Comments on: Lyle, July 2: pissed on side of house

Lyle, July 2: pissed on side of house

soyjoy — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:09:22 -0800

New Blogs! No, I'm not talking about Michael Moore. I mean that Every Member of the Cast of Achewood (even Molly) has now started a freakin' weblog. Hell of ~~pointless~~ ambitious...

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:10:33 -0800

Previous Achewood threads: The one that got me hooked, and Ray's Place. I don't know if this is just a one-off stunt or not - I can't see Chris Onstead keeping this up for long (oh yeah, here's his blog, which basically consists only of his breakfast and lunch menus) - but it's bloggedy gold for Achewood fans. And for anyone who doesn't delight in this, all I can say is: How come you got to be so GOD DAMNED stupid and just do the stupidest thing possible every SINGLE SECOND OF THE GOD DAMNED DAY!

By: Irontom

Irontom — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:23:32 -0800

Anybody have a link to the Angelina Jolie pic the Molly blog talked about?

By: ae4rv

ae4rv — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:33:33 -0800

Has Molly gotten any offers from Playboy yet? Are cat years considered in the age of consent requiremnt?

By: Hildago

Hildago — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:39:44 -0800

I love Achewood (and Ray even answered one of my questions a while back), but just based on historical evidence such as how every other strip is delayed, and that much of the weekly content ends up coming out monthly, I doubt the blogs will be maintained. Any web comic that can actually result in an alteration of your speech patterns must be doing something hell of right, though. Basically.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:40:53 -0800

Shame that they're all using BLOGSPOT, which seems to be experiencing yet another outage. Grrrrrrrrrrr...

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 11:58:31 -0800

Onstad really wants to be a writer, doesn't he? I still prefer the strip way more than any of his text experiments: he's got a way with the putting together of words and pictures. It's bascally like treasure. Comparatively, the Nate Small novel he did on Serializer.net (subscription only) bored me to tears and beyond.

By: Stan Chin

Stan Chin — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:02:15 -0800

Achewood still sucks.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:03:52 -0800

david - Are the pages not coming up for you? I just pulled them up fresh on another computer OK. What are you on? (heh.) Hildago, you're probably right. It's absurd for Onstead to take on anything as big as this when he can barely get the strip done daily. But it's still quite an interesting achievement as is. Already noticed two errors in my post. I started out with initial caps and then forgot halfway through the sentence... and more importantly, it's not Every Member of the Cast: Where's Todd, fer chrissakes?

By: Capn

Capn — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:16:18 -0800

Todd can't read, duh! Man, given that these will probably be updated infrequently, it would be really cool if there was some way one could be notified when these blogs were updated, a sort of syndicator or aggregator or something. But I guess such technology is Beyond The Powers of Science.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:27:26 -0800

Isn't there a feed for each of them? (I don't know anything about that stuff)

By: fizz-ed

fizz-ed — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:27:46 -0800

Achewood is one of the only strips that can make me weep with laughter, although it did take reading about 20 strips before I could really get into it. Ray's Place is often beyond good and the blogs are really enjoyable. As for his almost-but-not-quite-everyday schedule, cut the guy a little slack. Speaking from experience, it ain't easy to do a comic 5 days a week (well, 6 if you count serializer). Onstad updates far more than the majority of web comic artists out there and is ten times funnier than all of them. I also can't see the blogs lasting, but am enjoying them while they do. And, hey, if Todd can't have a blog, how about a little more of him in the comic? Todd: so bad, yet so good.

By: jjg

jjg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:53:11 -0800

With the creator's attention divided like this, I think any hope that Achewood will ever get funny has pretty much evaporated.

By: DrJohnEvans

DrJohnEvans — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 13:20:27 -0800

jjg: Now that, unlike Achewood, was funny.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:05:19 -0800

I've been having problems accessing BlogSpot sites for about the last 48 hours or so...I just get the standard error page at least 3 out of 4 times. Using Avant on a P4 Dell. ???

By: majick

majick — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:18:27 -0800

I don't really feel the need to disparage some random artist's work, no matter what its worth to me, and particularly in a public forum. But unless I'm missing something, Achewood sucks really badly.

By: humuhumu

humuhumu — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:29:05 -0800

You are missing something, imho. It can take a little while to get into it, but this is by far the best online comic (best comic anywhere, probably) I've ever come across (which is saying something). Chris Onstad can make you feel for the fate of the cartoon incarnation of a stuffed otter. It's mostly the writing but there's something about the simple black and white line art that suits it perfectly. I'd recommend you devote half an hour or so to it sometime and start from the top.

By: o2b

o2b — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:45:50 -0800

It took me a bit to get into Achewood as well, but it's currently in my daily rounds, and I love it. I started digging the line art after a while, and I find the writing among the best. As a bonus, each strip has an alt tag that rounds out the experience.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:52:42 -0800

A noble effort, humuhumu, but... give it up. I know exactly what you're talking about and how bizarrely powerful those strips were as they unfolded day by day, but to people who haven't gotten to know the hilariously unpredictable Nice Pete and the ever-credulous Philippe over dozens and dozens of strips, those examples will doubtless just look like more weird-ass tripe. And so they'll think "why should I devote any time to getting to know or understand this?" and just shrug it off till the next opportunity to bash the strip. On preview: Well, o2b proves me wrong. heh. I'm gonna post this anyway.

