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Great Outdoor Fight - Final Strip Thursday, March 30, 2006 • read strip Viewing 121 comments:

Perfect ending.

How many times do you think Vlad said "Are you tlalking to me" in the mirror to himself.


You are talkink to me?

because I am the only person I am seeink here at this time.

I am God's lonely man. SO lonely.

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You fail at culture .

A comment left by saint was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by straw, riotdejaneiro, c_dizzle, Ariamaki, NDCaesar, zaer, synapse, motts)

I believe I saw an airplane fly just nearby your head saint.

I laughed too hard at this.

17 times.

Exactly seventeen?

Seventeen panels worth, apparently.

Watching Beef and Emeril walk along in the ending, I feel like the only appropriate soundtrack for the moment is "Pyramid Song" by Radiohead.

Try it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqP0WNpojFM

Roseanne Barr's line of vanity soups left much to be desired.

Roseanne Barr only has one vanity soup in her line. It is a Safeway turkey floating in a vat of Christian Brothers brandy.

Few people are willing to drink an entire vat of turkey infused brandy.

Roseanne is one of those people.

Probably the best Achewood arc ever.

Oh, necessarily .

I would nod to Beef, because he is a good man and understands the Fight. So I would not burden him with words of congratulations, but give him quiet respect.

This strip makes you want to go fight someone, then go meet your friends so they can pat you on the back.

You have no idea how many times I wanted to join golden gloves boxing while reading this. NO IDEA.

AUGH I didnt' mean to lame you I'm sorry man I'M SO SORRY

"How were the Tenmen?" is a great line to end this arc on.

i agree wholly...like, he knows what's really important here.

I cannot think of one think that I dislike about this arc. Not one thing.

That sign makes it a party.

"Ray"

All lopsided and tacked on as if hurriedly.
It actually makes the party even more endearing.

Philippe made the sign and was standing on Lyle's shoulders to hang it. Half way through the hanging process Lyle ran out of booze and went for a refill. Philippe only regained consciousness a few seconds before Ray and Beef arrived back.

Hey, he became the ruling body after all.

And just in case you weren't sure why a yeast infection would be embrassing for Teodor, Vlad clarifies that it "Is mainly a thing of chicks!"

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yes, that is what the strip says, partially.

Li'l guy's worried about being forgotten

I would totally buy that panini press.

Roast Beef is so rude he can manage to still look badass after knowing about yeast infections from sitting in front of a computer for too long.

I never noticed Mingus in panel 4. Thats weird.

me neither! nice!

Not to mention a gruff-looking Pat in panel 7.

Pat's pissed off because he has a lot of opinions about the culture of violence that the GOF promotes and no one has asked to hear them yet.

Nightlife! Good call.

I never noticed him there.

i like how when beef and ray say it, it's "dogg".

but when vlad says it, it's just "dog".

is so vlad to be gettink even most basic greeting wrong. (again he gambles, again he loses.)

English is such movink target.

Greetink.

All I can say is that I'm so glad I discovered Achewood after this arc had already finished. It would have wound me up no end to have to wait for it to slowly develop in the usual way rather than go back and read the whole thing in one.

No, the suspense totally made it. The Great Outdoor Fight was an event , you had to build up anticipation.

It was like Christmas every damn day, waking up and running to the computer... Good times. The weekends were tough as hell, though.

This strip occurred while I was under a glut of exam deadlines in university... not good.

Yeah it was difficult not being able to travel into the future so I could read this all in one go, but what can you do? I had something nice to live for besides all the other nice things in my life while I waited for the new strip each day. :o)

Panel 8 is subtle Onstad genius.

Does anybody else notice that when Beef gets really disturbed by something his eyes go from tall lines to tiny dots (ex. Panel 8 of this strip)?
I think it's a very slight and well used technique for the art style in Achewood.

Philippe? Nah, doesn't ring a bell, sorry kid.

The Tenmen were awesome.

