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Dominion posted:Maybe. He might also just be depressed and have low motivation to really do anything. I've been there, so I get it. He doesn't even have to be depressed. "Brain problems" could be shorthand for "Writer's block" or "Lack of interest in characters I've been writing since 2001". Ten years is a long time to write the same story. He might not want to admit that he needs a change, he might have decided to take a vacation, he might just be enjoying being a father. All of which can be construed as "brain problems".
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Mar 6, 2011 05:35
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And any one of those would be a very reasonable explanation if he bothered to issue one.
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Mar 6, 2011 05:40
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Hey whoa. I've been pushing that viewpoint for fuckin' months now. I totally agree with you. I've just gotten tired of people going "oh he must be depressed, he's so depressed  "
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Mar 6, 2011 05:46
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Locus posted:Or he wants some middle ground between "here is a new comic every other day" and "no Achewood forever". What could be a good middle ground though? One strip a month? That's kinda what we get now, and apparently isn't good. I don't read it, so I don't know what's up besides a vague idea, but isn't this what Octopus Pie does? Update massively, every few months? I was of the idea that Achewood was the main thing that Onstad did for income, but apparently that's not the case anymore, with the store closed and all. What I mean to ask is, how do the comics that have lots of time in between updates survive? Only because the artists have other sources of income and the fans are willing to wait? I'd hate a future where the Octopus Pie method is what happens, and the fanflow subscribers get to see the daily/whatever progress on the strips before they are all released at the end of some months. Zefiel fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Mar 6, 2011 |
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Mar 6, 2011 06:37
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Zefiel posted:What could be a good middle ground though? One strip a month? That's kinda what we get now, and apparently isn't good. 1 strip a month would be fine if A) That's what we had been made to expect, and B) if every strip wasn't a "hey guys, sorry I have been away but I'm back now" thing. The store closed for the same reason the strip is hiatus-ing: Onstad losing interest or brain problems or whatever. I dont think he made a conscious decision to stop selling merch, just that he stopped maintaining the store.
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Mar 6, 2011 06:41
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I'm just glad my Dude and Catastrophe pint glass managed to squeak through before the store closed. Now I just have to make sure I never, ever break or lose it.
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Mar 6, 2011 19:55
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Zefiel posted:What could be a good middle ground though? One strip a month? That's kinda what we get now, and apparently isn't good. Also, it is different when Octopus Pie released an entire story at once back then, whereas Achewood delivers 12 panels every 4-5 weeks. It should be compared more to Dresden Codak. e: You could probably make a game out of which strip updates faster, Codak or Achewood. Wait, game? I guess I mean place a bet. The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Mar 6, 2011 |
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Mar 6, 2011 21:10
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As far as I'm concerned, as someone who has not bought anything but the first book, Onstad owes me not a drat thing. It's his comic and unless you actively subscribe I don't think anyone has a reason to bitch about it. Yea, it sucks, but if you keep focusing on that you're going to make it harder to enjoy what there already is.
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Mar 6, 2011 21:21
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Syrant posted:As far as I'm concerned, as someone who has not bought anything but the first book, Onstad owes me not a drat thing. It's his comic and unless you actively subscribe I don't think anyone has a reason to bitch about it. Yea, it sucks, but if you keep focusing on that you're going to make it harder to enjoy what there already is. No one is demanding anything, it's all idle speculation anyway since no one has the balls to straight up write chris@achewood.com and say 'hey buster, your fans, the people who love your creative output, and love to give you money in exchange for products related to it, are worried about the future of the strip, and also kinda don't like how you've vanished without pretty much no other explanation for the hiatus, other than "brain problems," when they'd be pretty understanding and happier, were you to provide an explanation. ' Also goons are mystified or terrified of twitter it seems, where Onstad updates about his holiday in Orlando. To sum it up: a) Goons don't demand anything, they just worry about the future of the strip b) They would like a certain explanation for the lack of updates c) a stable schedule of updates would be nice too but not a must I'm probably wrong, but that's how I'd sum up the feelings of the thread these last pages.
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Mar 6, 2011 21:49
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Syrant posted:As far as I'm concerned, as someone who has not bought anything but the first book, Onstad owes me not a drat thing. It's his comic and unless you actively subscribe I don't think anyone has a reason to bitch about it. Yeah, but you could say the same thing about television shows. "I think House has really started sucking lately." "Well it's free, so it's not like Fox owes you a good show." I mean, really? Is that the attitude you'd take to a conversation about television shows? I don't think you have to feel "entitled" to a quality product in order to be able to bemoan the absence or degradation of one.
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Mar 7, 2011 21:34
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That's a decent point, but Onstad doesn't get a few hundred k per comic, and we don't sit through commercials in order to read them (when they are there).
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Mar 7, 2011 22:56
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Hate to say it, but at this point, I would pretty much accept it if he just came out and ended the thing, since it's really rare that a webcomic really recovers from a hiatus. I've seen plenty stop updating and eventually come back making half-hearted efforts to get back into a schedule, then splutter and die, sometimes halfway through a story, or after a few very infrequent one-off updates (and one time with a massive textdump summarising the ending he would have made). Real comebacks are pretty rare. I'm mostly annoyed that I never ordered that Dude and Catastrophe pint glass...
