achewood comics fun funny informative linkblog play webcomics

My tags:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Achewood
Author(s)	Chris Onstad
Website	http://www.achewood.com
Current status / schedule	2-3 times a week
Launch date	October 1, 2001[1]
Genre(s)	Comedy, Slice-of-life

Achewood is a webcomic created by Chris Onstad in 2001. It portrays the lives of a group of anthropomorphic stuffed toys, robots, and pets. Many of the characters live together in the home of their owner, Chris, at the fictional address of 62 Achewood Court. Another address used in the strip is 11 Via Verde, the home of main character Ray. The events of the strip mostly take place in and around the house, as well as around the town of Achewood, the fictional suburb which gives its name to the comic. The comic's humor is most often absurdist, generally lacking a set punch line, and sometimes branches into the surreal.^[2] The most frequently used font in the strip is Blue Highway, which does not have any italic characters. As Onstad is a food and cooking enthusiast^[3], most Achewood strips contain some reference to food or drink.

Contents 1 History and overview 1.1 Etymology 1.2 The Underground 1.3 The Overground 2 Characters 2.1 Raymond Quentin Smuckles 2.2 Cassandra "Roast Beef" Kazenzakis 2.3 Philippe 2.4 Cornelius Bear 2.5 Lyle Roscoe Gabriel 2.6 Téodor Orezscu 2.7 Pat Reynolds 2.8 Molly Sanders 3 Early development of the series 4 Other features 5 Critical reaction 6 Bibliography 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History and overview

The first Achewood strip ("Philippe is standing on it"^[1]) was released on October 1, 2001. The strip sets the tone for future strips with its nonsensical humor and surprising visual punchline. In this particular strip, Mr. Bear and Téodor are discussing Téodor's confusion over a drum machine. Mr. Bear informs Téodor that there is an instruction manual. However, Philippe is standing on it.

Throughout Achewood, there is no distinguishable underlying storyline — aside, perhaps, for the general passing of time and development of the comic's characters and their interrelationships. Onstad's preferred method of story-telling is to develop his characters through one-off strips and short story arcs. Strips are humorous, relying upon inane and chaotic humor as well as social stereotypes, occasional burlesque literary and historical references, and strong characterization of the comic's many quirky individuals. The humor often depends on an in-depth knowledge of the characters and their interactions; a drop-down box on the lower right side of the home page entitled "Jump to a Story Arc" has links to the beginning of 46 story arcs from 2002 to 2006. Story arcs are often interrupted as the main action "cuts away" to the doings of other Achewood characters, which may or may not eventually tie in with the main storyline in progress.

Each strip includes an alt text, a one-sentence aside written in Onstad's voice that appears when the reader hovers the cursor over the strip. The first alt-text was the word "snif" on Christmas, 2001. The first of the regular full-sentence alt-text appeared on January 2, 2002, apparently excusing a weak strip: "whatever. it was late and a friend was over."

Chris Onstad has self-published fifteen books: seven collections of Achewood comics, two books by character Nice Pete ("A Wonderful Tale" and "A Hilarious Comedy"), six 'zines by another named Roast Beef, and Recipes for a Lady or a Man: The Achewood Cookbook with recipes from several of the main characters.

In the fall of 2002 Achewood 's "Sunday Edition" became part of the online alternative comics anthology Serializer. In their review of serializer.net, The Comics Journal wrote: "It's a pleasure to see strips like Achewood's "Sunday" strip ... use the newspaper format for far more daring, entertainingly perverse work ... would be perfectly at home at a good alternative weekly or a great college paper." Achewood is sometimes featured in the Chaparral, Stanford University's humor publication, of which Onstad is an editor emeritus.

On April 30, 2003, Onstad introduced a new feature to the Achewood universe — an advice column written by the character Ray called Ray's Place. This column has served to further develop the Achewood canon by allowing prose related to the characters to be written. The column has developed characters, mainly as perceived by Ray. It also allows for an interaction between reader and character, a novelty in comic art.

July 2004 saw the introduction of several in-character blogs. The main characters all began writing (using Blogger) to speak to their audience. This unique perspective further advances character development allowing the daily, often mundane, events of the character to find their way to the audience. Onstad stated in an interview that he found the blogs easier to maintain than the strip, as they do not require as much refining. This method of connecting the audience and the characters has been extended further with the opening of a forum^[4] supposedly maintained by Emeril, a character from the strip.

