I was afraid you were gonna get all public-domained for a while there
May 6, 2023 4:50 PM Subscribe
After a seven-year hiatus, Chris Onstad is writing Achewood again. Achewood—once Time Magazine's top graphic novel of 2007, despite being a webcomic—has also revamped its web site for the first time in approximately twenty years, to include convenient chronological links to its many character blogs (example). (While the webcomic portion of Achewood is its heart and soul, the bulk of its writing consists of stories which take place across and between eleven different blogs; until now, there has been no convenient way to follow the blogs in lockstep with the comics, or even combine the blogs and tie their various arcs together.)
A good previous MeFi discussion about Achewood (which, though brilliant, is also all kinds of problematic) can be found here. Achewood has been discussed plenty of times before, with the conversation spanning as far back as 2002! Gee!
A good previous MeFi discussion about Achewood (which, though brilliant, is also all kinds of problematic) can be found here. Achewood has been discussed plenty of times before, with the conversation spanning as far back as 2002! Gee!
oh hell yes dogg
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:12 PM on May 6, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:12 PM on May 6, 2023 [14 favorites]
If I sign up for this, can I read it in my rss feed?
posted by rebent at 6:33 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rebent at 6:33 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Most no brainer patreon signup of all time. See y'all on the discord
posted by potrzebie at 6:48 PM on May 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 6:48 PM on May 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
This is only made more wonderful by the fact that we will be able to hear what the fine folks at Brain Tape have to say about it. Dogg, this is a good time to be alive.
@rebent -- yes, Patreon should provide RSS feeds of everything
posted by PikeMatchbox at 7:08 PM on May 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
@rebent -- yes, Patreon should provide RSS feeds of everything
posted by PikeMatchbox at 7:08 PM on May 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
Between this and how good Brain Tape is, now is a pretty good time to be an Achewood fan.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:10 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:10 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don't really believe in reboots, or revivals, but for Achewood I'm willing to give it a shot.
posted by meowzilla at 8:26 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by meowzilla at 8:26 PM on May 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Will there be another Great Outdoor Fight????
posted by wenestvedt at 8:32 PM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 8:32 PM on May 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
My god, this is the best possible news.
posted by signsofrain at 8:51 PM on May 6, 2023
posted by signsofrain at 8:51 PM on May 6, 2023
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr i guess i have to get this
posted by capnsue at 11:14 PM on May 6, 2023
posted by capnsue at 11:14 PM on May 6, 2023
I'm certain this will be disappointing and short-lived: but hope springs eternal.
posted by Phanx at 12:44 AM on May 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Phanx at 12:44 AM on May 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
I miss the days when it seemed everything on the web wasn't behind a paywall (I don't have the funds to support even a few different creators, let alone hundreds), but Chris deserves to make a living making Achewood.
posted by JHarris at 1:18 AM on May 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 1:18 AM on May 7, 2023 [8 favorites]
Slightly over 20 years ago I posted this on the blue, talk about a slow burn!
posted by jeremias at 5:20 AM on May 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by jeremias at 5:20 AM on May 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
Slightly over 20 years ago...
Ahh, Old MetaFilter... Where anything besides definite articles were fightin' words.
Good call, jeremias, and good recall.
posted by the sobsister at 8:43 AM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Ahh, Old MetaFilter... Where anything besides definite articles were fightin' words.
Good call, jeremias, and good recall.
posted by the sobsister at 8:43 AM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Is there a place to get the tl;dr on Achewood? Ideally in comic form. :)
posted by schmudde at 8:53 AM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by schmudde at 8:53 AM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Jesus, that old MeFi thread, Opinion People.
I love Achewood and have copies of all his self-published work with custom illustrations from him, including the cookbook, from circa 2006 or so. Planning on those bad boys funding my retirement, so I really need Onstad to find a massive global audience in the next 15-20 years or I'm screwed.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:12 AM on May 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
I love Achewood and have copies of all his self-published work with custom illustrations from him, including the cookbook, from circa 2006 or so. Planning on those bad boys funding my retirement, so I really need Onstad to find a massive global audience in the next 15-20 years or I'm screwed.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:12 AM on May 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
schmudde: Achewood is a little hard to tl;dr, because so much of it consists of little tiny moments and nuances rather than "arcs." Its characters are very richly-defined, but there are also a lot of them, or at least it feels like it. It's somewhere between hangout comic and slice-of-life, but with a bunch of surrealism and magical realism thrown in, and an amazing knack for capturing the weird little freaks and oddball detritus that defines a certain kind of Americana.
