Our every move is the new tradition: Achewood returns!

[lincolnic]

I never thought we'd see the day, but Chris Onstad has relaunched Achewood over on Patreon. Weekly comics, plus extra stuff like the old character blog posts he used to write, and a bunch of other content. It just launched today so there isn't a ton of material yet, but Achewood was huge for me and I'm very excited that it's back.

 

[jpfriction]

800 patrons at $5 a pop min already. Good for him. I think I’ll let him build up a backlog before I sign up though.

 

[lincolnic]

I do wish he was publishing comics more frequently than once a week, but given the "small miracle" status of getting new Achewood at all, I'll take it. And he's already got a months-long buffer of material, so that's a promising sign.

 

[Eishtmo]

I remember reading the entirety of the wiki for the Great Outdoor Fight when it originally happened. It's a rather happy memory. Then the comic started updating less and less until I just stopped waiting for it.

 

[Paul le Fou]

We were just talking about Achewood the other day, and I was just remembering how damn good the writing was. Still one of my favorites:

 

[Violentvixen]

Something about Achewood went over my head. I have no idea what "pisses hell of ducats up the wall" means in the above for example, although obviously something to do with drinking but I dunno. I'm glad people are excited, but it always seemed to be referencing a subculture I didn't understand.

 

[jpfriction]

Invented a whole new way of talking, kind of like a more inscrutable homestar.

 

[lincolnic]

I have no idea what "pisses hell of ducats up the wall" means in the above for example, although obviously something to do with drinking but I dunno.

Something along the lines of "wastes a ton of money". Important context here is that Roast Beef (the character in that strip) says "hell of" instead of "hella" (or basically any other slangy modifier meaning "a lot"). Long-time readers of the strip would know that without thinking about it, but I can absolutely see it being kind of inscrutable if you don't have that kind of familiarity.

 

[Alex]

Achewood is not an acquired taste in the sense that it's "bad" until you read it enough for it to become "good" but it does get better the more immersed you are with it. So I usually recommend just picking an arc and reading it from there.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I just mashed Random until it all clicked together for me.

It’s a good policy!

 

[SabreCat]

And the peculiar language can be infectious. I started saying "man why they got to do a thing" after reading the Cartilage Head story!

EDIT: Flipping back through it, there's some casual use of slurs that I hadn't remembered. I'm definitely less comfortable with that sort of thing these days.

 

[lincolnic]

Flipping back through it, there's some casual use of slurs that I hadn't remembered. I'm definitely less comfortable with that sort of thing these days.

I've seen this in a lot of early/mid-2000s media from otherwise liberal creators (Venture Bros immediately comes to mind). I don't like seeing it either, but if it helps any, Onstad has said he deeply regrets using those words. Unfortunately I don't have a link to a quote on hand but I know I've read it in interviews.