In late 2004, it was announced that Checker Book Publishing Group was to release a collection of Achewood comics later that year.^[5] Checker had signed Chris Onstad to a three-book deal that was to begin in November 2004. However, the deal was canceled soon after due to creative differences.

On September 12, 2007, Achewood was named "Funniest Webcomic" by humor website Cracked.com.^[6]

Chris Onstad participated in Song Fight! by creating cover art and title for "What We Need More of is Science", "Red Skates", and "Livin' At The Corner Of Dude And Catastrophe". The first title originated as a Roast Beef expression on merchandise. One Song Fight entry was performed by Milwaukee Youth Center Choir, who also wrote and recorded a theme for Ray's Place, Ray's advice column. An entry by MC Frontalot won the latest Song Fight and is now the current theme song for the comic.

Time Magazine named Achewood its #1 Graphic Novel of 2007.^[7]

On September 10, 2008 Dark Horse Comics published a 104-page extended version of "The Great Outdoor Fight" story arc, with a deleted scene, background material on the Fight and other original content.

[edit] Etymology

According to the official website, "achewood" was an ingredient used by slaves during the United States of America antebellum in the production of "achewater", a now outlawed Southern drink with psychedelic properties, similar to the use of wormwood in the production of absinthe. This liquor would supposedly induce melancholia in the drinker, hence the name.^[8]

[edit] The Underground

The Achewood Underground is an underground version of the human city above, inhabited and run by animals both stuffed and real, as well as several robots. The underground has its own businesses and establishments that parallel those above ground, and its inhabitants often steal or borrow things from their human counterparts aboveground. Aside from Achewood, it is assumed that most cities around the world have their own undergrounds as well.^[9]

[edit] The Overground

The geography of the Achewood Overground^[10] (compare: "Google Map of Palo Alto") is based on that of the Palo Alto/Stanford area. Dexter University corresponds to Stanford University, Achewood Heights is equivalent to Menlo Park, East Achewood is analogous to East Palo Alto, and the Achewood Estates/Achewood areas refer to different areas of Palo Alto.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Raymond Quentin Smuckles

Ray's Blog

Raymond Quentin "Ray" Smuckles^[11] is a cat, specifically, an American Curl, a breed that originated from Lakewood, California. He has expertise in such diverse fields as cookery, alcohol, underground street dancing, piano playing, entrepreneurship and women. Ray made his first appearance on January 10, 2002. Along with his best friend Roast Beef, Ray has become the central character of the strip; their relationship lies at the heart of Achewood. Ray can be identified by his designer glasses, his habitual wearing of a thong since the January 14, 2002 strip,^[12], the occasional fur coat, and a gold medallion which once belonged to the fictitious Incan Fun God, "King Chochacho".^[13] Ray often speaks of his heritage: his mother's family, the Culpeppers, are French Catholic Southern gentry, while his father's, the Smuckles, are a diverse collection of tough, philosophical underworld characters (more below).

Ray tends to be rather lucky, acquiring money in a variety of ways, including a record contract with Sony (after selling his soul to the devil for a piano that grants the buyer musical genius^[14]), an auspicious eBay purchase of vintage erotica valued at 600 million dollars, and various business ventures. Ray is Founder, President and CEO of Prime Time Records, which releases mostly rap music. Through eBay Platinum Reserve, he now owns Airwolf, Keith Moon's head, and the world's biggest laser. He enjoys throwing lavish parties with unusual themes. Ray drives a Cadillac Escalade. He is very generous to his friends and to people in general, but on an entirely random basis and interspersed with long periods of outright rudeness and total insensitivity. He also has a very serious obsession with Ketel One and Zinfandel alcohols. Although Ray personally obtained his musical skills from a deal with the devil, there has been at least one other musical genius in his lineage: his paternal grandfather Antonyne Cheops Smuckles, better known as the legendary bluesman Rustmouth Chafings.

