Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight (2008)

Part of my quest to enjoy, or at least understand the appeal of, Achewood. So far: it's not taking. It has its moments but it's not eliciting any fangirl squeal fro me just yet. Not sure if I should keep trying or give it up. ( )

The best book I own. Period. If you don't laugh, you are defective in the brain-parts. ( )

This is easily the most badass thing ever written. No joke. ( )

"Achewood" has gained a reputation as one of the best web comics currently being run. This has less to do with creator Chris Onstad's artwork (which is minimal and serviceable to his purposes) and everything to do with his talents as a writer. He brings a depth and inventiveness to his characters that is rarely found in comic strips from any medium, creating rambling story archs that exist not to advance any grand plot, but to give his characters new ways to interact. This book collects one of his more popular story archs, "The Great Outdoor Fight." The tale begins with Ray, an uber-wealthy anthropomorphic cat, learning that his mysterious father won the title competition in the early-1970s. Ray bribes his way into the event, bringing along his clinically depressed best friend, Roast Beef (a long-time fan of the fight who hacked his way into the competition), as a strategist. Onstad explores the many comic possibilities inherent in the fight, a three-day event in which 3,000 men compete in a last-man-standing brawl on three fenced-in acres of land. Other fighters include a country star who fights for the publicity, a squat Englishman who blogs about the fight from his Blackberry and a man who goes by the name "the Latino Health Crisis." Onstad's humor is character-based and dialog-driven, with many of his best jokes coming from his oddball turns of phrase (personal favorite is Roast Beef describing Ray's dad, a legendary brawler, as "the Thomas Edison of handing a dude his ass.") The comic's subtler elements reward rereading, and it eventually becomes clear that the story is as much about Ray's attempts to overcome his deeply hidden insecurities as it is about the fight itself. The book is a nice piece of work. Though it loses the alt-text comments that Onstad adds to every strip online, this lack of meta-commentary gives the story a more serious edge. He also makes up for the lack with a collection of material only found in the published book, including a history of the fight and its fighters, as well as other historical paraphernalia that Onstad seems to have a real knack for imitating. "The Great Outdoor Fight" is a great piece of comic work, and one that stands up to just about any graphic novel of its type.

(This review originally appeared on zombieunderground.net) ( )

The new material neither adds nor detracts. ( )