Huffington Post on Hart … and Onstad (!)
by Joey Manley
Frankie Thomas of the Huffington Post says that Chris Onstad, “has the most fully realized vision since…well, since Bill Watterson, maybe even Charles Schulz.” Heady praise, well-deserved. He She goes on to call out individual Achewood characters and discuss why he she loves them. We’ve seen this kind of thing before. The strip has been known to inspire all kinds of love. So it’s perfectly understandable, and, again, all absolutely right on target. Achewood is truly as good as all that. What’s weird is that this longish paean to Onstad and Achewood breaks out, very unexpectedly, in the middle of a eulogy for Johnny Hart, creator of B.C., who passed away last week. It’s kind of like somebody standing up at your crazy old uncle’s funeral and saying, “Hey, doodad over there in the coffin is dead, sure, but there’s this new kid at the office … wow! Has he got what it takes! Cha cha cha!”
By which I mean to say that I fully approve. The dead get too much damned respect, if you ask me. They’re a dime a dozen.
(Via Journalista)
April 11th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
dude i think you need to get your head out of you ass and stop being a nerd!!!
April 11th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I havce enjoyed Achewood more than any other webcomic I’ve encountered, and I do enjoy a good webcomic. Thank you Chris Onstad!
April 11th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Thanks for reading my column, but I feel I should correct you on one small point: I’m a “she,” not a “he.” Don’t worry, it happens a lot.
–Frankie
April 11th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Frankie: My apologies! I’ve corrected the post.
Epicurus: Agreed!
Danny: You’re absolutely correct! I do!
April 11th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Yep, Achewood is sheer genius. Intelligently written absurdity.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:08 am
I’m torn about which emotion I feel more strongly: my undying love for Achewood, or my hate of the Huffington Post, and in particular, this particular mindless hack web-logger, who apparently needs roughly 1,500 words of falling in love with her own calculatedly-casual voice to get across the sentences “Newspapers are boring! The internet is changing things! I like webcomics.” Achewood deserves all the praise it can get, but seriously: when your blog entry is less profound, less edgy and (somehow!) even less up-to-date than TIME magazine, you should find another line of work, like shutting up. It also doesn’t help that the article about comics somehow manages to work in a level of pretension that remains entirely absent from the entire medium.
“So I won’t try here, except to say that Watterson was to newspaper comics what Stephen Sondheim was to musical theatre.”
It’s hard for me to explain why that’s such a smug, meaningless statement to make, so I won’t try here, except to say that Frankie Thomas is to having talent what the Hindenburg was to not exploding in a fiery mess of bodies and failure.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:48 am
Yeah, I mean seriously what have the dead done for us lately?
April 12th, 2007 at 5:39 am
Zing!
April 12th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I’ve been reading Onstad since 2002, and he amazes me. He’s an amazingly gifted writer, as you can tell from his blogs, zines and other supplementary materials. The Comics Journal profiled him last year and his acerbic wit made for a very entertaining article. He’s been able to make a living largely because of his business-savvy wife who organized the retail arm of Achewood early on.
One of the best things about Achewood is that the art is absolutely crappy, something he shares in common with Charles Schulz (but NOT Watterson). He still has yet to pull of an engaging long story, at least one as engaging as his one- and two-off strips. Even so, it’s his language that keeps me coming back. He’s an inspiration. I hope he never is on television.
April 12th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Hey gang,,
Opinions are like…etc, etc.
Whether or not we agree, everyone is entitled to one (even if they stink).
As for the dead… to say that they “get too much damned respect, if you ask me. They’re a dime a dozen.”
is simply ignorant, both in the literal and colloquial sense.
While some dead are admired for no good reason, achievment(s) that have lasting value (in the eye of the beholder), are worthy of respect. And, since that work is the direct result of the deseased person’s effort, that person’s memory is often deemed worthy of respect. It is small and mean-spirited to denigrate what is often merely “credit where credit is due”. (IMO)
April 12th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
“He still has yet to pull of an engaging long story, at least one as engaging as his one- and two-off strips.”
Great Outdoor Fight.
http://achewood.com/?date=01112006
April 12th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
The most annoying thing about all this is some of the comments here. You don’t like her blog, then don’t read it. I thought it was fine. Your criticisms are nit-picking and dumb. You’re the hack and I’m sorry I wasted my time reading your comment.
April 13th, 2007 at 12:09 am
As for the dead… to say that they “get too much damned respect, if you ask me. They’re a dime a dozen.â€
is simply ignorant, both in the literal and colloquial sense.
It was a joke. Whether you think the joke was appropriate or not is another thing altogether, but at least recognize that that sentence was not meant to be taken seriously. Much like, say, this: http://achewood.com/index.php?date=02212002
May 17th, 2007 at 11:10 am
[...] As a good liberal, I find it disturbing that the people who represent “my side” in national and international political media often feel the urge to kick recently-dead conservative corpses in the head. It bothered me when people did this to that B. C. cartoonist guy, and it bothers me when people do it to Jerry Falwell. As much as I agree with what Christopher Hitchens says in the YouTube video below, I wonder if now is the best time. I’m pretty sure it isn’t. There are important points to be made about religion, politics, and so on. Ragging on the recently-deceased interferes with the ability to make those points, and be heard, without looking like a mean obsessive. Just my opinion. Instead of seeing Hitchens go off on Falwell, I’d rather see the airtime, and the vitriol, directed at somebody who’s still alive, and who is still affecting public policy in a way that Falwell hasn’t, really, in years — Pat Robertson, say, or James Dobson. Ah well. [...]
August 18th, 2007 at 2:52 am
i did a thing