Everything Soft

I keep coming back to Truck Torrence’s work. He posts under 100% Soft, which is the perfect name for it: takes characters from every dark corner of pop culture and softens them. Pastels, rounded lines, a relentless gentleness. The Ghostbusters arriving at a tea party. The Bride from Kill Bill rendered as if she’s apologizing. Shaun of the Dead characters as if the zombie apocalypse is just background noise they’ll laugh about later.

What stops me short is that there’s no winking. Most of the grimdark-to-pastel work I see online has this look to it, like the artist is checking if you’re laughing at the joke. Torrence just does it. The drawings are solid, the colors are chosen with thought, and he moves on. No performance, no claim.

I think he’s interested in the person underneath the character. Who is the Bride when she’s not killing people? What do the Ghostbusters look like at rest? It’s not subversive or clever. It’s just a different way of looking.

I don’t think I’d want to make work like this. Sustained cuteness requires a kind of discipline I’m not built for. But I respect it, and I keep going back to these images. There’s something calming about watching someone take characters you know—their weight, their history, their darkness—and just… soften them. Render them gentle. Not as commentary. As fact.