A comment left by jerkface was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by cailetshadow, Boyd, STUART)

Whenever my friends get haircuts I ask them where most of their hair is.

best parts of this strip:
1. taped "ray" sign on the blackboard
2. mingus's chill appearance in pannel 4
3. téodor with the bleary-eyed, unshaven look
4. "is mainly thing of chicks!" and the name of vlad's 'do

...and the ALT text

truly one of the best strips ever

Man, I wanted to see Roast Beef fight, I bet he coulda beaten Ray easy.

Damn Teodor is slow. He didn't realize Roast Beef was the Best Mate until now?
Seriously?

He never realized that those were cleverly-arranged pillows underneath Beef's blanket. He thought Beef was having a coma this entire time.

When someone you know is in a coma, the best thing to do is to not lift up the blanket to check on them. Hella disruptive.

it is so rude to ruin a good coma

SO rude.

Roast Beef can't go grocery shopping because it scares him to bad, would YOU think that Roast Beef could cold enter the acres with the intent of beating the hell out of 3000 men?

Well, I would, but that is because I understand Depression.

According to Molly's blog, she was telling people that he had gone to help Showbiz with something.

Does anyone else want to actually hear what the Tenmen sound like... I want Onstad to put together a band and direct them just like Mike Patton did with Fatomas. I'm guessing the music won't be far off either, like Onieda. Just like 10 minutes of the most burgeoning drum groove and chugging guitars, lead singer all yelling "Walk into the light" fifty times over!

I always imagined their sound as sparse, Devo-inspired, 'lectro jazz punk, with Talking Head-ish lyrics.

There are some Tenmen MP3s, a link to which exists somewhere in Acheworld. You guys are not far-off regarding the sound of them, but there are no lyrics.

Excellent .

Am I the only one of you who's noticed Pat in panel 7? Man, he look pi-ISSED.

He is offended by the movie Taxi Driver on the behalf of others. Because that kind of thing is not funny. Ever.

is there a such thing as gyne-lotrimin?

Ahhhh. I love this arc, and the ending is so delicious! You feel tired after finishing it, as Ray and Beef no doubt feel. It was this arc that got me into reading the blogs.

This arc is so good it's made me comment for the first time

My God. Just finished reading this arc for the first time. SO raw. SO brilliant.

I wonder where Molly was for the GOF. Was she visiting family? Did Beef tell her he was going on vacation with Ray? There's no sign that she missed him for the whole three day event, and something tells me she wouldn't consent to Beef's participation.

Molly is not the type of woman who pins her consent on a man. She lets him be who he is, and if it cramps her style she goes and does her thing she needs to and they get together later for chinese.

She wrote about it here.

This arc makes Achewood for me. It was the first thing I read, and now that I've gone through the archives up to this point it is at least fifty times more amusing.

Isn't Emeril supposed to be a Melungeon?

Man. I'm sad to see this arc end. It was WIN.

Has there ever been any strip of any comic ever with more individual panels that are classics in and of themselves?

PERFECT PERFECT!
On a scale of 1 to 5, I rate this A MILLION .

goodbye my favorite story arc... maybe we'll see it again with LN in Ray's crew

Today's Blogs

Teodor: Beef = new GOF think tanker?
Nice Pete: Book very close to reality.

Vlad knows how to get the rudest hair-cuts, straight up

*stands at attention and salutes*

A comment left by achilleselbow was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by apocowarg, silver_lake, daidai, professorhazard, evolume, goro, Latterman, BrokeAccount, Doc_Rostov, ford, mattylite, pogo)

It's epic. It's an achewood graphic novel, not just a web-comic. It breaks the rule that "webcomics of this sort are supposed to be FUNNY." It slaughters that rule. It rewrites the rule and hopefully starts a new tradition.

I see your comment, achilleselbow. I have given you the Lame. I do this without apology or mercy.

A lot of people base their judgment by large degree on the medium being used instead of the artistic merit of the work itself. For instance, I have a friend who appreciates to the same degree Leo Tolstoy and K.A. Applegate, despite the fact that when it comes to quality it's really a wash; Ivan Ilyich goes far beyond the dubious charms of any Animorphs book.