In short, though: it largely revolves around Ray Smuckles, an incredibly good-natured and very rich fella who's not always the brightest, and his best friend Roast Beef, who is anxious and depressed but also very very sharp and funny. There's also Teodor, an aspiring chef whose heyday was 80s/90s punk rock; Philippe, an adorable young 5-year-old; Cornelius, an older chap who's seen things; and Lyle and Todd, who are various flavors of disgusting hedonist. But really things spiral out well past there, including a contingent of robots, a Southern Gothic serial killer, and Charles Mingus's well-trained cat.
All this is handled in a manner that's less "twee" than it is "Charles Portis novel," which is to say that the emphasis is on the language that everybody uses, the little bits of color that pop up here and there, and the way that all the strangeness these folks get into just becomes a backdrop for these characters to find themselves in situations: this is their normal, and they react to it like it's just another of them facets of life you keep running into while you're living.
The most famous storyline of the strip is The Great Outdoor Fight, which revolves around an annual event wherein 3,000 people get fenced in and beat each other up for three days; this is incredibly stupid, but also revered and glorified, and the main throughline of the story is Ray and Beef's friendship as they get themselves entered into the event one year. That combination of "very silly but centered around friendships" is pretty much the comic; what sets Achewood apart is that it is just astonishingly well-written, both on the "phrases getting planted in your head" and the "characters rendered with incredibly precise brushstrokes" fronts. It's also, at times, incredibly bittersweet and melancholy and poignant, in that way that few things online ever really are. So that's nice too.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 10:22 AM on May 7, 2023 [20 favorites]
In short, though: it largely revolves around Ray Smuckles, an incredibly good-natured and very rich fella who's not always the brightest, and his best friend Roast Beef, who is anxious and depressed but also very very sharp and funny. There's also Teodor, an aspiring chef whose heyday was 80s/90s punk rock; Philippe, an adorable young 5-year-old; Cornelius, an older chap who's seen things; and Lyle and Todd, who are various flavors of disgusting hedonist. But really things spiral out well past there, including a contingent of robots, a Southern Gothic serial killer, and Charles Mingus's well-trained cat.
All this is handled in a manner that's less "twee" than it is "Charles Portis novel," which is to say that the emphasis is on the language that everybody uses, the little bits of color that pop up here and there, and the way that all the strangeness these folks get into just becomes a backdrop for these characters to find themselves in situations: this is their normal, and they react to it like it's just another of them facets of life you keep running into while you're living.
The most famous storyline of the strip is The Great Outdoor Fight, which revolves around an annual event wherein 3,000 people get fenced in and beat each other up for three days; this is incredibly stupid, but also revered and glorified, and the main throughline of the story is Ray and Beef's friendship as they get themselves entered into the event one year. That combination of "very silly but centered around friendships" is pretty much the comic; what sets Achewood apart is that it is just astonishingly well-written, both on the "phrases getting planted in your head" and the "characters rendered with incredibly precise brushstrokes" fronts. It's also, at times, incredibly bittersweet and melancholy and poignant, in that way that few things online ever really are. So that's nice too.
posted by Tom Hanks Cannot Be Trusted at 10:22 AM on May 7, 2023 [20 favorites]
schmudde: Tom Hanks' comment can be trusted. It's hard to express everything that's going on, but you might as well start with this strip, which is hilarious. The old stuff is all available online, but like most strips, the characters didn't settle in for a while.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:27 AM on May 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 10:27 AM on May 7, 2023 [5 favorites]
I think the obvious reference point is Bloom County but less topical, and with the comedy primarily driven by personality and attention to the details of patterns of speech and turns of phrase.
