“In 1980, I drove down to San Francisco with my portfolio,” Larson said, during a phone interview from his Seattle home. “I was naïve. I had a job then at the Humane Society of Seattle. I dropped off my drawings at the first place listed in the Yellow Pages.

“Two days later, when I was running out of vacation money, I got a phone call — my work had sold. In one hour my life had changed. As I headed home I remember letting out a primal scream on the Golden Gate Bridge — and I didn’t even know what it meant. I was just excited to know that I could pay my rent and feed myself as a cartoonist. That was total satisfaction to me.”

A search through The Chronicle archive reveals Larson’s first strip embedded in the television listings, where most Chronicle readers discovered Larson’s work. (Within a few years, Larson’s books of cartoons seemingly graced every suburban bathroom in America.) Next to the cartoon, which features a joke about crabs and babies, is a Tournament of Roses Parade TV listing announcing Frank Sinatra as the grand marshal. LINK (probable paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/culture/article/We-found-Gary-Larson-s-first-The-Far-Side-comic-14493826.php