Joey Comeau

A Softer World, ha ha ha

city of trees

delight.

delight

Sun on her naked body. Sun on her smile. Her hand moving, sliding quiet toward her shirt, like clockwork.

“Back to work.” I can't hide bitterness...

giggles.

My brother died. He's still here. Just out of sight, screaming like an asshole. You can only hear him inside the house. I know, because the neighbours don't complain. The way he screams, they would...

Edith. (A love letter.)

Edith,

You haven’t had time to write back and already I am writing you a second letter. I was taught to have better manners than this and I suppose this letter is evidence ...

christmas is for cowards now?

"I loved it, but it's hard to recommend"

Bullshit. This IS the book you share. This book makes lifelong friends

"This book's fucked, you have to read it."

buy someone you love UN...

god laughs.

a life needs secret plans.

mystery and adventure and hope. things might be boring now, or quiet, or slow, but at any moment the pieces will fall into place. you'll pull the floorboard aside a...

the hospital sounds... restful.

the events and people we encounter in our day might be fake, might be robots from other countries. the news might just be advertisements. you can't even trust videos of cute animals anymore. that a...

The world used to be softer: Just go.

these early comics with scanned text from my typewriter have an unconscious emphasis on certain words, and other times the words blur, your mind drifting off halfway through a sentence.

the ...

The world used to be softer: it still is, but it used to be, too.

(the world used to be softer: a classic comic from the Softer World archives, and some memories.)

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a world where cats spoke to god, and giant babies terrorized towns. where sea monster...

The world used to be softer: Baby Doom

(the world used to be softer: a classic comic from the Softer World archives, and some memories.)

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baby doom! a recurring character for a comic with no recurring characters. but the id...

The world used to be softer: Wednesday's debut.

(the world used to be softer: a classic comic from the Softer World archives, and some memories.)

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this was the first A Softer World comic, both online and in the phot...

Today I got rained on

I forgot how alive you feel when out of nowhere it just starts POURING rain. Nature hides in the b...

CARGO - Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

It was my day off. No mops, no brooms, no gravity scrubbers. 

There's a fake window in my cabin. If you've got a window in your room you don't feel like you're down de...

Cargo - (chapter 1.)

Chapter 1.

"Resident Deck Twenty Six, Yellow Circle," the elevator said. The doors opened onto an enormous number 26. Beneath that was a big yellow circle. Too big to miss. Practical signag...

a softer world was ever friday

the night forest burns

(An excerpt from the current draft of my sci fi retirement ship / dog novel "CARGO" )

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I knelt at the door with the wrench, and I ran my fingers over the door panel, looking for the h...

Walking Mitchie

Walking Mitchie was a goddamn ordeal.

Every corner we turned, he had to meet someone new. It was exhausting. We weren't even to the train yet, and we'd stopped four times. Sometimes we stoppe...

the glow pond

When Mitchie and I reached the forest deck, he stayed close to my feet until we were on the soft soil path of the park. I wondered if he liked the gentle way the ground held his feet. The wood chip...

home again home again

some people can't be rescued (Untitled Sci Fi book scene)

We walked back to the elevator and waited. When it arrived, Soup gave me a long look, sighed, and then pushed a button on the control panel.

"Think of it this way," I said. "Maybe saving the ...

hello

After work, Jonathan was in the hallway, holding up the wall again. There was a beagle sitting patiently at his feet. She seemed like a well behaved dog. Mitchie, meanwhile, was already trying to s...

putting the A in asynchronous orbit (scene)

"I didn't throw anyone out an airlock," Marlene said. "I feel good about that. I locked them up. Just for now. They have food and water and they have their service animals. Some of them are locked ...

who knows why computers do anything

Mitchie was absolutely in love with Marlene, he couldn't take his eyes off her. It wasn't like the strangers in the hallway, where he was excited to smell someone new and then move on. He hung on h...

somebody to love

"Hi Mitchie," I said. "I'm Charles."

He only had one good eye, but in the clear bright eye there was something that seemed very real. He didn't hold himself like one of the service robots. He...

Singularity

When actual AI wakes up, this is what it will be like.

Chapter 2. - untitled sci fi (mitchie).

2.

I dressed up nice for dinner. My goin' out clothes. I wore a proper shirt with a starched collar. I wore slacks and a vest. It was my first time taking Mitchie out in public, and I was n...

terrible businessman

I'm really focused on this science fiction novel. Charlie and Mitchie.

Revisiting the mix of melancholy and sweetness that I'm so drawn to. Chapter 2 is done now. Polishing to post very soo...

in defence of Marlene

"She's not people," the man said, giving me a long look. "She's cargo." He was maybe thirty years old, and he was wearing a uniform for one of the fabrication decks. Out here working a long shift t...

"untitled Charlie and Mitchie project" Ch1 rewrite1

Hello. This is an expansion/rewrite of the first chapter. I'm finding the right balance. I want there to be warmth and kindnes...