Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight

Catching up on reviews!

I haven't exactly made any secret of my love for Chris Onstad and Achewood (people who are actually Facebook friends with me, which is everyone on here, I guess, will note he's my only "inspirational person"), so giving this five stars shouldn't come as any surprise. You can make all of the accusations about Achewood dropping off quality-wise and I won't make a peep (I think it's peaked, too), but this is a shining example of the strip (is it a strip?) at its best. Onstad has his character voices down so tight, the art is spare but somehow perfect, and the jokes are magnificently executed. There's some fun back-matter type stuff to be had in the added bios of GOF champions of yesteryear, but the recipes section show more falls surprisingly flat for an Onstad production. My biggest quibble is that Dark Horse put a big 1 on the spine, which I think is bound to throw people as time goes on. show less

"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 show more 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) show less

The story itself is one of the many peaks of Achewood.

The extra material demonstrates, at its best, the very style that makes Chris Onstad the king of webcomicists. However, since it doesn't directly relate to my boys Ray and Beef, I find it a little hard to care until I enjoy its whimsy despite myself.

Takes the Survivor concept, throws in some (yes, even more than is already there) testosterone, and creates a story that is a million times more funny and interesting than The Hunger Games.

The Great Outdoor Fight by Chris Onstad (2008) tells the story of Ray, who finds out he is the son of a past winner of the famous Great Outdoor Fight and decides to enter the Acres himself and test his strength against 3000 men. The strips look great in print form, and the supplementary material is fun, detailed, and does not disappoint. It is also a beautifully designed book. I even like the way the cover feels. I am extremely enthusiastic about this.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2008/09/great-outdoor-fight-2008.html ]

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.