Article published in Los Angeles Citybeat, 2009.
Achewood oil, if we are to believe Chris Onstad's website Achewood.com, was an ingredient that Antebellum slaves used in the production of a particularly potent potable known as achewater. "Drinkers of achewater experienced hallucinations and euphoria," the site says, "but the after-effects of the liquor produced a deep and lasting melancholy (hence its name)."
Achewood, Onstad's long-running, online comic strip, is a delightfully toxic concoction in its own right. The endless non sequiturs and bent wit can leave you feeling dizzy and hungover, but you just can't stop coming back for more.
The strip began humbly in 2001, when Onstad, then an anonymous toiler at a dotcom job, began posting web comics starring his wife's stuffed animals. These fuzzy friends were an endearing if seriously peculiar little crew who somehow managed to get into plenty of mischief despite the fact that they never left the house. As time passed, the daily gags gave way to longer stories as two minor characters, the hard-living cats Ray Smuckles and Roast Beef Kazenzakis, took center stage. Ray is all boastful, hip-hop machismo, while Beef serves as the mumbly, chronically depressed brains of the outfit. Their epic, surreal misadventures have taken them from Taco Bell to the moon, and everywhere inbetween... But none of these tales are so celebrated as The Great Outdoor Fight.
The Great Outdoor Fight, Onstad's new book from Dark Horse Press, collects the 2006 strips following Ray and Beef as they journey to the desert for a three-day fighting competition that's like something an emotionally troubled six-year-old boy would dream up after too much Kool-Aid. Amidst the hilarity and grotesque violence, Onstad actually manages to say something about the sometimes twisted codes of masculinity and the unbreakable bonds of friendship. As Ray and Beef ride into the sunset on a motorcycle, Beef revels in their triumph with a line that is at once ridiculous and strangely moving in its raw, unfiltered guy-ness: "This is completely a thing. Our every move is the new tradition."
In the world of online comic strips - far too many of which are sickly, masturbatory affairs about guys who spend their days sitting on the sofa and playing with their Wiis - Onstad stands apart, boldly creating new traditions for others to follow. But Achewood dazzles with quantity as well as quality, and even Onstad's most devoted fans would have a hard time trying to keep up with everything he produces. In addition to the comic strip he still posts four times a week, Onstad maintains a dozen blogs that are allegedly written by his various characters. For a time, Ray Smuckles even had his own online advice column, with a disclaimer reminding readers that the advice given by a cartoon cat should perhaps not be taken too seriously. (That being said, Ray's pronouncements were often a good deal more sensible than, say, Laura Schlessinger's.)
Along with all that, Onstad has also somehow found the time to oversee a merchandising empire comprising everything from shirts to greeting cards to his own brand of chili sauce - just about everything you could imagine, really, with the puzzling exception of Achewood stuffed animals. He's also been talking about expanding into videogames, he's been approached about an Achewood TV show and he's co-written the script for a Great Outdoor Fight film. With Onstad producing Achewood clothes, Achewood food and new Achewood stories in every medium available, you'll soon be able to live in an Achewood world 24/7.
Hey, you could do a lot worse.
