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[arkabee]

if speculate that were onstadt not to be onstadt that achewood would suck.

as it is, we have a story world that is excellent and leaves us wanting more.

it is too bad he's dying of syphilis, though.

[pmcd9]

That was a pretty good strip.  Welp, see y'all next month.

[Lister]

Achewood is now a blog where the front page is a series of posts apologizing for not posting more often.

[littlefallsmets]

apoblogizing!

[pmcd9]

I've been reading the archives and I kept finding myself mildly startled when I would see that the next strip was posted the following day. 

[littlefallsmets]

You know. A "Lasgana Cat" of Achewood would either utterly punish or be utterly worthy of punishment. No in-betweens at all.

Anyway, I'm glad there are people outside of this website vaguely agreeing with my frustration with the way the paywall seemed to end up strangling the strip. No matter what else you say, I think it has become clear that as funny as Achewood was and can be, it isn't just creative burnout for the material. Dude clearly fucked up the business model somehow in relation to his personal life or creative juices or all three together... somehow?

I kind of hope that if there is some unpaid side project he has been working on, it is actually a post-mortem that explains the rise and fall of Achewood as an idea universe and as a business. Even as the strip drifts away into nothingness, I find that the media studies classes in college are still left over in my bones and I want an explanation. I want some kind of narrative that explains the life cycle here. I would pay so much more for that than I would ever pay for a paywall or a poster.

Was it really just that he ramped up to it being his full time job too fast? Is it that the micropayments-and-merch model can be a full-time job for a kid couchsurfing from comic-con to comic-con but for an adult man or woman who wants to have kids and a house in a nice neighborhood, it is just less likely? Conversely, did he delay "selling out" and crossing over into safer more established media while the buzz-iron was still hot, like so many actors who were in one hot indie flick and expected the world to wait for them to polish their craft?

[littlefallsmets]

Like, would it lay out like an indictment of and counterpoint to everything that Scott McCloud wrote after "Understanding Comics" with wild ideas about how to be a functioning paid artist just from the web works, never mind that McCloud came up as a printed comic book artist and made his big money writing illustrated non-fiction with which to trick kids into having unrealistic expectations from art school?

Are all of these media-analysis theories just levels of secondary bullshit to a simple thesis of a dude who was just creatively changed by being a parent and starting to slump toward adulthood? Does the scruffiness of getting by on selling shirts out of your garage just wear out faster for a dude who went to a rich people's college, spent small times with dudes who ended up fat on tech bubble stock options and clearly likes to golf?

Is this a sign that the internet is evolving the entertainment industry into a loose affiliation of a few outlier stars, a thin guild layer of people born into the business and a fuckload of part-timers and hobbyists, doing the work that used to go to craftsmen and craftswomen for essentially an honourarium and the love?

Did he just miss that point where people who make a life of this thing jump off to greener pastures at the crest of a publicity wave?

I'm fascinated. I'm fuck*ng fascinated. If only it wouldn't sound so rude, one of you more disciplined writers should pitch him co-writing the book on it. I'd fuck*ng buy it ten times.

[pmcd9]

I'm fascinated. I'm fuck*ng fascinated. If only it wouldn't sound so rude, one of you more disciplined writers should pitch him co-writing the book on it. I'd fuck*ng buy it ten times.

Dammit Mets, either you are a writer or you aren't one.  This is your baby, make it happen.

[littlefallsmets]

I appreciate the sentiment, Paul, but I fear I got some of my own babies to birth before I get around to being a mid-wife.

Or dragons to slay before I can be a blacksmith? Not sure which analogy works better.

That or I honestly doubt I'm that kind of writer, a co-writer of other people's biographies.

That or I honestly doubt that he'd take such a pitch as anything other than an insult.

That or I'm a coward in goddamned near everything once the next day's sun comes up like some kinda of contrapositive vampire bitch.

(But you fuck*ng well know the title needs to be "The Corner of Dude and Catastrophe" and then a more straight-forward subtitle.)

[Choop]

sack up and do it, authorized or not. at least it would make a hell of a blog post.

[wombat]

I appreciate the sentiment, Paul, but I fear I got some of my own babies to birth before I get around to being a mid-wife.

Um, yeah, LFM. So are you really in a position to throw stones about someone else's work habits?

Neither you nor Onstad need co-writers, you both just need to get off your asses and get some product out the door.

[Arachno-capitalist]

What the hell are you talking about mike? He hasn't been posting behind the paywall either. It isn't the case that he has some finite amount of creative energy per day and he has been allocating all of it to his pay-per-view audience. He simply hasn't been posting anything. His business model is bullshit because he is begging people for money in two different ways and providing nothing in return. I wouldn't blame the subscription service itself for the failure of achewood any more than I would blame Onstad's lack of product.

[Doc]

I like simple explanations better than these box in a box all in your head bullshit.

I bet he was building that screaming fort of his and slipped with the sawzall and lopped a couple of fingers off. We're all just waiting for him to finish physical therapy after getting 'em sewed back on and for the pain meds to get tapered down to the point where e can dictate some verbiage..

It's a nice thought but I doubt it. Once 'Stad gets started on pain meds nothing's getting tapered while his imported european pill-slave can still drop them in his yawning maw.

[pmcd9]

All I'm saying Mets, is this.  Are you a writer or are you a pizza delivery boy or whatever it is you are doing for money?  You've been on this board for what, five years? and all this time you've been telling us you are a writer.  You supposedly wrote hundreds of pages of a massive novel then lost interest and abandoned it.  You gave us a lot of bullshit reasons why it was abandoned, but none of them made a whole lot of sense. 

I'm not saying this to be an asshole.  I love you and I want you to be happy.  You identify yourself as a writer so If you are a writer you need to write.  Get those ideas out of your head and onto a sheet of paper (or electronic equivalent) and put them out into the public sphere. 

To use a local colloquialism it's time to shit or get off the pot, dude. 

Peace.

[dejavroom]

Um, yeah, LFM. So are you really in a position to throw stones about someone else's work habits?

Neither you nor Onstad need co-writers, you both just need to get off your asses and get some product out the door.

I want to kiss you. In the mouth, with my mouth.