CSBG Archive
365 Reasons to Love Comics #248
Yesterday’s entry is fully updated and loaded with punnery, so you should scroll down the page and read it. Then read this one.
I don’t know how to explain today’s webcomic. All I know is that sometimes, it makes me laugh hysterically, and sometimes it leaves me deep in thought. And other times, I want to weep, or maybe laugh some more. I can’t tell. (Archive.)
9/5/07
248. A Softer World
A Softer World, by Joey Comeau (writer) and Emily Horne (photographer, designer) is terrific. It’s the closest thing to poetry I’ve seen in the comics medium. Like all the great works, it’s about life, death, love, sex, fear, longing, regret, hope, sadness, laughter, zombies, and doom babies. So, the usual, then.
It’s usually composed of three panels filled with lines of text that look like they came from someone’s personal labeler. I like to think of the text as blank verse. The pictures are photographs, loaded with atmosphere, and they provide the nuance or help sell the joke. The third panel is usually the twist, where you get hit with the joke or the irony or the gutpunch or the bit where you shed a manly tear, or perhaps all of the above.
It’s beautiful, haunting, and really really funny. The strip fears nothing, and will be down to earth and moving, or perhaps utterly strange and rib-tickling, or maybe inspirational or insightful. It’s a bizarre kind of non-sequitir-y philosophy in comics form. As I said earlier, I find it difficult to describe, because it is so many things. It truly describes life, in all its forms: weird, cruel, funny, and worth every minute.
I sat down and read a huge chunk of the archive in preparation for this post. It was a wonderful time; it made me laugh, and it made me think. That’s the mark of a good comic. Enjoy the examples I’ve provided for you here (click to enlarge, as always), and then dive into the website’s archive and enjoy yourself.
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
One more for the road:
Ahh. That’s the stuff.
14 Comments
FunkyGreenJerusalem
September 5, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Shit yeah!
That was great!
This whole 365 reasons thing was totally worth it for me, if only for learning about the perry bible fellowhip and this.
Top stuff!
Scott
September 6, 2007 at 12:12 am
I found this through the Perry Bible Fellowship site a long while ago, and I’ve never showed it to anyone.
Now they will know about us.
Daniel Yokomizo
September 6, 2007 at 12:54 am
A Softer World is one of my favorite comics, I follow them since Warren Ellis wrote about them on bad signal (IIRC). Joey is a genius with words and Emily has an unique sensibility and sense of composition. Usually I don’t pay too much attention about the images in a comic, but this always grab my eyes. Joey’s writings are also quite good, if you aren’t bothered by porn imagery.
Alejandro
September 6, 2007 at 1:44 am
Yes, I didn’t know about these, but they’re good stuff.
Thanks.
DanCJ
September 6, 2007 at 4:27 am
Deary me that’s morbid!
tom fitzpatrick
September 6, 2007 at 5:10 am
Morbid, yes, but, also, funny, too.
Live a little.
BTW, not to be a nitpicker but you need to complete the missing archives from last week.
Just a tad bit reminder from us nitpickers.
avengers63
September 6, 2007 at 6:34 am
A better wording of Tom Fitzpatrick’s post:
We really enjoy this daily blog and teh conversation it inspires. We all understand that you have a job, a life, and precious little free time, and we all appreciate the effort you put into this project. That being said, we look forward to reading the posts you were unable to do last week.
Thanks for all the fun!
Black Lutefisk
September 6, 2007 at 6:57 am
Seconded, Bill. Thank you for doing this. It’s probably the first thing I read as I go through my blogs.
Mullon
September 6, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I wonder what the next couple of webcomics will be.
Sinfest better appear soon.
Comics Should Be Good! » 365 Reasons to Love Comics Archive
September 6, 2007 at 3:36 pm
[...] 248. A Softer World [...]
The Cosh
September 6, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Had no idea this was a webcomic. Here in the UK it appears irregularly in the Guardian newspaper.
Unfortunately I find it utterly tedious and banal. Then again I think a webcomics week that doesn’t mention Get Your War On is pretty worthless so you can judge me on that.
Talent Copies - Genius Steals » Blog Archiv » Reasons to Love Comics
September 8, 2007 at 3:58 pm
[...] Das einzige Comic-Blog, das ich derzeit regelmäßig lese (weil es regelmäßig lesenswert ist) ist Comics Should Be Good. Fast jeden Tag eine Freude ist die Kolumne 365 Reasons to Love Comics von Bill Reed (der inzwischen sogar seinen eigenen Theme Song hat). Zur Zeit widmet die Kolumne sich Webcomics und für alle, die nicht meinem Rat folgen wollen, die Kolumne selbst jeden Tag zu lesen, weil jeder Comic-Fan dort immer wieder noch unbekannte Perlen entdecken kann, poste ich hier selbst zwei Comics. Zum einen ist da das sehr seltsame, aber oftmals geniale A Softer World (Kolumne # 248), das ich in meinem früheren Blog schon das ein oder andere Mal erwähnt habe. [...]
Comics Should Be Good! » 365 Reasons to Love Comics #295
October 23, 2007 at 2:43 pm
[...] Most fumetti you see in the States these days is on the web, and out of that, a lot of it is usually done with action figures, like the aforementioned Twisted Toyfare Theater. But let’s not discount some excellent work like A Softer World, which I’ve discussed before. Hell, I’ve seen some photocomic work done everywhere, even in little magazines used as teaching aids in high school Spanish classes. Then again, the form is popular in Spain and Latin America… [...]
How long does elavil take to work.
November 7, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Elavil dosage for insomnia.
Elavil.