lurkerwithout | Sunday Trade: Achewood

The Great Outdoor Fight by Chris Onstad

I can freely admit that I've never understood the appeal of Achewood. Just a bit too weird even for my broad and eclectic tastes. But The Great Outdoor Fight is the webcomic's most easily accessible story arc. And its most popular. Explaining why its the one creator Onstad went with for his printed hard-cover collection...

The story is simple enough, while retaining the odd flavoring of the webcomic. Ray Smuckles is wasting time and his money funding things like cell phones with testicles (no really) when he learns from his mom that his long-absent dad was the winner of the '73 Great Outdoor Fight. Three Days! Three acres! Three THOUSAND Men! You're disqualified when you've been beaten too bad to fight any more. Last man standing wins the honor of being champion. And Ray's dad Ramses Luther Smuckles won under the alias of Rodney Leonard Stubbs. AKA "The Man With The Blood On His Hands". So of course Ray has to enter and prove himself his father's equal. And so, along with his best friend and strategist Roast Beef, Ray enters the toughest, dirtiest, bloodiest brawl ever conceived. And enters the world of legends. "He ripped his face off!" "He made them into Cowboy Sauce." "BRING ON THE JEEPS, GODDAMN YOU!"

LEGENDARY