Achewood
By Chris Onstad
www.achewood.com/

Since 2001, Chris Onstad has been following the lives of a group of talking animals living in the town of Achewood, California. The resulting comic has a dozen or so regular characters, including, Ray, the rich Speedo- and pendant-wearing dog, Philippe, a naive five-year-old otter, Lyle, a mustachioed rocker cat, and Teodor, a turtleneck wearing dog. They’re defined by strong personalities, mostly falling into the category of deviant, yet endearing, a combination that plays a large role in Achewood’s effectiveness.

Onstad’s humor is topical, though not necessarily satirical, and often plays on the naiveté of Achewood’s characters. One storyline involves Philippe’s attempts to organize an online pen pal service meant for people to read in the bathroom, but instead, attracts the attention of a pederast named Nolan, who appeared in a previous strip enticed by a coffee stand called “The Perky Pervert.”

As absurd and off-the-wall as Achewood is, however, it largely follows a formula, which can prove a touch tiresome, after many successive strips. Most episodes are composed of a series of cleverly scripted setup panels with a final panel for the punch line. Sometimes the strips go on for too long—five or six panels of dialog for a single punch line doesn’t always work—which is disconcerting, and honestly, confusing, since Onstad doesn’t seem bound to any specific form of layout. He allows plenty of room for his joke to play out, but, from time to time, could benefit from a bit of editorial direction.

Some of the comic’s most intriguing offerings occur when Onstad sees fit to break from form. Take the “Friday Fact,” newsletter written by Philippe (the fiver-year-old otter). These are made up, primarily, of headlines like, “Kevin Spacey is probably a good guy, but it makes me nervous that he might have secrets.” Ridiculous, and not really comics, but very funny.

Onstad’s art is comically crude. Reminiscent of Paper Rad’s lo-fi artwork, it looks like it could have been drawn by a child–which, for the record, isn’t meant as a slight. The simplicity of his art reflects the naiveté of his characters, which, considering its content, keeps Achewood’s tone forever light, regardless of how offensive the story might be. The only real drawback to Onstad’s style is that it is sometimes difficult to tell the characters apart. New readers, though, shouldn’t be put off; Achewood is so damned funny, keeping track of the characters should hardly be considered a priority.

– Ben Gold