Achewood is funny most of the time...

[Fanboi]

but sometimes its not but people still think it is. I think some people will always say it is funny because they have been brainwashed. Comic strips will brainwash you in a couple of different ways. First of all they use pseudo-intellectual jokes to make people feel as though they are intelligent. A joke will seem like you really have to understand some complex form of humor in order to get the jokes. Its as if the jokes have an air of wittyness about them. The reader doesn't necessarily understand the joke but he fools himself into believing that the joke was funny. The reader wants to be perceived as being intelligent. In order to appear intelligent the reader will fool himself into believing a joke was funny. When confronted the reader will make claims like, "You have to read some of the previous strips to get this one. Trust me, its funny." Peanuts is a good example of this technique. Sometimes I swear Charles Schultz was using the same panels over and over again. It seems like it followed a formula. One pane showing a preview of the subject matter. This would be followed by 3 or 4 panes of what seemed to be setting up the joke. Then in the final pane there would be a pseudo intellection statement made by one of the characters that was totally unrelated to the rest of the strip.
Another way these strips work is through the use of time drains. After spending so much time reading a strip people are loathe to admit the strip wasn't funny. Admitting the strip wasn't funny would be admitting that you have just wasted some of your life completely. "Family Circus" is a good example of this technique. How many of us have followed little Billy's path repeatedly knowing full well that nothing funny was going to happen to Billy? Yet we refuse to admit to ourselves that the Family Circus just isn't funny.
As far as the Achewood goes I feel it has potential. It doesn't have any of the traditional boundaries associated with comic strips. Sometimes it even approaches classic strips like Spacemoose. I don't mind so much when the writer has writers block. Hey, at least he is honest and doesn't try to have us believe he was away at an important meeting in Paris with the top artists from across the globe. I also like the fact that the Achewood is ethnically diverse. You can tell that that girl Phillipe likes is asian because she calls him fee-reep. As an American-African I find that my particular group is not represented in comic strips. I can't even seem to get my neighbors to stop calling me white. I'm not white, I'm an American-African. Perhaps the Achewood could start a new character that would appeal to my particular ethnic group. I'm not sure how many of us there are but I think it would be interesting for all different types of people to see a little bit of our culture.
In closing I would just like to thank the people at the Achewood for thier effort. They put forth an overall great strip and I am appreciative of thier willingness to try to make my day a little brighter. Kudos to the Achewood.

[slink]

but sometimes its not but people still think it is. I think some people will always say it is funny because they have been brainwashed. Comic strips will brainwash you in a couple of different ways. First of all they use pseudo-intellectual jokes to make people feel as though they are intelligent. A joke will seem like you really have to understand some complex form of humor in order to get the jokes.

Or... Maybe it is funny to most people but you feel it tends to run into the 'pseudo-intellectual punchline' route that you accuse Peanuts of.
I for one feel Achewood is one of the strongest comics around. I would rate it up there with Calvin and Hobbes, as my two favourite strips (off the top of my head).
I don't think Achewood brainwashes people. Or other comics for that matter. I think there is a demographic who pretends to understand the humour when they don't, like people who say Twin Peaks was cinematic genius, while secretly wandering what the fuck was with the dwarf talking backwards.
I also don't think Achewood goes for the intellectual punchline all that often. When it does, it is genuinely smart, and funny, but most of the time     it is going for straight out life-experience humour (see Beef and Ray's Vas Deferens flashback).
One of the things I really appreciate about this board is that it has brought together the more intelligent and devoted Achewood readers, proving for some interesting, and, erm, interesting topics of conversation.
But I digress...
My point is, when the 'Wood does go for a smart, witty punchline, Onstad can pull it off superbly, but when he's going for something like "You guys been packing hot lunches in my elevator?" it works just as well. Onstad reads into both the intelligence of writing, but also the every day occurrences of some strong characters.
Examples of some of the intelligent use of humour are best evident in Ray's Place off hand, since finding particular strips as evidence would be long-winded, particularly on the part of a lazy procrastinator such as myself.

The Variety Hour, where this seems to be posted, the above does not apply to!

