Slog tipper Luke alerted me to this letter from Gary Larson asking people to stop posting Far Side cartoons on the internet:

To attempt to be "funny" is a very scary, risk-laden proposition. (Ask any stand-up comic who has ever "bombed "on stage.) But if there was ever an axiom to follow in this business, it would be this: be honest to yourself and — most important — respect your audience.

So, in a nutshell (probably an unfortunate choice of words for me), I only ask that this respect be returned, and the way for anyone to do that is to please, please refrain from putting The Far Side out on the Internet. These cartoons are my "children," of sorts, and like a parent, I'm concerned about where they go at night without telling me. And, seeing them at someone's web site is like getting the call at 2:00 a.m. that goes, "Uh, Dad, you're not going to like this much, but guess where I am

It's kind of sweet how polite and old-fashioned this letter is. (I've heard this "children" case made a million times before, and I don't think it's working.) The letter almost could've been written in 1995, when The Far Side ended its run. Larson probably thinks he loses money every time his work illustrates a blog post, but that's simply not true: Rather than spending money on an illustration (money that they probably don't have), bloggers will just rip a different image off from Google Image Search instead. I'm not saying it's right, but I am saying that image piracy is a problem that a pleasant note isn't going to fix.

Related: When it comes to reclusive, retired cartoonists responding to piracy with humor, Larson doesn't come close to Bill Watterson:

"I clearly miscalculated how popular it would be to show Calvin urinating on a Ford logo."