I used to tell people just to start from the beginning, even though it takes a bit for the strip actually to introduce its eventual central characters and define them, just because that way you’ll figure out who those characters are along with the author. But I’m sure people have ideas of good storylines to start from. Personally I remember the Great Outdoor Fight more as the last hurrah of the peak era before it became clear that Onstad was burning out, but that was all a long time ago now.
posted by atoxyl at 2:19 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
I used to tell people just to start from the beginning, even though it takes a bit for the strip actually to introduce its eventual central characters and define them, just because that way you’ll figure out who those characters are along with the author. But I’m sure people have ideas of good storylines to start from. Personally I remember the Great Outdoor Fight more as the last hurrah of the peak era before it became clear that Onstad was burning out, but that was all a long time ago now.
posted by atoxyl at 2:19 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
This has always felt very typically Achewood, where the punchline is just oh of course Ray is a guy who could find entertainment in something like that.
Or this is a pretty famous example of the strips that just rely on off-kilter deadpan phrasing, though at this point it feels a little dated in a way that I think illustrates how much this sort of thing seeped out and became standard online in the next… holy shit, almost two decades. But I will always remember that being in trouble is a fake idea.
posted by atoxyl at 2:38 PM on May 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Or this is a pretty famous example of the strips that just rely on off-kilter deadpan phrasing, though at this point it feels a little dated in a way that I think illustrates how much this sort of thing seeped out and became standard online in the next… holy shit, almost two decades. But I will always remember that being in trouble is a fake idea.
posted by atoxyl at 2:38 PM on May 7, 2023 [3 favorites]
Are all the 'blogs' consolidated somewhere? The last time I looked it was like an old-school text adventure where you followed link after link and finally just wandered around with no idea of where you'd been or how that related to where you were going.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:52 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by From Bklyn at 2:52 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
the strips that just rely on off-kilter deadpan phrasing
Nonsense!
posted by delicious-luncheon at 6:05 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Nonsense!
posted by delicious-luncheon at 6:05 PM on May 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
this story arc and the next and the next are what got me into achewood intially. J A V A
THIS ONE might be my all time fave one tho.
i mean i am a phillipe stan. here comes a special boy.
posted by capnsue at 8:50 PM on May 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
THIS ONE might be my all time fave one tho.
i mean i am a phillipe stan. here comes a special boy.
posted by capnsue at 8:50 PM on May 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
My actual favorite Achewood bits might be the character flowcharts
“holy frick, I woke up again!”
“It is not your business to turn out a funeral.”
“Yes! Hi!”
and so on.
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 PM on May 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
“holy frick, I woke up again!”
“It is not your business to turn out a funeral.”
“Yes! Hi!”
and so on.
posted by atoxyl at 9:40 PM on May 7, 2023 [6 favorites]
(plus I got depression)
posted by atoxyl at 9:41 PM on May 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 9:41 PM on May 7, 2023 [4 favorites]
to this day Mrs. Fedora and I will use the phrase “Just like old times!” to shake off a minor or largely inconsequential annoyance or inconvenience
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:32 AM on May 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:32 AM on May 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
I still say "boo to that" regularly.
I cannot eat sour cream without thinking about how it invented isself.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:12 AM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I cannot eat sour cream without thinking about how it invented isself.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:12 AM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Whenever anyone mentions a drum machine or any sort of electronic gadget they are having trouble figuring out, or I need to download the manual for something: "Philippe is standing on it." (The very first achewood!)
posted by moonmilk at 7:29 AM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by moonmilk at 7:29 AM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
although I refrain from saying it to young people -- as they largely wouldn't get it anyway -- I sometimes cannot help but think of Ray's reaction to Little Nephew's pants.
(I have seen this style actually modeled in the past couple of years, but it was one of those high fashion pieces that nobody actually wears. I think. I hope)
posted by Countess Elena at 8:37 AM on May 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
(I have seen this style actually modeled in the past couple of years, but it was one of those high fashion pieces that nobody actually wears. I think. I hope)
posted by Countess Elena at 8:37 AM on May 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
Once more, the status of founder of Williams-Sonoma is at risk
posted by delfin at 12:18 PM on May 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by delfin at 12:18 PM on May 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
"So I was killing myself to meet Garfield deadlines with Tolkien content." - Chris Onstad, Verge interview
posted by meowzilla at 1:45 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by meowzilla at 1:45 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
Read the Verge article, canceled my Patreon.