On the other hand, he has a weakness for gambling, and often loses up to thousands of dollars while playing golf and pool with his friends. Ray has a penchant for prank calls, whether outgoing (Marmaduke, Cathy) or incoming (telemarketers). He also has a sexual fetish for women sitting on birthday cakes, although recently he has shown to have lost interest, and become a "breast man".^[15] Ray drinks alcohol throughout the day; numerous strips imply that he is an alcoholic, and his physician, Dr. Andretti, has repeatedly warned him that he is in severe danger of becoming diabetic. (Ray is somewhat overweight and potbellied.) A few years into the strip Ray learned his father, Ramses Luther Smuckles, won the 1973 Great Outdoor Fight, which inspired Ray to enter the 2006 Fight. Ray defeated all other entrants in the Fight except for Roast Beef (see below), and demolished the Fight grounds when he discovered that Fight regulations required that he beat Beef to unconsciousness in order to win. Ray has a half-brother named Dornheim Smuckles who is also the son of Ramses Luther Smuckles, presumably by a different mother. A young cat who lives with Ray -- Charley "Little Nephew" Smuckles^[16]-- refers to him as "Uncle." Little Nephew's parentage has not been established. Recently, Little Nephew began a friendship with Molly's brother Taffy. Molly's father Iorweth appears to have killed Little Nephew in order to bring him back to Heaven to keep Taffy company.

Ray also writes the advice column "Ray's Place" on the Achewood site, though there is a disclaimer at the bottom warning that the advice is in fact from a cartoon cat.

Ray was originally introduced as a minor supporting character, part of a trio of cats (along with Roast Beef and Pat) who were always seen together, and fancied themselves "the dirtiest dudes in town" due to their reputed penchant for foul language.^[17] As time passed, Onstad began to give the three cats individual personalities, and before long the focus of Achewood began to move away from the four stuffed animals living in the Onstad residence and onto Ray and Beef. The increasingly abrasive Pat remained in a supporting role, eventually turning the trio into a duo.

Ray is a member of a syndicate of other flamboyantly rich, jive-talking cats, including AKKOLADE and Bensington Butters, his rival. They spend their time on theme parties, weekend retreats and plotting to sabotage the other members' images.

[edit] Cassandra "Roast Beef" Kazenzakis

Roast Beef's Blog

Roast Beef (given name, Cassandra^[18] — when he was born he was mistakenly thought to be female), a cat, is interested in computer programming. He has a wife, Molly, who was formerly in heaven, where he visited her twice: once after being shot by Pat and once after driving a golf cart off a cliff while high on marijuana.^[19] Molly now lives on Earth, and is now married to Beef, as those who know him call him. Beef asked Molly to marry him on June 7, 2007^[20], which they made official on 5 July 2008^[21](the actual wedding comic was posted on 15 July^[22], but subscribers to Achewood's Premium Updates[1] were able to follow the wedding taking place on the 5th). Roast Beef has one brother, Michael, who goes by the name 'Showbiz' and enjoys drinking Tequizas. Showbiz attempted to sabotage Roast Beef's marriage but was foiled in this endeavor.^[23]

It seems that Roast Beef has had a desperately unhappy and impoverished childhood.^[24][25][26] He has seemingly incurable depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder, and/or Avoidant personality disorder, and considers suicide often, though no one seems to care. Recently however, his depression seems to have improved, particularly since he met Molly. Molly has also gotten him a light therapy lamp^[27], which helps when he remembers to use it.^[28] For a long time he lived in a trailer with his abusive grandmother, Gramma K., but has since moved out of the trailer and into Ray's pool shed. His speech balloons use a slightly smaller font than that of other characters and rarely include punctuation, to emphasize his timidity and unique manner of speech. Roast Beef possesses an impressive vocabulary and will, on occasion, sprinkle words such as "insatiable", "phenomena", or "corpulent" into his normally slang-filled dialogue.

He has been shot at least four times. One shooting^[29] lodged a bullet in his spine, which grants him permanent wireless Internet access (though this has only been mentioned once^[30] since, and he still uses physical computers to access the net). Another shooting resulted in his cardio-pulmonary system being replaced by that of an AIBO.^[31] He has also been shot at least one additional time by Ray and once fatally by Lie Bot^[32] (who was masquerading as Ray's uncle Culpepper).