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Mar 7, 2011 23:11
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ChuckDHead posted:Hate to say it, but at this point, I would pretty much accept it if he just came out and ended the thing, since it's really rare that a webcomic really recovers from a hiatus. Exactly. Achewood has given me a shitton of laughs, bizarre turns of phrase, and even touching moments over the years. It has affected the way I talk. If Onstad said tomorrow that he wanted to stop doing it, I'd not make a fuss; dude's worked hard for several years on it. edit: By the way, I am pretty sure that the reason production has slowed down so much is because he's feeling low on creative juices. He's said in an interview "I’d rather take six years off than have a familiar gag". Interpret that how you will. Cobweb Heart fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Mar 8, 2011 |
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Mar 8, 2011 07:41
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glug posted:That's a decent point, but Onstad doesn't get a few hundred k per comic, and we don't sit through commercials in order to read them (when they are there). What does it matter how much he does or doesn't get? It's still free to us (and some people use DVRs to skip commercials).
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Mar 8, 2011 08:24
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The problem is expectations. If he pulled a Gurewitch and said "Achewood's done indefinitely, and I'll keep the archives online for a while but I'm not going to write any more," that would be cool with me. I'd be sad, but I've changed careers in the last 10 years too, and he's got the same right I do. What he's doing, however, is not managing expectations. He's advertising a subscription service and providing little value in return. He's promising "we're back!" and then "Okay, we're really back this time!" at longer and longer intervals. It's at the least disingenuous and at worst deceitful. As a dude who's had hella depression, I can empathize with where he is (if that's the Problem), and I really hope he's able to get help, but he needs to turn off the subscription and turn off the promises for right now. Continuously making and breaking promises contributed to my downward spiral, and it wasn't until I stopped making them that I could start healing. If we're lucky, a break (a real one, not the guilty one he's had for the past few months) will clear his head and eventually he won't be able to stop himself from doing more Achewood strips. If we're not lucky, he'll move on to something else. Either way I think he'd be happier and we'd know what to expect, too. He could turn over the store to one of the many merchandise companies that are around now and exchange goods for cash to keep the servers going a while (Plus I could get my Science tee that I always meant to get and never did). But this... this is just like watching a friend turning into a shell of himself.
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Mar 8, 2011 09:35
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What makes you think he's got Depression? I bet Onstad is reading this thread and is both horrified and amused by all this wild speculation. We have no idea what's going on with him and Achewood, and that's a fact, Jack. And it's the problem. But really, maybe it's none of our business.
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Mar 8, 2011 12:43
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ChuckDHead posted:Hate to say it, but at this point, I would pretty much accept it if he just came out and ended the thing, since it's really rare that a webcomic really recovers from a hiatus. I've seen plenty stop updating and eventually come back making half-hearted efforts to get back into a schedule, then splutter and die, sometimes halfway through a story, or after a few very infrequent one-off updates (and one time with a massive textdump summarising the ending he would have made). Real comebacks are pretty rare. Personally I think the last Phillipe storyline would have been a great place to finish the series. Phillipe was one of the first characters introduced and that storyline wraps up his character arc nicely, while also serving as an uncharacteristically sweet moment for the series.
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Mar 8, 2011 13:35
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Tricky Ed posted:The problem is expectations. If he pulled a Gurewitch and said "Achewood's done indefinitely, and I'll keep the archives online for a while but I'm not going to write any more," that would be cool with me. I'd be sad, but I've changed careers in the last 10 years too, and he's got the same right I do. i was gonna chime in, but this sums my feelings up very well. i agree with bigstupidjellyfish about the ending if only because he actually finished the story arc.
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Mar 8, 2011 15:00
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bigstupidjellyfish posted:Personally I think the last Phillipe storyline would have been a great place to finish the series. Phillipe was one of the first characters introduced and that storyline wraps up his character arc nicely, while also serving as an uncharacteristically sweet moment for the series. And it just ties the whole thing up nicely.
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Mar 8, 2011 15:09
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bigstupidjellyfish posted:Personally I think the last Phillipe storyline would have been a great place to finish the series. Phillipe was one of the first characters introduced and that storyline wraps up his character arc nicely, while also serving as an uncharacteristically sweet moment for the series. I could live with that, had he done Nice Pete's high school arc beforehand.
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Mar 8, 2011 17:58
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ChuckDHead posted:I could live with that, had he done Nice Pete's high school arc beforehand. Did that arc ever actually finish?
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Mar 8, 2011 18:12
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Dominion posted:Did that arc ever actually finish? I think a few people have made this comment about that arc, but yes, it did end when Roast Beef convinced Nice Pete that he didn't need to go to High School after all, and he let his hostages go free in this strip. There were a few weeks of one-off strips (Roomba, gently caress You Friday, Phillipe stuff) in between that broke up the story, and with big gaps between strips as his schedule ground to a halt, so that's probably why people keep thinking it never finished. That said, the word "continues" is appended at the bottom of the strip, so maybe that wasn't meant to be the ending after all, but it works.