(edit: for strips written by a black guy bets place to look would be at Antar's via www.drewweing.com - Drew's flatmate who publishes through Failure comics. - The Basement)

[Asherdan]

WHAT WAS NOT FUNNY THE FIRST TIME IS NOT FUNNY THE SECOND TIME.  IT IS IN FACT WORSE BY A FACTOR OF FOURTY-TWO.

THIS IS ALSO NOT A REAL PERSON.

[ferocious j]

Yeah, this is that dude who was more or less responsible for the downfall of the original Achewood board.  LAME

[slink]

Yeah, this is that dude who was more or less responsible for the downfall of the original Achewood board.  LAME

There was only the one?
But OK - send on the Joughster!
I wonder now why I wrote such a lengthy reply, then I remember - I'm reall really bored tonight!

[jough]

As long as Fanboi behaves himself here he is more than welcome.

Hmm... it seems he *has* signed up for more than one account, though, which is a highly bannable offence...

[jough]

Moving to Achewood main...

[V-Adore]

I just love how it's a direct copy-paste of the initial rant. He couldn't even update it? Kee-rist.

(Buckling up for threads about Ray and Beef "doing it doggy-style...")

[jough]

There was an original rant?

As an American-African I find that my particular group is not represented in comic strips.

So you're an American that moved to Africa?

I can't even seem to get my neighbors to stop calling me white.

Oh, I know.  I get that all the time.  People just always go up to other people and call them "white."

It's really a problem.

[Choop]

Fanboi, for you here are ten things:

1. If you don't get the joke, that doesn't mean it isn't funny. You just didn't get it.

2. Charles Schulz did reuse panels. He usually redrew them, as he didn't have Adobe Illustrator, but you try writing a cartoon for more than fifty years and not reusing panels.

3. After reading a strip for an extended period of time (in some cases not that extended), its style of humor reveals itself to you. You appreciate it for its style, regardless of how it coincides with your own style.

4. Family Circus is not funny. Family Circus has not been funny (to me, at least) since I was about four years old. I have no problem admitting this, even to myself.

5. Achewood not only has potential, it is kinetic. You seem to fail to appreciate the energy it expends and the energy it creates. This forum is an example of said energy. Why would there be a whole web-board based on a comic if it weren't funny, or if it were funny only in potential?

6. You can tell that Ultra Peanut is asian because in her first appearance her thought bubble contains only kanji (or a different asian alphabet, the name of which I am unaware).

7. How do you know Ray isn't black? Or Chucklebot? Or Mr. Bear?

8. If you're white, and live in America, you're not considered African-American. Your roots in Africa don't go back that far; so sorry. If you're white in America, and have an accent not generally accepted as "American," you're "worldly." That's it. Don't take away from any minority in our society by adopting a generally culture-identified demarkation as your own: it's oppressive. Minorities must have as much to call their own as majorities. Equality will never be reached with any other approach.

9. It's not "the Achewood." It's "Achewood."

10. The only "people at Achewood" is Onstad. Onstad is the only creator, writer, and artist of Achewood. If you refer to contributors to "The Variety Hour" as the people at Achewood, you need to understand that their contributions are solicited, and that they have no influence on the comic strip itself.


Oh, and one bonus "thing:"

11. Your name is "Fanboi." Merely for that, you lose all respect immediately. You may have called yourself "1337 h4x0r" - it wouldn't matter.


That said, with two posts on this board, you've got zero clout and no friends here. At these fora, as in life and as in Achewood, you've got to earn our respect to convince us of an opinion. Even with our respect, you may not achieve that goal. To that I say, "hot lunches."

[jay-ell]

Don't encourage him.

[Asherdan]

Listen, this crap bothered me enough to stuff my soul back into my still warm corpse and crawl my gasping re-animated body over to the computer just to write the following advice:

Ignore the type of shit Fanboi and Little Hobo post and let them suffer silence.  Putting your effort into combating stupidity is not a worthwhile endeavour.  If him/they choose to join in discussion in a non-troll manner then they have earned their way in, until then just let it go.

This does not mean that I do not appreciate or agree with the comments posted.

[AugustWest]

DNFTT

[jough]

I'm glad we all had this talk.

[FeeReep]

Fanboi is Onstad.