You can call me Ray

July 29, 2003 11:04 AM

Ray's Place: Ever since Jeremias turned me on to Achewood back in November, I've been hooked. Some of y'all at that time objected to Chris Olmstead's drawing style, which is, admittedly, an acquired taste. Well, now in the interest of not doing as much work, he's given popular character Ray a weekly advice column, "Ray's Place." Bearing in mind that Ray is a self-centered cat with a swingin' lifestyle, this almost redeems the whole well-worn format of Internet advice column.
posted by soyjoy (22 comments total)

Ahh crap. Look, I love Achewood, but we don't need another thread about it, considering what a debacle the last one was.
posted by Hildago at 12:16 PM on July 29, 2003

Now, now. This isn't a thread about Achewood, it's about Ray's Place. One's a comic strip, the other's an advice column.
posted by soyjoy at 12:20 PM on July 29, 2003

Ray's Place is an interesting experiment, but it hasn't really hit my spot yet. I dunno if Ray was the best choice for this, but Onstad seems pretty interested in exploring that character at the moment.

What I'm trying to say is I'd much rather see "Musings from the Desk of Cornelius Bear", but I really hate people who tell their favorite artists what to do.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:25 PM on July 29, 2003

Onstad. Jesus. And me the one who loves riffing off of typos in other people's FPPs. Hey, guys, let's just keep this between us, OK?
posted by soyjoy at 12:41 PM on July 29, 2003

I laugh out loud at Ray's Place every week.

I wonder why we have such a weird response to seein’ our parents get their freak on. I think maybe that in a sense we feel insulted, wondering why our parents think they need to get their freak on and make another kid, because we think that we're already the best kid in the world and they don’t need another one.

Also, it is weird to see your dad’s shaft.
posted by jpoulos at 12:58 PM on July 29, 2003

Ray is a freakin' funny cat. Even though he's a bit intolerant and misinformed (about a third of the way down the page) when it comes to human vegetarians.
posted by maniactown at 1:29 PM on July 29, 2003

i love achewood as much as your friendly neighborhood homophone, but "ray's place", to me, is a way of shying out of one more comic a week.

it's less content. not more.

either way, though, i still must congratulate chris onstad on providing so much entertainment every week and all for free, so i will pretend i never even started to bitch about anything. but hey, my dad paid my way for many many years, and i still complained, so there -- i mean, chris can't expect a free ride. did chris buy me nike airs in the fifth grade? no he didn't.

also, hey, can i mention if you're a big fan of achewood you may also enjoy wulffmorgenstein's daily (which i'm purposefully mispelling, ok?), which is absolutely hilarious and occasionally (more often than not, i suppose) NSFW (but in a funny way, not in a, uh, pornographic way. funny if you think, well, it's funny, ok?) you'll find it at the bottom corner of kaliber 10,000 everyday (k10k has some kind of dork news or something or other. i really couldn't notice any more. i just skip straight to the bottom. ha ha, ok, k10k is great too.)
posted by fishfucker at 2:18 PM on July 29, 2003

fishfucker, I know how ya feel. He's just cut back again, to three actual strips a week, when he moved Ray to Tuesday. And when it first appeared I was affronted. But as PST said, it's not up to us to tell him how to manage the achewood universe. And after I got used to it, I now enjoy Ray's Place as a longer version of the strip (only, um, without pictures, or - usually - the other characters).

And yeah, I love his intolerance of vegetarians. It seems perfectly within character, somehow.
posted by soyjoy at 2:53 PM on July 29, 2003

I admit that when I read the strip for the first time via the mefi thread, I thought it was pretty lame. But now I am totally and completely hooked, it's one of my favorite comics ever, on or offline.
posted by cell divide at 2:55 PM on July 29, 2003

Achewood sucks.
posted by Stan Chin at 3:55 PM on July 29, 2003

You suck, Chin!!
posted by Hildago at 5:21 PM on July 29, 2003

One good snap deserves another, so between my legs you'll find your mother.
posted by Stan Chin at 6:18 PM on July 29, 2003

I love his intolerance of vegetarians. It seems perfectly within character, somehow.

Given that cats, even cartoon ones, are obligate carnivores, yeah.
posted by kindall at 6:27 PM on July 29, 2003

i was kind of miffed at the advice column at first too. at least he's now honestly listing his schedule as 3 comics a week + tues/thurs features.

i'd rather see 3 achewoods a week in a consistent way than to be constantly sad when i checked the site to say "UM, IT MIGHT UPDATE TONIGHT. UNLESS I HAVE TO MAKE DINNER."

i love me some achewood and i hope it veers away from Ray & Beef and into some other characters again soon.
posted by clango at 7:36 PM on July 29, 2003

Given that cats, even cartoon ones, are obligate carnivores, yeah.

Exactly. And bon vivants, too!
posted by soyjoy at 10:19 PM on July 29, 2003

"asleepin style" won me over to achewood
my other friend has never gotten over laughing at "did you make pickles" ...ray's place is very clever.
posted by Peter H at 1:48 PM on July 30, 2003

Thursday update:
Variety Hour debuts with a rant (if a rather sensible one) about pre-printed greeting cards, signed by Chris. Onstad.
posted by soyjoy at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2003

Achewood still sucks.
posted by Stan Chin at 4:17 PM on July 31, 2003

Poor Stan.

Chris has heard your hearfelt critique and tried to address it today.

Hope this helps.
posted by soyjoy at 7:36 AM on August 1, 2003

Nope, still sucks.
posted by Stan Chin at 9:15 AM on August 1, 2003

The Achewood message board has just been retired at Onstad's request. For anyone who cares I am behaving irresponsibly with the "Post A Poll" option that rstevens didn't turn off.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:25 AM on August 1, 2003

OK, it's official, there's no helping Stan. I'm sending you one of these shirts.
posted by soyjoy at 10:10 AM on August 1, 2003