Hey all. Been a bit since my last update and I'm afraid I haven't made much progress in the interim, other than to make the decision to divide the archive into volumes. Naturally, I feel this will be more amenable to printing out and storing on the shelf, rather than the 800+ page monster it was going to be as one volume. Again, these are intended to supplement the published Dark hoss volumes, so my archive will not include any comics published prior to 05/07/2002, nor will it include The Great Outdoor Fight. They will also only include freely available material and nothing from any of the paid archives.

Attached are links to the Table of Contents/Title Page and the Archive itself.

The volume division does present the unique issue of requiring individual titles for each volume. I'd love for you guys to help me come up with titles, sourced from iconic dialogue, etc and such in the strips within. For those unaware, the Dark hoss volumes are:

Vol 1: The Great Outdoor Fight
Vol 2: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar
Vol 3: A Home for Scared People

My ideas:

Vol 4: A Sojourn into Destiny
Vol 5: The Martha Stewart of Condoms

Any suggestions to improve these, or ideas for future titles?

Thanks guys! Hoping to put in more work on the archive soon.

My God, it finally happened.

Funny thing - I went to make a recipe last night and couldn't find the cookbook. Has a crazy Achewood fan burgled my house? They didn't steal the comics collections.

Fortunately it was a simple recipe I could remember. I will have to take everything out of the cookbook cabinet and do a serious search today.

 

... I can neither confirm nor deny any involvement in said activities which may or may not have occurred.

Let there never be ill spoken of the man. Just had this email exchange with Chris today:

Subject: A Request.

Mr. Onstad:

As I know you are a busy man, I will keep this brief.  I am a longtime reader and a huge fan of your work.  I also have a passion for cooking, and have recently entered a phase of my life in which I have much more time to spend in the kitchen. Recently, I have been dying to try some of Achewood's recipes as Nice Pete's fried chicken is one of my favorite recipes. I unfortunately missed out on purchasing the Achewood Cookbook when it was still available, and cannot find a copy for procurement anywhere. I am more than happy to pay good money for one, but as I said cannot find it. I know that you are no longer in the merchandise business, but I would love to exchange money for a digital copy of the Achewood Cookbook. I have donated to the tip jar in the past and will do so again in whatever amount you desire, or I can send the money to you more directly. All I request is that you email me a PDF or equivalent of the cookbook. It will not be shared with others. I sincerely hope you consider my request, as I am eager to try some of your recipes. Best wishes.

Thanks for the years of laughs,

Spencer

Re: A Request.

Hi Spencer,

Thank you for the note, which is rather timely. I am in the process of
putting together an "honor system"-type store, which would have a lot
of our digitally-transferable content available for free download and
a suggested tip amount. The cookbook would be among these.

It's my hope to have this going in a couple weeks. Thanks for helping
inspire me to get it done. I'd just send you a PDF of the book but
there just isn't one.

Best,
/C

Thanks for all of the responses!  Sorry for the delay, uni is starting up again and I have less and less time for such diversions as cookbook-hunting.

That strip was Bullshit.

It was neither Interesting, nor Fun, nor filled to the Brim with Good Times™.

Hello All!  I'm back, and I've finished analyzing Achewood: Volume II: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar.  Now, I say analyzed, because I've already read it for pleasure a couple of times, and loved every page.  It is a great buy, not expensive, and I highly recommend it.  No, I went back and compared the book, strip by strip, to the site to see if there were any omissions, just for the sake of completeness.  There are a few, but they seem to be due to page or content constraints; there's really nothing that was omitted that would be worth getting upset over.  Especially when you look at how awesome and gorgeous the whole anthology is.  Anyway, I thought I'd share my findings just so everyone could be aware of what is and is not in the book:

-This anthology is 136 pages long and covers the strips which ran from 10/01/2001 - Phillipe is Standing on it through 05/08/2002 - Breakfast in Bed.  It includes titles, alt-texts, and commentary by Chris for every strip, as has already been mentioned.  There are also achewood maps, pictures, and bonus biographical content on the various characters, concerning how Chris first encountered them.  They are great reading.

All strips which come before the introduction of the cats (01/10/2002 - The Dirtiest Dudes in Town) are relegated to an appendix.  The appendix, however, is incomplete, probably due to a page restriction, and is missing the final sixteen strips which run from 12/18/01 - A Dangerously Good Haircut through 01/09/02 - Van Practice.

It is unfortunate that these strips are omitted.  For one, 01/02/02 - I Love My Fat Son marked the beginning of the recurring alt-text.  The "Téodor's date with Penny" mini-story arc is concluded in the omitted strips, and Blister is introduced.  The omitted strips also contain some of Achewood's biggest "duds" or fan-condemned strips:  12/26/01 The Unfinished Strip and 01/08/02 Kung Foo.

Moving on:

Page 108:  11/12/01 - The Humans Show  is missing its alt-text (The first alt-text, to be precise).  This is most likely due to the fact that there were NO alt-texts in the appendix comics and there was really no need to put such an insignificant one "Early adopters will recall this as a bonus comic from 11.12.01" in.

In the main section of the book, there are five strips which originally ran in color.  Due to the fact that this book is a black-and-white print, they are printed in black-and-white.  Those strips are:

Page 34:  02/11/02 - Color Monday!
Page 35:  02/12/02 - Ordering Pizza in English
Page 36:  02/13/02 - Pork Chops
Page 47:  03/05/02 - A Glimpse Inside Ray’s Place
Page 48:  03/06/02 - A Fee!

There are also three (fairly pointless, Chris put them up because he was busy moving, I believe) one-off strips which were omitted from the anthology.  They are:

After page 23:  01/25/02 - Hey, You're the Best!
After page 37:  02/15/02 - An Ad (Also a color strip)
After page 38:  02/20/02 - Ebay Shopper: Let's Slam!

My plan is to re-create the style of the pages in InDesign or Photoshop and print an addendum to the book, which I will keep in the back cover, because I'm anal-retentive.

Once again, I intend in NO WAY to imply that I am dissatisfied with this anthology.  It is everything I've ever wanted from printed Achewood material, and more.  If you are on the fence about buying this anthology, don't be.  I just wanted to document the omissions for the sake of completeness.  Enjoy!

Hey guys, n00b here.  Avid Achewood reader, read the whole archive about a year ago, have started re-reading, and I'm thinking about just buying in print form instead.  I'm having some trouble deciding what to get/which editions, what have you, and I'm looking for a little guidance from the pros.  (I promise, I've already scoured the forum/achewood shop/amazon and can't seem to find the information I need)

I know that Dark hoss has published TGOF and Vol. II.  I know that TGOF doesn't include the alt-texts or Chris' commentary (bummer).  I know that Vol. II includes both.  What I would like to know is:

What are the differences between the original Vol. II and the Dark hoss Vol. II?  (Besides the cover, etc.)

Do the original compilations available through the Achewood site contain alt-texts? commentary?  Do they contain every comic? (are they "complete," essentially)

If I'm looking for the complete experience in print, do I want the originals, or do I want to wait as Dark hoss slowly anthologizes each one into a sleek collector's edition?

Does Dark hoss even plan to do so?

Sorry for all of the questions, but I've looked absolutely EVERYWHERE and can't find the answers.  Thanks in advance for the help, guys!

Spence