Roast Beef's birthday is April 22.^[33] Some of his accomplishments include a program that determines how many eggs and how much milk you need to buy in a given week, and another that determines the amount of loose change lying around your house and makes a reservation at a restaurant accordingly. Roast Beef is partial to UNIX and his preferred programming language is Java. He likes Stella Artois beer and Guinness. He is perhaps the world's greatest historian of the Great Outdoor Fight, and drove Ray to compete (and win) in the 2006 Fight. He also managed to get into the fight himself by hacking the fight's database. He drives a 1965 Ford Galaxie (powered by Ford's rare 427 SOHC V8) that was a gift from Ray. He has also gone to the moon, by stealing Pat's home-made rocket, and to the afterlife (both heaven and hell), via various methods including some of the aforementioned shooting incidents and vomiting into an electrical outlet.^[34] He has also produced his very own zine, titled Man Why You Even Got To Do A Thing.

Roast Beef has written a number of poems, both in the strip and on his blog. A recurrent theme involves concealed weapons disguised as foodstuffs, and these normally conclude with a (presumably screamed) 'OHHH SHIIIT!'. Poems not utilizing the theme of weapons concealed in food do not correlate with the above exclamation, indicating that Roast Beef has a distinct fear of the hidden weapons.

According to Onstad, Roast Beef is one of several important foils to the increasingly central character of Ray. Ray's consistent optimism, sexual bravado, unwavering confidence, privileged upbringing, simple attitudes, and good luck makes him seem on the surface a complete antithesis of character to Roast Beef. Regardless, the two have been close friends since childhood, and it may be observed that as the strip progresses, each occasionally adopts the attitudes and perspectives of the other. The two do, of course, have a few points of dissent: Roast Beef is somewhat more sympathetic to Little Nephew than his Uncle Ray, and has taken issue with Ray's alcoholism.

[edit] Philippe

Philippe's Blog

Philippe is an undyingly optimistic and naïve young otter who resides in the house with Cornelius Bear, Lyle and Téodor, as well as Chris and Chris's family. His housemates collectively raise him with varied success^[35], with Téodor acting as a nurturing motherly-type, Lyle as a neglectful big brother, and Mr. Bear as a stern but gentle father. He is separated from his mother, who lives in Ohio^[36], but they talk on the phone frequently and have a close relationship.(At the time the Achewood cookbook came out, she was in Iowa.) Philippe's father is deceased. From time to time Philippe's mother sends him unusual presents.^[37]

Five year-old Philippe has made friends with a french fry^[38], mistakenly thought he impregnated Cornelius's prized petunia and married "her"^[39], cheated on his flower wife with Ultra Peanut (a Chinese otter), had a frightening encounter with a serial killer (Nice Pete), been possessed^[40] by the soul of Billy Idol, run for president^[41], and accidentally killed a robot.^[42] Phillipe became a 'father' to a bird named Franky. His birthday is on August 22.^[43]

Philippe enjoys hugs and is very gullible.^[44] Philippe has the strange talent of easily coming up with polyglot palindromes^[45], phrases that are English in one direction and another language when reversed.

He also has a bad habit of building up his expectation of presents he will receive, and often becomes disappointed when he opens them.

Phillipe seems to be perpetually five years old, and celebrates his fifth birthday every year. Far into the future^[46], Phillipe will still be the same age, even after some of the other characters grow old and die. Like most of the occurrences which happen in the strip, this is not explained.

A song by the synth-pop band Freezepop titled "Here Comes a Special Boy" about the character of Philippe can be downloaded from Freezepop's website.^[47] Additionally, the Song Fight! entries for "What We Need More Of Is Science" by Brody and Octothorpe are two different versions of the same song about Philippe.^[48]

[edit] Cornelius Bear

Cornelius' Blog

Often referred to as Mr. Bear (and "Connie" by Ray), he is a scholarly and fatherly figure to much of the cast, being much older than most of them — he was married to his first (now deceased) wife, Iris Gambol, sometime before 1967.^[49] He is unafraid to enjoy a drink of alcohol, and tends to be more erudite and romantic than the rest of the cast. It has also been implied that he has been imprisoned, and has had German, French and Austrian cellmates.^[50][51]

