Comic Relief

It's been a rough week. Enjoy some comics.

The first one is an ode to Bill Watterson's timeless Calvin & Hobbes strips done by comics writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo, and was included as a bonus strip in the latest issue of DC Comics' Batman/Superman. Such a sublime blend of Watterson's art and humor with two of DC's biggest (and most charming) villains. Click to enlarge.

The next one is a shockingly well done fan comic from Live Journal user tongari mashing up Christopher Nolan's Inception and Neil Gaiman's iconic graphic novel series Sandman. It helps to have both seen the movie and read the series, but I think any fan of the film will enjoy this. Keep in mind this does deal with spoilers for both the movie (kind of heavily) and the comic series (only lightly).

Soft Serve

You can always count on A Softer World for a gem like this:

or this:

Some of my favorites over the years:

The titles that pop up when you hover over each image are an added bonus (although, to be honest, sometimes I like them better without since they often switch up the tone of the strip). Part photography, part comic, A Softer World (a collaboration between Canadians Emily Horne and Joey Comeau) illustrates, at least to me, how few words you really do need to tell a compelling story. Rich histories can be conveyed more succinctly by what's left out rather than what makes it into the final product.

I first came across these strips through Roy, who in turn heard about them from Monika (I think). It's stuff like this that makes the Internet wonderful. Self-publishing is a beautiful thing, a truly powerful asset. Anyway, the strips have been collected into two volumes thus far, and you can buy those here, or just keep checking them out for free.