Chat with Onstad

[jay-ell]

jldunston: Hello Mr. Onstad.  Are you enjoying your first message-board free day?
RSmuckles: I feel like I'm flying; I feel free
jldunston: Good, I'm glad.  
jldunston: These are a crazy bunch of bastards here.  
RSmuckles: how is your first day managing the shitstorm
jldunston: It hasn't been bad.  
jldunston: I made a thread just to lock it.  
jldunston: It felt good.  
RSmuckles: I can't believe you want to deal with all that crap
jldunston: I am better at the internet than I am at real life.  
RSmuckles: well, do let me know if anything particularly hairy crops up in the messageboard.
jldunston: Ha!  You do still care!  
jldunston: No, I understand that you needed a breather.  
RSmuckles: I only mean legal issues of people printing unlicensed achewood books etc.
jldunston: It is hella crazy work.  
jldunston: I will keep them in line as best I can.  
jldunston: And if anybody creates any animations or such fan art that doesn't suck, shall I let you know also?  
RSmuckles: It's a huge waste of time and it's not a break, it's a permanent vacation. I don't want feedback on my work, it's distracting. Plus the board made Achewood look like it was only followed by (mostly) fools, so it was bad advertising. Big strips don't have messageboards.
RSmuckles: Sure, I like seeing little animations.
jldunston: There are a lot of fools involved.  
jldunston: But also some nice people.  
RSmuckles: well, I'm glad they all gather around achewood, that is nice.
jldunston: You are like the vengeful angry God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  I am like the touchy-feely new-age God who cares about people's feelings.  
jldunston: I would have moved Sodom and Gomorrah to a new ISP.  
RSmuckles: I guess I am like actual god: I do not exist anymore and am not interested in "Earth."
jldunston: I hope you still exist, otherwise my new message board is going to run out of things to argue about...someday.  
RSmuckles: idiots will always find something.

[ferocious j]

That is rad as hell.

[The Wonderous Me]

Huh? if he really didn't want feedback on his work he wouldn't be selling merchandise. Isn't comercialism a form of feedback? I realize the new-age philosophy of "screw the world, I'll do what i please"(not an Onstad Quote) but I'm sure if the comics started to blow todd's balls and no one read them he'd want to know.. or maybe if he's into art, for art's sake he would be content to spew his art into a vacuum. Don't get me wrong when I found his comic, and got a week into it, I went back and read each and every comic since the begining(I know I'm an internet looser). His sense of humor kicks major ass, and I never thought I'd say that a static/non-moving comic could have the best timing, but somehow his timing is the best! Maybe those peaches(nectarines) he was eating were made of wax and he is experiencing some dietary deficiency.

[slink]

Huh? if he really didn't want feedback on his work he wouldn't be selling merchandise. Isn't comercialism a form of feedback?

Yea, it's a form of feedback, it's not being told on your own message board day in day out that you suck cos you're not doing what each individual person wants though. All the posts saying - too much Ray/I want this to happen/how about making my character etc must have been soooo frustrating. Better to just let him get on with what he does.

[Asherdan]

Thanks for posting that JL.  That was both rad and somewhat illuminating.  I tend to not take anything on a board seriously or personal, but a creative person with a deep connection to the work...the constant clamor and criticism and all must be galling as hell if you don't have titanium skin.

Cool, I've reached the acceptance level, I can drop it.

[jay-ell]

Conversations with Onstad are always uncomfortable for me because he's so damn weird.  He always manages to make me feel like a nine year old boy who can't catch a baseball.  But I will try to keep in touch with him on your behalf (we seem to have a good rapport anyway) so I can bring you special insider information about what he's doing with the strip and the merchandise.  Especially new shirt designs, etc.  I will pass along any information Onstad is willing to share.  

And that is a stone cold computer promise.

[CortJstr]

I kind of expected a bad mood, but that was a little more bitter than I expected

[Edit: I'm now Dr. Kisses! Take that you lowly neuticals!]

[jough]

You know, while I think Onstad is being a dick about the message board thing (he's not a dick because he doesn't want to moderate his own board anymore - he's a dick because he got all pissy when people didn't like his new feature and did that "I'm taking my ball and going home" thing within a few hours with little notice), I can understand the desire to free yourself from those voices.

I'm a poet (there's a phrase that'll clear the room) and I know that at some point not long into my schooling I found poetry workshops to be worse than useless - they eventually became *harmful*.