Mr. Bear is also the author of several children's books including So Many Whales, The Mayor of Banana Town, the "Oscar" series (including Oscar, Whose Pants Grew Too Small), and — during a somewhat later and darker period — Janet, The Girlfriend Who Could Only Ever Complain and Chug-A-Lug, The Train Who Drank. He wears pince-nez and is most often attired in an elegant dressing gown.^[52] Mr. Bear originally lived on Roxx Street in Cambridge.^[53] As Mr. Bear parents were English Cornelius absorbed British mannerisms as he grew up in the United States.^[54] Mr. Bear now lives at 62 Achewood Ct. In 2004, Pat shot Mr. Bear, and Mr. Bear survived. Mr. Bear has been seen driving an Austin Mini with a Laphroaig tap on the dashboard. The driver's seat on the right-hand side, indicating it was originally sold in Britain. He also owned (and presumably played) a French horn, though Ray wound up stepping on it by mistake.^[55]

Mr. Bear seems to command respect from nearly every member of the cast — with the noteworthy exception of the brash and petulant Lyle. This can be seen in almost every strip in which they both appear.^{[56][57][58][59]} He also won "The Badass Games," a manliness contest held by Ray and Roast Beef, a rather surprising achievement considering his gentle nature.^[60]

Despite a reputation for class, Mr. Bear seems to have low standards when it comes to employment. At various times, he has been a writer of genre romance novels^[61], a closed captioner for the Spice Channel^[62], and a paid lecturer for Mensa International.^[63] More recently Cornelius has become the proprietor of an English pub, a joint venture between himself and Ray. The naming of said pub has been the subject of much deliberation between the two characters although at the time of writing it was designated "The Dude and Catastrophe"^[64].

Cornelius has recently begun dating a stripper named Polly. She appears to be more socially adjusted than expected, and this has baffled the rest of the cast.^[65]

[edit] Lyle Roscoe Gabriel

Lyle's Blog

A belligerent stuffed tiger who enjoys playing pranks on his friends^[66] and takes his alcohol early and often.^[67] He is a talented calligrapher^[68] and cosmetician[2]^[68], and is apparently knowledgeable about cars.^[69] Lyle has a mysterious, possibly criminal^[70], tragic^[71] past which caused him to relocate from Gainesville, Florida to Achewood^[72]. For a time he also was employed helping recent Male to Female transsexuals "become sexually active and confident in their new bodies".^[73] He has also become involved in pornography. He recently returned from Scotland where he meant to learn how to make scotch, but instead became trapped at a finishing school. He's also often seen wearing a Misfits T-shirt ^[67][69][70].

He lives at 62 Achewood Court. Due to a combination of an illegal u-turn and some word salad, Lyle is a Registered Asshole in the State of California, complete with card and legal obligation to inform all neighbors within a five-block radius of his new status^[74] He is an extremely heavy drinker, who often vomits around the house after drinking, sometimes deliberately. ^[75] In the Achewood cookbook, Lyle says that he has held every kind of kitchen job, "from dishwasher to sous" (meaning sous chef). Lyle is close friends with Todd T. Squirrel.

[edit] Téodor Orezscu

Téodor's Blog

Téodor is a teddy bear, as evidenced by his portrait. He and his family originate from Minsk, Belarus (his father was an actuary) and is apparently of Jewish descent.^[76] He is a skilled cook, musician and graphic designer, and is also an all around friendly guy. He was originally quite crazy and uninhibited, exhibiting nudist tendencies^[77][78] in early Achewood strips, though he seems to have calmed down a bit over the years. These days he is probably the most "normal" out of the entire Achewood cast, though he is definitely not without quirks of his own (such as his passion for risotto). While talented and intelligent, Téodor is also portrayed as lacking motivation and direction. A large exception to this is the considerable amount of time he is shown exercising or cooking, of which he is especially fond (every Achewood character has at least a slight interest in cooking, but Téodor's talent in this area is the most proficient). He had an online relationship with a girl named Penny, but it is not shown how the relationship ended up. He has been shown to be in love with Molly, Roast Beef's wife, and has scolded Beef when he makes mistakes in their relationship. While the other stuffed animals of the house treat Phillipe as a roommate, Téodor instead fills the role of Phillipe's guardian while the young otter is separated from his mother; he goes as far as to buy numerous child-care books. He has appeared in numerous strips recreationally using marijuana and seems to also be a user of psychedelic mushrooms.^[79] Téodor's birthday is in early October.^[80] Lie Bot predicted his death to be on 28 April 2005. Téodor died on April 28^[81], after he choked on a Grolsch bottle cap whilst watching a pornographic film. Lyle performed^[82] a "Longshoreman's Heimlich" (swift kick to the gut), which dislodged the cap and revived him. Téodor listens to The Cure, Joy Division, and The Smiths.