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Mar 8, 2011 18:20
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Happy Hippo posted:What makes you think he's got Depression? I bet Onstad is reading this thread and is both horrified and amused by all this wild speculation. We have no idea what's going on with him and Achewood, and that's a fact, Jack. And it's the problem. But really, maybe it's none of our business. Oh, I agree that it's speculation. But he stopped producing his art for about two months, some of his tweets during that gap seemed almost mournful, and his first "I'm back" strip mentioned brain problems. If he didn't want to give that impression he disguised it well. But honestly it doesn't matter why. I just think that if he's moving on he should move on, and if he's not moving on he should get with the drawing alive stuffed animals again and put the store back up so I can buy t-shirts with alive stuffed animals on them.
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Mar 8, 2011 18:48
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I'm not sure he's depressed, judging by his twitter he's in disneyland. I'd expect something (probably more tweets) soon. Not sure how long a cartoonist stays in disneyland.
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Mar 9, 2011 12:40
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dolphins are gay posted:I'm not sure he's depressed, judging by his twitter he's in disneyland. I'd expect something (probably more tweets) soon. Not sure how long a cartoonist stays in disneyland. Less than six months, presumably, so it doesn't explain the van arc.
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Mar 9, 2011 12:43
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I'm not sure if this is allowed but I'll throw it out there anyway: Can someone either post the Achewood Cookbook's potato wedge recipe or PM it to me? I'm currently overseas, far away from my copy of it and I want to make them -- but I don't quite remember how. I just remember there was some trick that made them extra-good (You had to give them a second coat of olive oil at some point, I think).
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Mar 9, 2011 12:50
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I got bored, so I colored in a strip. I don't know if Onstad has specific colors for each character, but this is always how I saw them:
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Mar 9, 2011 13:38
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Is Roast Beef from space?
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Mar 9, 2011 13:47
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Mr.Roboto posted:Is Roast Beef from space? No, he's fanciful. You big jerk. *sob*
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Mar 9, 2011 13:50
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Teodor looks pretty true-to-life Lyle looks even angrier when he's a deep shade of red
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Mar 9, 2011 14:11
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Javid posted:Less than six months, presumably, so it doesn't explain the van arc. I don't know, have you seen some of the queues there?
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Mar 9, 2011 14:26
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Ubik posted:I'm just glad my Dude and Catastrophe pint glass managed to squeak through before the store closed. Don't put these in the dishwasher the loving green ink comes off and you wind up with yellow-shielded pint glasses. AND THEN ACHEWOOD DIES AND THE STORE CLOSES.
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Mar 9, 2011 19:44
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Is your dishwasher made of fire and acid? I've washed mine lots and while it's lost a little color there's still plenty of green visible.
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Mar 9, 2011 20:10
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BitterAvatar posted:Is your dishwasher made of fire and acid? Ironically my dishwasher is a piece of poo poo and frequently actual food does not come off the plates, but the pint glass ink came off pretty fast  Mine are well over a year old, maybe he changed inks at some point? The ink was completely gone after 10 washings, and I noticed I had done damage to them after about 4-5.
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Mar 9, 2011 20:16
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Odd, my Dude and Catastrophe glass has been through the dishwasher numerous times, and not a fleck of color has come off of it yet. Then again, my dishwasher is a bit wonky too.
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Mar 9, 2011 21:10
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picosecond posted:I'm not sure if this is allowed but I'll throw it out there anyway: Can someone either post the Achewood Cookbook's potato wedge recipe or PM it to me? I'm currently overseas, far away from my copy of it and I want to make them -- but I don't quite remember how. I just remember there was some trick that made them extra-good (You had to give them a second coat of olive oil at some point, I think). I am also very annoyed at myself for never buying that drat book.
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Mar 9, 2011 22:20
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I am more annoyed that I bought the second cook book and may never get it.
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Mar 9, 2011 22:25
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BitterAvatar posted:I am more annoyed that I bought the second cook book and may never get it. I imagine that pointing out that your cook book money probably paid for part of those Disneyland tickets wouldn't help here. How long ago did you order it? Is there no way to get a refund through Paypal?
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Mar 9, 2011 22:41
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I once bought an autographed copy of the Achewood cook book. It now belongs to a girl who doesn't speak to me anymore.
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Mar 10, 2011 04:32
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Ubik posted:Odd, my Dude and Catastrophe glass has been through the dishwasher numerous times, and not a fleck of color has come off of it yet. Then again, my dishwasher is a bit wonky too. I bought two of each kind of glass -- the D&C glasses had their ink gone within a month, but after at least a couple of years of pretty regular use and dishwashering, the achewater glass still looks fine. There must have been multiple runs of the D&C glasses and at least one run forgot some sealant step or something.
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Mar 10, 2011 04:54
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