10 Hilarious Classic Comics That Just Turned 30 (Featuring Far Side, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes and More)

Summary Comic strips like The Far Side, Peanuts, Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes have stood the test of time with their unique humor and iconic characters.

The Far Side takes practical jokes to a skin-crawling new level, while Peanuts showcases Snoopy's mischievous side and Calvin and Hobbes humorously compares kids to ants.

Even after 30 years, these comic strips remain just as funny and relevant as ever, with Garfield pranking Jon, The Far Side humorously depicting God creating the world, and Charlie Brown showcasing his famous pessimism.

The comic strip medium has spawned some of the most iconic characters and franchises in history, from The Far Side and Peanuts, to Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes. The short-form nature of these comics makes them fun, quick reads for everyone to enjoy, with unique styles of artwork that perfectly capture the respective tones of each series. In other words, comic strips are awesome, and it’s no surprise that these strips in particular reached the level of popularity that they have.

Even decades after being released, these comic strips have withstood the test of time, and a few of them even transcended the comic strip format into television series, animated features, and even live-action adaptations. However, nothing can compare to the magic of the original comic strip, regardless of the series in question - and these iconic strips are celebrating a major milestone. As of July 2024, these 10 comic strips from The Far Side, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, and Garfield turn 30 years old, and they’re just as funny now as when they were first published!

10 The Far Side Takes 1 Practical Joke to a Skin-Crawling New Level

The Far Side - July 1994

When three members of a zoo staff sit down for their lunch break in the back room of the tropical exhibit, one of them tells his coworker, Marv, a joke. The joke goes, "What's got 12 legs, six eyes, a hairy thorax, was found dead in its display case this morning, and goes 'crunch' inside a submarine sandwich?". At that moment, Marv takes a bite of his sub, but suddenly stops chewing to ponder the punchline of this joke - and how it might not be a joke after all.

It seems Marv let one of the tarantulas die in its containment earlier that day, and his coworker decided to punish him by placing its corpse in his sandwich. That's a pretty skin-crawling practical joke, and it's told in a way that only The Far Side could deliver.

Related The Far Side: 10 Strips With Punchlines That Are Easy to Miss The Far Side is a serialized comic strip with no shortage of absurd humor throughout, though sometimes, the punchlines are a bit too obscure to catch.

9 Snoopy Clearly has No Regard for Linus (or Woodstock)

Peanuts - July 10, 1994

Snoopy and Linus have a long history of being at odds with each other, especially when it comes to Linus' blanket, as Snoopy seems to think that he can just take it whenever he wants - even when Linus refuses to let go. And that's exactly what fans see in this comic. Linus is sitting by himself with his blanket, and then, out of nowhere, Snoopy charges him, grabs hold of the blanket, and starts sprinting all over the place while dragging Linus behind him.

Eventually, Snoopy stops when the blanket (and Linus) get snagged by a birdbath that Woodstock was bathing in before getting mixed up in Snoopy's nonsense. The entire sequence is hilarious, and it also proves one thing: Snoopy clearly has no regard for Linus or Woodstock.

Related 10 Funniest Peanuts Comics That Just Turned 70 (In June 2024) Peanuts is perhaps the greatest comic strip of all time, with one that marks an iconic first for Linus. Here's the 10 funniest that just turned 70!

8 Calvin and Hobbes Point Out a Hilarious Comparison Between Kids… & Ants

Calvin and Hobbes - July 30, 1994

Calvin and Hobbes is famous for its accuracy at capturing the world through the eyes of a child, including observations that only a kid would be interested in. In this comic, Calvin and Hobbes are watching ants as they crawl around their ant hill, and Calvin thinks it's hilarious that they "run everywhere". Calvin notices that ants don't casually walk around, but instead go from spot to spot at full speed, and he says that's incredibly silly.

After he's done watching the ants, Calvin tells Hobbes that he has something to show him, and he sprints to whatever that is. As Hobbes clearly notices, Calvin is doing exactly what he called the ants silly for: going from spot to spot at full speed - which is a hilarious comparison made by the comic strip itself between kids and ants.

Related 10 Funniest Calvin and Hobbes Comics That Just Turned 30 (Including 1 of Watterson's Most Creative of All Time) Calvin and Hobbes is a beloved comic that captures the life of a child in the most creative way imaginable. Here's 10 of the funniest from July, 1994!

7 Even When Garfield is ‘Helpful’, He’s Still a Mischievous Scamp

Garfield - July 6, 1994

Everyone knows that the two major facts about Garfield are that he loves lasagna and hates Mondays. However, one other thing is equally true: Garfield loves to prank Jon. In this comic, Jon is dreading going outside because it's raining, so Garfield nicely brings him an umbrella. Come to find out, however, that Garfield didn't do that to be nice, as he cut holes in the top of the umbrella so that the rain would fall on Jon when he thinks he's protected.

Garfield almost never does anything out of the goodness of his heart, as he's usually motivated by either food or mischief. And in this case (much to Jon's dismay), it's mischief, which amounts to a hilarious comic strip that's simply classic Garfield.