[edit] Pat Reynolds

Pat's Blog

Pat is one of the three original cat characters, along with Roast Beef and Ray. Over the years, his role has receded into the background, but his is still a notable presence. He is a generally unpleasant character — he typically plays the antagonist — and seems to hate anyone that does not live up to his impossibly high standards of behavior. He seems to suffer from Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and has some anger management problems, for which he attends a support group. Raymond's mother revealed that Pat also suffers from Crohn's disease, though this could be attributed to some slight senility of hers.

Pat's interests in veganism, Zen Buddhism and his unusual stances on various social issues seem to be driven less by an appreciation of the philosophies, but more by a desire to feel superior to his friends, and indeed the rest of the world. He will often boycott companies at the slightest perceived provocation; for example, he claims to have stopped buying Kleenex brand tissues after he accidentally pulled three tissues out of a box instead of one, and stopped shopping at Whole Foods because of disgust with a female employee's visible armpit hair. His elitist, negative attitude extends to a particular focus on barbers and hairstylists, as well as toll booth operators, Mexican motorists^[83], and employees with disabilities.^[84]

Pat constructed the rocket that Roast Beef stole and rode to the Moon. He is on the run after escaping from jail (he was convicted for shooting Roast Beef, and later shot Mr. Bear as well, probably by accident^[85]), but it does not seem to have affected his lifestyle due to Ray's connections getting him off the hook. He lives quite comfortably on the lam with "Nice Pete," a serial killer he met in jail. Nice Pete also attends his support group, implying that the two are quite close. He drives a Ford Mustang II, and his favorite movie is Memento. After being electrocuted due to a prank by Lyle and Philippe, he temporarily became much nicer.^[86]

Pat disowned his entertainer father, Simon Reynolds, when the latter declared he was a homosexual.^[87] Simon has made efforts to reconcile with his son, which Pat has disgustedly repulsed.^[88] The entire topic of his father is off limits to Pat, suggesting repression issues. The comic has hinted at this complexity of his character for some time.^[89] Recently, his latent homosexuality was forced out into the open with the discovery of a magical Mexican camera^[90] that depicts a person as how they feel about themselves, rather than an actual photo of the person. Both Pat and his father are homosexual due to the curse of Gladdington castle^[91], wherein an ancestor of theirs was cursed such that all of his sons and their sons thereafter would become homosexual at the age of 26. Pat is currently dating Rod Huggins, a gay porn star.

[edit] Molly Sanders

Molly's Blog A cat, and Roast Beef's wife. Molly was born in seventeenth-century Wales. She died in the wreck of the Gwynqeathe in 1676 and went to Heaven, where she was able to keep up on developments in the living world and became interested in modern technology.^[92] Roast Beef first met her in Heaven after Pat shot him. Molly now resides on Earth, living in the pool shed with Roast Beef. Roast Beef's lack of social skills often means their relationship is strained, but Molly's extraordinary patience and tolerance (and Beef's willingness to go along with her sexual adventurousness) often win out. Molly may have been a programmer while in Heaven (presumably self-taught), but since she died long before computers and coding were invented she has no "earthly" qualifications as such. She has been currently working in the service industry since coming back to life; she has implied in her blog that she is unable to get better work because she does not have a social security card [3]. This is perhaps because she is legally dead (or even nonexistent as far as modern records are concerned). She has held jobs at various bars and restaurants, including Applebee's, Taco Bell (from which she was fired), and The Smoke (a local bar in the underground). For a time, Molly worked at an "upscale tex-mex place" called Butte, until a fire forced its closure. Molly was involved in^[93] sandwich porn for Vlad when she worked at his Subway restaurant. Molly has now secured a job at Starbucks which she claims makes her "the hub of Achewood's social universe." She has been running the "Achewood A-List" off and on since December 2005 (officially named on December 19, 2005 [4]). On June 7, 2007, Roast Beef asked Molly to marry him.^[94] Their wedding was just over a year later on 5 July 2008^[95]

