Just the right mixture of sentiment and melancholy. A Softer World, for its 12-year runtime between 2003 and 2015, was one of the most beautiful webcomics one could find. Mashing up weird little tone poems, waffling between fluffy purple prose, goofy humour, and unsettling melancholy, with matching photography, it was an immediately striking and beautiful piece of work, created by writer Joey Comeau and artist Emily Horne.
It’s a vibe that mixes really well with Steven Universe, as the tumblr “a softer universe” proves handily. The curator’s work, mixing carefully chosen screencaps with text from the original comic, works fabulously, and Steven Universe is the perfect container for the wistfulness and melancholy that characterised the original. Here are a few of my favourites below (there are some spoilers, so heads up).
The tumblr only started updating again recently, but I’m hoping it continues, because these are my new favourite things. Do it for her? I’ll do it for A Softer World. And Steven Universe fan works, which are often incredible.
(H/t to my friend Tara for sending this to me.)
Comments
One response to “These Steven Universe/A Softer World Mashups Are Perfect”
I love A Softer World.
Some favorites:
“I don’t know how to tell you I’m glad the passion is gone. | I used to think of you every waking moment | and now I get so much more work done”
“I love you the way a knife loves a heart | the way a bomb likes a crowd | the way your mother warned you about, essentially.”
“Everyone says you bring out the worst in me | like that’s a bad thing”
“It could be worse | you could be failing at a job you liked.”