And she doesn't argue that. The rationalization she makes when she explains it to people is to say that each are the tops of their "field", and that Tolstoy is a writer's writer and Applegate is a children's writer. While the conclusion here is arguable (Really? Animorphs is the best children's book series you can think of? Really, lady? ), the point stands. Some people see art as a fragmented, compartmentalized science.

It appears you do as well. The point is that some choose to look past that. Personally, I make it a point to give little levity to novels due to their intended audience; I judge based foremost on the book's general merit and, occasionally, on the context as a general qualifier. That's how I try to read literature, comic books, webcomics, et cetera. I don't usually succeed in completely separating the two in my judgement of a book, mostly because most writers write like Cornelius and if you don't look past the audience they write to you can miss out on some truly fine literature.

But those of us who deify the Great Outdoor Fight tend to do so because it's one of those few times in which a work completely and utterly transcends the context offered it, where trying to categorize it leads to a confusion you express. The GOF is goddamn literary . It goes well beyond the rest of Achewood's archives, a generally well written and eminently referential body of work. In the GOF, Onstad no longer makes it a point to reference great writers. He becomes a great writer. There is no singular influence on the GOF. Wodehouse, Faulkner, Twain; all of them have certain impacts on Achewood, and the careful reader can see their spirit anywhere from entire arcs to singular comics. But the GOF is the only piece where Onstad literally breaks the ceiling of his medium and shows himself to be a truly epic writer.

And that's why the GOF is so great. It's badass, certainly, and some like it only because of that. But it's badass in an entirely intelligent way . It's badass in a sense that if Onstad had to leave one stack of papers behind to History to stand and express what a great master of his medium he was, this would be it. And History would understand, and give a knowing nod, and place it on its favorite bookshelf lovingly.

And that's why we like the GOF.

By the way. Don't interpret my lame as dissing your reading style. Read Achewood however the hell you want; I'm not stopping you. More power to you. You earned your lames by calling our method of reading Achewood "silly", and by dismissing all of the love people have for the GOF as raving about about how "rude and badass Ray is in some hyperbolic slightly post-ironic way".

Seriously, don't be a cock.

Burns me to agree with you, but agree with you I do.

This has to be the single best comment written, in the history of ever.

You don't read much, do you?

There were plenty of people around to lame you, it seems. You gamble, you lose.

What's the point of making a controversial statement if your wishing for the opposition to have moved on?
Who exactly were you adressing?

It's the biggest arc I've come across in Achewood so far and that alone should be worthy of respect. And out of the some 20 strips I've 'favorited' about 6-7 are from this story arc, to me that means hype met.
Actually, just the 'Lyle threatens to play a trumpet with his cock' alone meant the arc lived up to its hype..

I wonder who made the awesome "Ray" sign.
Philippe?

It was so Ray would remember him.

The perfect end to a perfect arc, all manlike and duderific.

Well-played, sir. Well-played indeed .

Check out banner, Ray!

FRIENDS LOVE RAY

How could this gem go unnoticed for six months?

That's what I shouted drunkely at a bar last night.

You shouted at the bar? Rough night.

(I didn't really shout at a bar.)

Then who did you shout at?

For those just finishing the storyline, the book is worth buying, IMO. The sidebars and history of The Fight are pretty fun, and there are a couple of strips unique to the book.

I just discovered all this shit over the last few days...
and this is the most amazing arc ever.
Beautiful

Don't we all secretly wish to be spoken well of On-line and in the cafes?

I see nightlife! What a cool dude.

Yes, if the Cafes knew me well and held me in high esteem it would be the Right Situation indeed.

*clap*


*clap*

*clap*
*clap*
*clap clap clapclapclapclapclapThunderousAPPLAUSE*

I want to see those 17 panels.

Does the GOF have a future? Or are Ray and Roast Beef THE CATS WHO ENDED THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT?

What the hell is Pat even doing there? Looking sour?