Related 10 Funniest Garfield Comics That Just Turned 40 (Including 1 of Jon's Grossest Mistakes) In July 2024, a month's worth of Garfield comic strips just turned 40 years old, including one of Jon's grossest mistakes. Here are the 10 funniest!

6 The Far Side has an Interesting Take on the Story of Creation

The Far Side - July 1994

Many faiths believe that the world was created by a divine creator, with everything shaped by a God that presides over all life on the planet, and The Far Side has an interesting depiction of how the process of creation went. The Far Side paints a picture of God standing in a kitchen with the world in a frying pan. Behind God are the ingredients for life on Earth, including birds, bugs, trees, and even different races of people. And in this comic, God is in the middle of adding some 'seasoning' to the planet: jerks.

God is sprinkling jerks on the world, commenting to Himself as He does so, "And just to make it interesting...". It seems even God isn't without a sense of humor and a desire for drama, which is an utterly hilarious (and decidedly unique) depiction of the Story of Creation.

5 Lucy is Adamant that Snoopy’s “Untold Story” Remains That Way

Peanuts - July 13, 1994

It's no secret that Lucy is the bossiest member of the Peanuts gang, as she reminds fans of that practically every time she appears on-panel - and this one is no exception. Snoopy is sitting on top of his dog house, typing on his typewriter. He writes the title of a new story, "The Untold Story Of", but is quickly cut off by Lucy, who screams at Snoopy as she's walking by, "Don't tell it!".

This comic is a hilarious gag on the 'untold story' trope, pointing out that if it was really an 'untold story', it wouldn't have been written in the first place. If anything, Lucy is protecting Snoopy's credibility as a writer, but it's more probable that she's just being bossy (again).

4 Calvin’s Parents Actually Respect His Trickiness

Calvin and Hobbes - July 2, 1994

Calvin has always been a little troublemaker in Calvin and Hobbes, but he's also incredibly smart. Sure, he daydreams in class and despises homework, but Calvin proves time and again that he's a bright kid. Unfortunately, most of the time, Calvin uses his intelligence for 'evil', including in this very comic. When Calvin doesn't want to finish the rest of his dinner, he points to something behind his parents and screams, "Look!" which they promptly do.

Calvin then scrapes the food from his plate onto his mom's, tells his parents he's done with dinner, and leaves the table. Not understanding what just happened, Calvin's dad asks, "What did he see?" to which Calvin's mom replies, "An opportunity". Funny enough, Calvin doesn't get in trouble for doing this, as it seems his parents actually respect his trickiness.

3 Garfield Gets Bored Pranking Jon & Turns His Attention to the Mailman

Garfield - July 12, 2024

While it's been firmly established that Garfield loves pranking Jon as much as he loves lasagna and hates Mondays, he still grows weary of picking on his hapless owner all the time. So, Garfield will often branch out and choose new victims to torment with his mischievousness, and in this case, that victim is the mailman. When Jon hears the mailman arrive, he and Garfield hear a loud scream coming from outside.

Concerned, Jon asks Garfield what that was, and Garfield says that there may have been a large insect in the mailbox that could have scared the mailman, but the way he phrased his answer made it seem like he wasn't sure. However, Garfield isn't fooling anyone, as he clearly put a bug in the mailbox to scare the mailman after deciding that pranking Jon was getting boring.

2 The Far Side Takes ‘Threatening Clouds’ Hilariously Literally

The Far Side - July 1994

The Far Side is arguably the gold standard when it comes to delivering absurdly random gags in utterly hilarious ways, and this one is a great example of that being true. The comic features a man in his fishing boat looking up at the clouds, which spell out in plain English, "Hey! What are you lookin' at? You want trouble, buddy, you found it!". The text then clarifies that the fisherman couldn't understand what the clouds were saying, as he was German and didn't speak English.

This entire scene was crafted just to set up a joke about 'threatening clouds', depicting clouds that are described that way as literal threats in the sky, as opposed to the common use of that phrase, meaning a storm is brewing. Sometimes, fishermen can't identify threatening clouds and go out on the water anyway, and in this case, that's taken literally.

1 Charlie Brown’s Famous Pessimism is Perfectly Articulated with 1 Conversation

Peanuts - July 21, 1994

Charlie Brown is one of the biggest pessimists in fiction, that's something even the most casual Peanuts fan knows good and well. And the energy Chuck puts out in the world always comes back to him in the form of getting rocks instead of Halloween candy, or constantly having his baseball games rained out. In this comic, it's gotten to the point where even Charlie Brown knows how bad the situation is, as he tells Linus, "All my life I've been waiting for that "pie in the sky". When it came, it had coconut on it...".

There has never been a more accurate articulation of Charlie Brown's pessimism than this conversation, as it completely captures Charlie Brown's bleak outlook on life as well as what life offers him in return. And that's why this is one of the 10 funniest comic strips published in July 1994, not just counting Peanuts, but also Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Far Side.