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.