posted by Artw at 2:38 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 2:38 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can understand being a bit aghast as his embracing of AI. I'm not fond of that myself, but given how burnt out he had gotten I can understand him grasping at anything that might lessen the load on his spongy head bits. Anyway, I guess we'll see.
posted by JHarris at 3:47 PM on May 8, 2023
posted by JHarris at 3:47 PM on May 8, 2023
I think the idea of an interactive representation of the characters is conceptually interesting enough as an extension of what he was trying to do before with the universe of blogs. But I do have to say I am more interested in paying him to make comics than to futz around with machine learning.
posted by atoxyl at 4:31 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 4:31 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
He actually makes a point of saying that the AI stuff is a side project though. I don’t think it really changes the apprehensions I already had, which are along the lines of - how much Achewood is it possible to write, anyway, and how much is Onstad’s heart in writing more it?
posted by atoxyl at 4:47 PM on May 8, 2023
posted by atoxyl at 4:47 PM on May 8, 2023
I'll be honest: despite being down on LLMs to the point that you could reasonably call me a hater, the idea of training one up to mimic the distinctive voices of your characters so that you can chat with them a bit to get their rhythms in your head prior to sitting down and writing them yourself, struck me as a pretty clever idea.
posted by rifflesby at 5:01 PM on May 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by rifflesby at 5:01 PM on May 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
I was reading the Verge article when I got an email from Patreon basically screaming that, no, the new strips aren't being written with A.I., he's just doing side projects in A.I., most notable RayBot, which is trying to mimic the style of Ray's Advice Column.
Everybody calm down.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:29 PM on May 8, 2023 [6 favorites]
Everybody calm down.
posted by Navelgazer at 5:29 PM on May 8, 2023 [6 favorites]
Everyone's on edge as the internet hype cycles around blockchains and NFTs and the Metaverse and now AI, with big money people and hordes of attendant fans loudly pushing everyone towards them. It is very easy to get into a reactionary frame of mind towards it all, if just to keep oneself insulated from the machinery of hype. It'd be nice to hear about a new technology that doesn't seem like it'll be immediately used to make the world worse for nearly everyone who doesn't own a yacht. Anyway, Onstad's use of it is at least self-directed and creative, and he shouldn't be pilloried for it.
posted by JHarris at 5:45 PM on May 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 5:45 PM on May 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
From RayBot:
What is your favorite thing to do in Arlington, Virginia? —Hunter
Dear Hunter,
When folks ask me this question, generally it means they want the inside scoop on which bars or restaurants they might not find in the Yellow Pages. For example, there is a lot of underground activity in the South-East corner of the 11th Street Bridge, which carries I-395 over the Potomac. This is a tiny little brick arch over the creek down below, hidden from view by a few tall weeds, and down there people can let it all hang out. They can drink beers and cuss as loud as they want and sometimes somebody even jumps off the bridge (though more often they just waggle their dummy hineys at the police helicopters).
Okay, that’s… reasonably Achewood-y. They are mostly not this good of course but I get why he feels like there’s something to it.
posted by atoxyl at 6:02 PM on May 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
What is your favorite thing to do in Arlington, Virginia? —Hunter
Dear Hunter,
When folks ask me this question, generally it means they want the inside scoop on which bars or restaurants they might not find in the Yellow Pages. For example, there is a lot of underground activity in the South-East corner of the 11th Street Bridge, which carries I-395 over the Potomac. This is a tiny little brick arch over the creek down below, hidden from view by a few tall weeds, and down there people can let it all hang out. They can drink beers and cuss as loud as they want and sometimes somebody even jumps off the bridge (though more often they just waggle their dummy hineys at the police helicopters).
Okay, that’s… reasonably Achewood-y. They are mostly not this good of course but I get why he feels like there’s something to it.
posted by atoxyl at 6:02 PM on May 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
Oh no. The Old Cement Bridge.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:26 PM on May 8, 2023
posted by Navelgazer at 10:26 PM on May 8, 2023
Man but if that 2019 thread isn't full of a bunch of superior bullshit
posted by grobstein at 12:02 PM on May 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by grobstein at 12:02 PM on May 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
Somehow I missed this until a month later
Probably because I got a stupid job
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:52 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Probably because I got a stupid job
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:52 PM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
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