Best-selling author Gary Larson grew up in Tacoma, Washington, an environmentally lush region. His writing and cartooning show the effects of his interest in biology, though Larson fully acknowledges that he has been influenced by the cartoonists Don Martin of Mad magazine, George Booth of The New Yorker, and most particularly by B. Kliban. A careful reading of Larson's popular cartoons suggests that Gahan Wilson and Edward Gorey might also be credited as influences on Larson's sense of humor, which is sometimes grim or morbid but always odd and offbeat.

Born in Tacoma in 1950, Larson was fascinated by animals. With his older brother Dan's help, he would create swamps in the backyard for pet lizards, frogs, and salamanders. The brothers once built a huge sandy model of the Mojave Desert in the basement, complete with horned toads. The Larson parents, who worked as a...