👀 A Softer World

#308 | Is it though?

Today I'm inviting you to one of my old comfort spots on the internet. It's called A Softer World.

A Softer World is a webcomic; from a time before webcomics also had to have (or were hosted entirely on) an Instagram page. You had to remember to go to the website every week and check if there was anything new. It ran thrice a week between 2003 and 2015, and the format was simple and effective - it was usually three panels and made either of three different photographs or one photo spread across the three frames. What really made the comics was the text - or the juxtaposition of the text and the photos chosen.

I can't really explain why I continue to love this comic so much, but I'll try. For one, it began to introduce me to the idea that comics don't necessarily have to be labour- or skill-intensive to make; all you need is a really, really good idea. Or sometimes, even a passing thought - like this one. 

A Softer World has brought a lot of comfort to me and my troupe of chronically depressed, morbid friends. It's somehow relatable, comforting, and beautiful all at the same time. ASW has comics about love and heartbreak, like this one:

Some are motivational:

Quite a few are about love, actually:

And to me, they're all beautiful. I miss ASW every day. 

For me, ASW kind of broke and rebuilt everything a "comic" could be or had to be. Here was a narrative - but without a start and an end. There were no drawings; instead, photographs used to fantastic effect. They were smart, oddly funny, sometimes disturbing, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes even sexy. And I loved them all. Every comic somehow feels like being frozen in a particular emotion or a moment in time. When I feel that particular emotion well up in me, I go back to their website and read through their archives for hours, and feel the warmfuzzies. 

I actually don't know more than a handful of folks who love this comic like I do, and those people are all dear friends of mine. So I kinda feel like I'm letting y'all into a rather sacred, personal space. But beautiful things are meant to be shared, are they not? 

And now y'all know me a bit better; whether you wanted to or not. 

Pai