Rather surprising guest appearance at the end, there.

This strikes me as thread-worthy (did I miss a topic elsewhere?): the very first (and NSFW) "Achewood" page, from 2001:

http://rawdataserver.com/dude/series/series.html?url=http://zonker.stanford.edu/~boy#####/achewood/strip_1.gif

IMPORTANT NOTE: The ##### in that URL must be replaced with a five-letter word for "droid" that starts with the letter "r."

EQUALLY IMPORTANT NOTE: For some reason, this page is also choked with NSFW porn-spam, which seems oddly appropriate. But there's a lot of material here I'd never seen before, and lo it is raw.

Amends have been made with Teodor, it seems:

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=07032008

Another comic stuffed with alternate thread titles, including:

• Crazier than a man who would stick his hand in boiling water and dab his eyes with turpentine
• It'll play in Peoria and sell in Baltimore
• Their inner fucked guy
• A sex team -- just for fun
• You leave Google alone

Official press release:

F O R   I M M E D I A T E   R E L E A S E
February 21, 2008

Chris Onstad (Achewood) and Dark hoss Comics will publish a 96-page hardcover edition of THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT, Achewood's most critically acclaimed work to date. The book is expected to hit stores internationally in September 2008, with pre-orders on Amazon.com beginning in April 2008. The book will contain approximately 25% new material, including new scenes and large amounts of historical context.

Dark hoss Comics publishes such well-known titles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars, The Perry Bible Fellowship, Sock Monkey, Sin City, Hellboy, and hundreds of others. Dark hoss was founded in 1986 and stands out in its field as both a producer of world-class books and a champion of creators' rights.

THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT, $14.95 (USD), DARK hoss COMICS
For retail inquiries, please contact Diamond Book Distributors.

###

It's been speculated elsewhere that he is negotiating a publishing deal.

My take, repro-ed from deep in this thread (hope that's okay):

According to The Onion AV Club's interview with Onstad:

ONSTAD: I am actually working on a book... I've got all this content I'm talking about with kind of a major publisher. You know the "Great Outdoor Fight" story arc? I'm putting together… not quite a graphic novel, but I'm laying it all out as a linear story and adding new content and a ton of writing and background on what The Great Outdoor Fight is, and I'm hoping to publish that as some sort of perfect-bound, color-cover, proper edition. I'm just finishing the writing up for that. I think that will go over really well. Critically, I think, that was our finest hour. It really had a good response from people, which surprised me, because it was the first time I've really asked the audience to have patience, because they weren't one-offs every day or gag strips every day. It was a three-month narrative that really paid off, and I was really pleased, because I was afraid to do it at first.

And in this interview, he ups the ante by adding that there's a Hollywood deal in the offing, as well:

I would certainly like to see myself branching out into other media with this particular project and also with other projects. Today I was working on a screenplay. You know, where Ray and Roast Beef went down and fought in the Great Outdoor Fight. We've got a couple studios interested in the script, so we're trying to finish that up and get it sold.

Putting it all together, the holdup seems pretty obvious:

"The Great Outdoor Fight" -- hell, that whole year of the strip -- was such a huge hit that Onstad got some Hollywood and publishing attention. From the sound of things, he probably got a major publishing deal to re-release the entire comic series in some sort of deluxe edition you'll be able to buy at chain bookstores.

I'm guessing the first release would be the "Great Outdoor Fight" arc, which would then be tied to the Hollywood deal, as comics-to-movie adaptations are still v. hott. If true, all of this will probably be announced in the next six months or so.

However, it's probably taking forever for Onstad to set it all up -- with his lawyer working to make sure he retains copyright and all that crap. And that's why all the micro-content (like the 'zines and the blog book and the freaking "baby updates" book) has been released. It's an attempt to fill the monetary void while something really big and nationally multi-platformed gets set up. (I'd also guess that's why he hasn't attempted any "Great Outdoor Fight"-scale story arcs in a while.)

If true, I'll bet the delay is driving him nuts. And I wonder if the WGA strike isn't delaying his plans somehow.

If there's some data about a New York agent floating around out there, would that support the theory?

"Bottom speed: absolute zero!"

It would appear I am literally one minute behind the other post linking to today's comic. Delete at will!