'Achewood:' not the average online comic
Scott Raynor
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: The Edge
The humor in "Achewood" also takes leaps into the surreal. In one strip, Ray goes to hell after selling his soul to the devil for a magical piano and sees blues legend Robert Johnson play at a Best Western. Ray falls on the floor and the flower patterns on the carpet speak to him, "Raaay I was a young Chinese man you made fun of at Office Depot. You said you felt sorry for me because I had early-onset male pattern baldness … and that I would never have sex, 'guaranteed.'"
"Achewood's" greatest strength is its large cast of primary and secondary characters based partially on stuffed animals belonging to Onstad's wife, and although "Achewood" has no official main characters, Ray and Roast Beef are by far the most prevalent.
Ray is a suave, fun loving former record label executive and a recently converted breast man. He is a confident man of ideas and somewhat representative of California culture.
Roast Beef is the massively depressed and anxious computer-programming cat that Ray implies is because "of the Internet." Roast Beef's writing is unique, written in a smaller font and employs no grammatical marks, suggesting a depressive manner of mumbling.
The overwhelming fan favorite is Phillipe, an adorable and na've 5-year-old otter who, at one point, becomes possessed by the soul of Billy Idol, runs for president with the campaign slogan "I am 5," and marries a petunia after the aptly named robot character, Lie Bot, convinces him that he got it pregnant by touching it.
There is also the calm and literary sadomasochistic murderer Nice Pete, the disagreeable homosexual vegan cat Pat, the vulgar alcoholic bear Lyle, Teador the somewhat "normal" caretaker of Phillipe, the elderly writer Cornelius Bear and the Slavic robot Vlad, who professes to be the "king of make-outs," among numerous others.
The characters are further fleshed out through Onstad's use of occasional blogs that detail the everyday life of characters missing in the strips. These are written brilliantly through each character's perspective.
"Achewood's" greatest strength is its large cast of primary and secondary characters based partially on stuffed animals belonging to Onstad's wife, and although "Achewood" has no official main characters, Ray and Roast Beef are by far the most prevalent.
Ray is a suave, fun loving former record label executive and a recently converted breast man. He is a confident man of ideas and somewhat representative of California culture.
Roast Beef is the massively depressed and anxious computer-programming cat that Ray implies is because "of the Internet." Roast Beef's writing is unique, written in a smaller font and employs no grammatical marks, suggesting a depressive manner of mumbling.
The overwhelming fan favorite is Phillipe, an adorable and na've 5-year-old otter who, at one point, becomes possessed by the soul of Billy Idol, runs for president with the campaign slogan "I am 5," and marries a petunia after the aptly named robot character, Lie Bot, convinces him that he got it pregnant by touching it.
There is also the calm and literary sadomasochistic murderer Nice Pete, the disagreeable homosexual vegan cat Pat, the vulgar alcoholic bear Lyle, Teador the somewhat "normal" caretaker of Phillipe, the elderly writer Cornelius Bear and the Slavic robot Vlad, who professes to be the "king of make-outs," among numerous others.
The characters are further fleshed out through Onstad's use of occasional blogs that detail the everyday life of characters missing in the strips. These are written brilliantly through each character's perspective.
Be the first to comment on this story