When the wind is in your face, you're either moving or being blown at.

The great webcomic A Softer World posted its final strip yesterday. Joey & Emily started their comic in February 2003, just two months before I started Wondermark. When I first happened across their strip, I felt a certain kinship just because it was someone else making comics without laboriously drawing everything (like a sucker). I think too few creative people develop the discipline to end things when they’re ready to end them.

If you haven’t read A Softer World before, you have a treat waiting for you. The melancholy is greatly flavored if you picture Joey’s wolfish grin as you read.

Fresh(-ish) Far Side Cartoons

Back in 2020, an official website was launched for Gary Larson and his comic The Far Side, which until then had only existed online as unofficial fan archives and so on.

Along with the site, which reruns a smattering of daily cartoons, there was a section called “New Stuff” in which Larson described the joy of learning to draw with a digital tablet for the first time.

Since then, the “New Stuff” section has been very infrequently updated with new cartoons — including one quite recently. It’s lovely to see more work from Larson; for many of us, The Far Side is like an old friend.

I also recommend looking through the “Sketchbooks” section to see a ton more proto-comics and draft ideas, many of which might easily have become a classic during the comic’s run.


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