A Softer World is a little bit different from the previous comics I’ve looked at here. Rather than being hand-drawn, it’s a combination of photography and text, much like Italian fumetti or photonovels. It’s also unique in that it doesn’t really have any main characters or plot. Instead, a disembodied voice narrates over pictures vaguely related to the subject at hand. While bemusing, it’s often quite funny, though it takes a while to get used to.
A Softer World is a webcomic with a tight-lipped sense of humour. Horne and Comeau both seem to be fans of bathos, dark comedy, morbidity and sarcasm, as all are to be found in the strip. In some ways, it’s similar to the cartoons of Edward Gorey, as well as the Lemony Snicket books, but with the macabre elements toned down. Its title is an accurate one, as despite its cold grimness, many of the jokes are delivered gently. It reminds me of the mockumentary or in-universe camera sitcoms that have become popular in the last few years, as it uses a combination of vagueness and awkwardness to create a sense of slight discomfort. You’re never quite sure what the narrators are trying to say, and you kind of get the joke, but it’s still not that clear. This uneasiness adds to the humour, rather than taking away from it. A Softer World relies a lot on anti-climactic third panels and subverted punchlines, and they often contain an extra hidden joke if you hover your cursor over the strip.
The comic is written by Comeau and the pictures are taken by Horne. While it’s mostly well-written and pleasant to look at, it does sometimes come across as a little bit too trendy, and while they seem like lovely people, I don’t agree with how they put down other types of comics. On the strip’s website, they describe it as “in the tradition of George Simenon’s ‘romans durs’ (or ‘hard novels’) and not in the lesser traditions of comics like Peanuts or anything else not French.” As always, it’s hard to tell how serious they’re being, I hope they’re not. It’s unfair to dismiss the work of other artists like that, and “lesser” isn’t a word I’d associate with Peanuts in comparison to anything. Still, I’m sure they aren’t too serious about that- as Winnie-the-Pooh would say, it’s hard to tell with webcomics.
I think they’re being silly with the ‘lesser comics’ remark as I get the happy impression that Comeau loves Peanuts! π
This is from one of his novels (‘We All Got It Coming’ I think):
“In Peanuts, you see strip after strip where it’s joke, joke, joke, and then there’s a comic strip where Charlie Brown is in his sandbox, building a sand castle. A girl comes along and kicks it down, and Charlie Brown just sits there. Then he walks home. At home, he takes off his clothes. He climbs into bed, and just lays there looking sad. Then, next comic. Snoopy is a world war one flying ace! Linus loves his blanket! Lucy’s crabby!
One of the last Sunday Peanuts strips is Peppermint Patty playing football, yelling and playing. Hey, Chuck, this is a great game isn’t it? We’re having fun, aren’t we, Chuck? It’s still your ball. Fourth down. What are you gonna do, Chuck? You gonna run or pass?
And then here comes Marcie to tell her that everyone’s gone home. You should go home too, sir. It’s dark out. And Peppermint Patty asks her, “We had fun, didn’t we, Marcie?”
“Yes, sir, we had fun,” Marcie says. And she leaves Patty there in the rain.
The last panel is Patty, standing alone. And she says, “Nobody shook hands and said, ‘Good game.'”
I love those dark moments in Peanuts. I love that they’re in there, that Charles Schulz put the sad lonely bits of himself into the comic. I love the silliness too, the dancing Snoopy strips. The little boy Rerun drawing “basement” comics about Tarzan fighting Daffy Duck in a helicopter. Those are the bits that keep me reading. The funny parts! The fun parts. The silly bits that don’t make any sense. And when I get to the sad lonely Peppermint Patty standing in a field wondering why nobody shook hands and said “good game,” well, it works because that’s not all she was. I try to think that way about everything. That’s the kind of person I want to be.”
Oh, cool. π That’s kind of a relief to know, and I feel a little bit bad about what I wrote now. xD He actually describes what makes Peanuts so special really well. It’s the sort of thing I end up thinking about a lot. I wish I could be as talented as Schulz. I often feel like I’m too focused on being serious, but when I try to write something silly I feel like I’m contradicting myself somehow. π I try to tell myself that writing something silly or fun from time to time doesn’t mean that I can’t write more serious stuff too, or even mix both together, but often I’m too concerned with what other people think.
It kind of reminds me a bit of postsecret. Interesting, although I don’t think it’s really my thing. Here are two more awesome online things you might like:
http://alessonislearned.com/
http://tragedyseries.tumblr.com/
Those are all amazing. π Thanks for the recommendations.