By: fizz-ed

fizz-ed — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:52:56 -0800

"But unless I'm missing something, Achewood sucks really badly." As others have said, it takes a little time to get into it, but once you do you will be hooked. I hated Achewood the first time I saw it, it wasn't until I sat down and read it from the beginning that I really began to appreciate it. Go to the site and read the first couple months, if you aren't a fan after that I'll give you your money back.

By: Stan Chin

Stan Chin — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 15:12:55 -0800

In the interest of the benefit of the doubt, I went back to the beginning at March 12, 2002 and read until May 12, 2002. Pretty much from the Party until they started the Spanish television thing. I even read all of the alt tags. The thing is? I could really pinpoint where some people would find amusement. I can see where he's making a joke, and how, after an understanding from reading the past month's strips, you might find it hilarious. But god damn, it still sucks. Take this strip with the Jesus jokes for example. It's pretty easy to find out where the funny is being attempted, but misses the mark. It's not that some of us don't get it. Take for example the movie Dodgeball. I saw this on opening night, with a rowdy audience. They thought the movie was the funniest thing ever. But every joke, every point of humor was so obvious it was excruciating. If Dodgeball was the lowest common denominator, and Achewood is the highest, then I'm pretty comfortable with being in the middle.

By: dorian

dorian — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:01:13 -0800

(apparently) like many people, at first I thought it was totally stupid. but then later the cardhouse robot (or someone) kept recommending it, and so I tried again and damn if it was not heck of benjamins funny. one of my favorite bits. even worse than a crowd full of idiots thinking that some crappy movie is the funniest thing ever, is them thinking that all the lame jokes that were pre-exposed in the all-too-revealing previews are the funniest things ever. ghod I sure do hate dottyville-on-the-pacific. oh yeah, the blog stuff -- doesn't do much for me, eh. ray's place is vaguely entertaining tho.

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:48:39 -0800

I bought all three prints of achewood. It was worth every penny.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 17:31:43 -0800

Me, I don't get Goats. De gustabus blah blah blah.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:04:05 -0800

Determined not to "miss out" on something all the cool kids like, I read through some of the archives. This is the only one in the first year that made me chuckle, but it was truly a legitimate chuckle.

By: Capn

Capn — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:08:39 -0800

They say humour is subjective, but you people are WRONG! Wrong wrong wrong wrong, wrong!

By: cell divide

cell divide — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:22:59 -0800

It also took me a while to get into it. I think it helps if: 1. you are a male who grew up in california/arizona/washington/oregon/nevada/a suburb of most major cities 2. did some computer stuff at one time 3. were born between the years of 1966-1988 4. made some money, preferably in the dotcom era 5. have travelled to europe 6. have experimented with drugs/drunkenness/bad music/weird behavior 7. enjoy the use of modern dialects and region-specific accents 8. Have a wry sense of humor 9. spend too much time online 10. went to a good college 11. have read a decent amount of novels/genre stuff these are just some observations about basically where the humor comes from.

By: geekhorde

geekhorde — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 22:25:08 -0800

I heart Philippe! Philippe for President!

By: togdon

togdon — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 22:58:10 -0800

I'm on vacation and wearing my Achewood varsity t-shirt right now, good to know I'll have tons of Onstad reading when I get back. I <3 the hell out of this little comic strip, but I then again I hit all 11 of cell divide's points... To add three more: 12. enjoy obscure pop culture references. 13. basic understanding of what it would be like to be Roast Beef. 14. know a Ray.

By: jjg

jjg — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:09:57 -0800

The part that I really don't get is the part where we get thread after thread of Achewood fans trying to convince the rest of us that we're lame for not liking it.

By: humuhumu

humuhumu — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 00:00:24 -0800

trying to convince the rest of us that we're lame for not liking it. Not at all... I'd love it if you liked it - then you'd get the same enjoyment out of it that I do. This isn't a superior thing. It's a wanting-to-share thing.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 08:01:43 -0800

The part that I really don't get is the part where people who don't like Achewood feel the need to come into threads like this to try and convince the rest of us that it's not funny. I mean, yeah, we get it. You hate Achewood. Great. I posted this because I thought it was an interesting blog experiment, not to have yet another referendum.

By: smcbride

smcbride — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:05:33 -0800

I mean, yeah, we get it. You hate Achewood. Metafilter: Your Favorite Webcomic Sucks.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 08:53:10 -0800

Well, it may be all a short-lived satire on blogging culture -I really can't imagine him keeping this going much longer - but all the blogs have indeed updated, for those that are interested. Ray Roast Beef Pat Teodor Philippe Mr. Bear Lyle Molly Chris Oh yeah - I was hoping to find a certain fave strip to use as my link for "hate," above, but had to settle for my second choice. Finally I found it, and guess what - it's about Mr. Bear's blog!

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:52:30 -0800

One more update: Not only are the blogs still going two weeks later (some more sporadically than others - where the hell is Teodor?) but now even Nice Pete and Little Nephew are blogging (still no Todd - couldn't he audioblog?). Also, today's strip shows the first explicit crossover from the blogs' storyline, as Lyle's ruminations about starting a taco cart from all the leftover grub he brings home from his busboy job become a reality.