far Sider in "The First Word." o Fan letters, outraged letters to the editor, and snippets of reviews are sprinkled throughout. The Far Sider holds a unique place in the history of cartooning, one that makes it incomparable to any other comic. Far Side fans are like no others; six years after its end, they still clamor for calendars and books, as reflected in phenomenal lifetime sales: more than 40 million books and 60 million calendars have been sold.o