Now, I never really respected the opinions of my "peers" so what they said made little difference - I'd accept the good advice and reject the bad just as I would in any aspect of my life - but it came down to the point where no one COULD help.  There was nothing anyone could say that would help me come to terms with my own art.

I know Onstad writes a cartoon on the web, but he obviously takes Achewood very seriously (as he should) and he treats his comic/writing/etc. as many writers do.  His strips are about plotting, timing, pacing, character development, narrative threads, etc. The little drawings are incidental.  A comic is his means, not his ends.

I hope he does find a little quiet.  Freedom from morons must be a good feeling.

But he's always welcome to drop by here.  We'll leave a place set for him, with a nice glass of Pinot Noir waiting by his side-plate.

-- Jough

[AlohaDawg]

Jough's right.

But I think there is value to feedback.

Most of us are here because we like Achewood. Ooops...that's feedback, isn't it...in fact, every single post under the dumbrella and then over here is feedback, isn't it? Life is about feedback - every verbal and non verbal communication is feeding back to something. Buying/not buying merchandise is feedback, too.

And so is telling your fanbase to go screw themselves. Good thing I figure taking a comic personally is unhealthy. The one for today (Aug 1) is kind of punishing. BUT I like Achewood and I don't dislike Onstad. I think being an artist is hard (I'm not one in real life) but if you don't have some wealthy old patron out there writing you regular, life-sustaining checks you better make sure the people buying your staff will keep buying. Which means, occasionally, suffering the indignities which come with <having> to be somewhat customer oriented. Which sucks, and I can say that,  having spent part of my career doing health outreach and telling people they have syphilis. In a client-centered sort of way of course.

Try to put a pretty bow on THAT interaction some time...and tell me it's so hard to at least be gracious to the small percentage of people on a message board who appreciate your work. And ignore the irrational, the stupid, those who insist on being fools. Because they are everywhere.

I still read it every day. I still think Onstad has genius in him. I just think he reacted without thinking and spoke sooner than maybe he should have. Besides, who knows what's going on in his REAL life?

Too long a post. Sorry. I go bye-bye now.

[Choop]

FOR SALE:

One (1) slightly-used, personalized, limited edition reproduction Achewood, volume 1. $7.95. Buyer pays all shipping costs.

[jough]

FOR SALE:

One (1) slightly-used, personalized, limited edition reproduction Achewood, volume 1. $7.95. Buyer pays all shipping costs.

I know you're joking, Choop, but we're going to have to ban posters who try to create their own Achewood merchandise and offer it here.

Go sell that shit on Ebay.

[jough]

And please don't post private conversations to the message board anymore without the consent of the other person, because that's just hella-rude.

[pmcd9]

I'll bet Choop didn't even re-create Teodor's dance from scratch.  You stole that shit from Onstad didn't you.

~Paul

[AugustWest]

Well, personally, I think all wrong thinking people are right.

Actually, I've just been sitting here wondering if I'm one of the fools to which Onstad refers.  I'll be so crushed if he doesn't respect me.

I think this is a much better solution.  An artist needs some remove from his audience.  He shouldn't be hovering over every conversation of his critics and fans.  Guy's got to retain some artistic purity.

I don't feel bad about participating in the board, either.  While I feel I've been much more a fan than a critic, I don't have a problem with the critics, either.

Let's face it folks, it's a lonely world.  When you get an opportunity to share something you enjoy with someone else, you should take it.  That's the beauty of the internet -- it allows us to find others who share our tiny little narrow interests.  There may not be another Achewood fan within 200 miles of me, physically.  This place allows us all to get together and create a strange, strange community.  How can that be bad?

I'm all for letting Onstad be Onstad.  I'll be AugustWest (at least around here).  That should work out for both of us.

[jay-ell]

I just had another conversation with Mr. Onstad.  He wanted me to assure you that he doesn't hate anybody and that it's not your fault.  It's just that sometimes, cartoonists and messageboards fall out of love and can't live together any more.  But don't worry.  You can still see him every other weekend.  

Also, I have some top-secret, members-only info for you.  "Touch me not" and "Girls come from Heaven" merchandise will be discontinued soon in order to make room for "Back to School stuff."  (Whatever that means.)  Vol. III will be out in late fall.  And he is coming out with the first-ever Achewood poster.  Keep your eyes on the Achewood store for the new stuff.  More news as it happens.