[edit] Early development of the series

In the early months of Achewood, the strip takes place entirely at Chris Onstad's house, and the four original characters -- Philippe, Téodor, Lyle and Cornelius Bear -- are implied to be essentially trapped there. Philippe's appearance at the front door causes some Trick-or-Treaters to exclaim in fear, "Holy Christ, is that an alive stuffed animal?"^[96], and the friends are forced to hide when the pizza they ordered is delivered. There is no mention of having jobs, money or any real responsibilities. After Ray, Roast Beef and Pat are introduced, however, the characters begin to assume more complex personalities and exercise greater independence. This trend is accelerated during an extended story arc called "The Party"^[97], the first of the long-form storylines which would become a staple of Achewood. The transition from what had essentially been a gag-a-day comic was fairly abrupt – there is no run-up to "The Party." Instead, on March 12, 2002 all of the characters are shown lined up outside the Onstad residence waiting for Téodor to let them in and the comic concluded with the note “continued tomorrow.” "The Party" introduces several supporting characters, including robots, Ultra Peanut and Phillipe's mother.

Subsequent chapters establish more clearly defined relationships between the characters "Ray+Beef Road Trip"^[98], add additional depth to their personalities "Ray Sells His Soul"^[99] and follow the main players through major life events like "The Great Outdoor Fight".^[100]

Originally, Ray and Roast Beef were background characters, part of a trio of cats (along with Pat) who always appeared together and fancied themselves "the dirtiest dudes in town" due to their skill at vulgar insults.^[17] As time passed, Ray and Beef were given more and more panel time, eventually becoming the central characters of the strip, with the original four main characters taking on supporting roles.

[edit] Other features

Chris Onstad produces other material within the Achewood 'universe', including:

• Various blogs written by some of the comic's characters;

• A zine, Man Why You Even Got to Do a Thing, purportedly written by Roast Beef;

• Several novellas by the character Nice Pete;

• An Achewood Cookbook, aimed mainly at beginners, in which the characters provide recipes and cooking advice;

• A former feature called "Current Kid Status," in which Onstad documented the joys, travails and current events of raising his daughter. Ran from his daughter's birth in March 2005, until 27 November 2007. A compendium of these bits has been packaged into a book and is available for purchase at The Achewood Store.

• The Achewood Store, which includes such items as clothing, cookbooks, aprons, glasses and other assorted goods.

• A Twitter page featuring tweets about the daily activities of the Achewood characters^[101] (no longer updated).

[edit] Critical reaction

Achewood has been nominated for multiple Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards:

• 2004: Outstanding Writing^[102]

• 2005: Outstanding Writer^[103]
• 2006: Outstanding Comic, Outstanding Writer, Outstanding Character Writing & Outstanding Comedic Comic^[104]

• 2008: Outstanding Comic, Outstanding Writer & Outstanding Character Writing^[105]

Achewood received the Ignatz Award in 2007 and 2008 for Outstanding Online Comic.^[106][107]

Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it Number One of the Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007, praising its emotional range, the lyrical beauty of its otherwise at-times crude art, and referred to the series as "brilliant" and “profoundly genius”. Grossman explained that it deserved to be listed, despite the fact that it was technically an Internet comic rather than a traditional hardcopy or even a graphic novel at all.^[108]

[edit] Bibliography

• Volume I – A Momentary Diversion on the Road to the Grave
• Volume II – Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar
• Volume III – The Devil's Dictionary
• Volume IV – Ten A.M. and Drunk as a Lord
• Volume V – An Empty Cup of Rum
• Volume VI – The Dude Is from Circumstances
• Volume VII – Kiss My Ass, Bitch. I'll Be at Duane's
• Volume VIII - Emergency Party At My Place
• Volume IX - Soured on Beer and Given to Claims
• The Achewood Cookbook
• Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight
• Nice Pete's A Wonderful Tale
• Nice Pete's A Hilarious Comedy
• Roast Beef's Man Why You Even Got to Do a Thing, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
• Current Baby Status
• The Collected Achewood Blogs, Vol I, 1 July-31, 2004

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Achewood.com (official site)
• Review by The Webcomics Examiner
• Review of the never-released collection from Checker Books
• Ray's Place - Ray Smuckles' advice column
• Interview by Stephen Gerding
• Interview by Brian M. Palmer
• Interview by The Onion A.V. Club
• Award from TIME Magazine as the No. 1 Graphic Novel of 2007
• Interview of Chris Onstad by NPR.