Hashbrown Haus

Not that it’s news to anyone, but Doug Marlette died last week in a car accident in Mississippi. Best known for the creation of the nationally syndicated daily newspaper strip, Kudzu, he was also a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist. I’ve enjoyed his editorial pieces for years, but Kudzu was never my taste. Having grown up in North Carolina, it was hard to read the comics page without finding Kudzu, but I can’t say that it was ever anymore memorable than B.C. or Funky Winkerbean. Nevertheless, Marlette, a Hillsborough, NC native, was celebrated as one of “Cack-a-lack’s” favorite sons. At first, this story was only notable to me for being about a cartoonist who died tragically, so I was very surprised to find out that he was a Seminole, too. Imagine my shock to find out that FSU had a multiple and major award-winning cartoonist as one of it’s alumni- not that they made a big deal of it until after he died, if they have or will at all, but oh well…go figure.

A former classmate of mine, Mandy Newham, has followed in his footsteps, quite literally, as she continues her wonderful work as editorial cartoonist for the FSView/Florida Flambeau as well as for my former hometown paper, the Smoky Mountain News, since she moved to Western NC last fall. A tough act to follow, but if anyone can, it’s Mandy.

What can I say about Chris Onstad that hasn’t been said already in a thousand other places- this guy practically gets more press (relatively speaking, that is) than Paris Hilton, just for doing a lo-fi webcomic (to be honest, a guy who lives with his mother, and who only washes on Sunday and eats potted meat with a spork should get more press than Paris Hilton). I know I just said “lo-fi” and I hesitated to do it, because in the end there is nothing “lo-fi” about Achewood.

A comic strip that I have previously described as being about the secret lives of house cats and stuffed animals living cognac large- is largely that, and a hell of a lot more. Some have claimed that Mr. Onstad is writing the great american novel in comic form. Others exclaim that his work has no equal and that he is forging a whole new dynamic in literature and art without a comparable work in sight. Myself, I can’t get enough of it. Mostly outrageous, sometimes offensive- Onstad has a voice like no others and a penchant for non-sequiteurs. His humor may not be for all, but is grossly unlike anything else in existence. If you clicked on the image and followed the link you know what I’m talking about. Well, typographers and graphic designers will know, anyways. Then again, that particular strip is only representative of his ranging topicality. Rather than confining himself, or his strip, to any singular pursuit or line of humor, he has multiple voices and varied forms of humor (prank calls to other comic strip characters, philanthropy, drug addiction, and personal hygiene) all espoused by a multitude of analogical characters speaking from what could be interpreted as a very complicated, VERY fractured psyche. Except that it’s pure genius. Onstad is actually channeling the ten or better regular characters and giving them an existence outside of his head. He writes and maintains blogs for each character, and the scary part is that they each read as a separate, distinct and independant voice- they are neither Onstad, nor like one another- they are completely autonomous beings-except they only exist in web-comics, blog postings and, apparently, Chris Onstad’s skull.

The imagery is template based, produced in Illustrator and in spite of it’s “Deliberately Pathetic” Aesthetic it is surprisingly complex and rich in its renderings. For a comic Strip about house cats and stuffed animals, that is. For some reason, given the diverse subject matter being discussed, it fits perfectly. Then you see the merch; posters, stickers, cookbooks and t-shirts, and more, that are generated as companion work to the main body and that’s when the art truly shines. Yeah, he’s trying to make a living from this, wouldn’t you?

In the end, Achewood is an iconoclast amongst the conformists. A giant among men. A speedo and medallion wearing, sunglasses bearing, fat cat amongst the Garfields. This is everything that comics, web- or print-based, could and should aspire to be. Absurd, outrageous, obscure, intelligent and most importantly, unquantifiably hilarious.

So for all of my crying about the thin line between “commercial” and “fine” art, I was extremely amused to find the above strip by Mr. Paul Southworth. For those of you who don’t know, Paul Southworth is the creator Ugly Hill. Ugly Hill is a webcomic dealing with the lives of the Bros. Killgore, Eli and Hastings, and their respective existences as polar opposites within the fictional “Monster” community of the titular Ugly Hill.
Eli is the layabout, Hastings is the workaholic- forced to live together by an overbearing mother. Comedy ensues. Think Odd Couple meets Monster’s Inc. Mr. Southworth could tell the same story with human characters, but his use of monsters gives him a greater visual variety and, I imagine, a greater wealth of possibilities in character design, for which he has received several nominations and awards. His skewed sense of humor goes a long way, too. In this world racism is based on the number of eyes someone has, instead of the color of their skin. Devouring of ones enemies is a common occurence as well. At it’s base Ugly Hill is about all of those little idiosyncracies we all enjoy (or loathe), as experienced by the monster analogs that populate it. Same old slice of life, 3-beat punchline, workplace humor- but something in the three dimensional characters and whimsical aesthetic gives it so much more- The characters are likable, their “issues” appropriately ridiculously inane, and comically rewarding. The panels play out with the backgrounds and characters sharing the space and complimenting each other nicely, one never really imposes or outshines the other. Absolutely perfect blend of eye-catching art and well-timed humor. Ugly Hill displays all of the hallmarks of a seasoned and dedicated veteran cartoonist at work, but stays humble enough to be endearing and charming-it never feels like it was phoned-in or handed-off to an assistant, like a Garfield. No, I get the very real feeling that Paul Southworth does this out of pure love for the medium, and I am suitably impressed by that.

Other places to see Paul Southworth’s Work:

Guest Strip at Diesel Sweeties.
To get a good grasp of how far he’s come as an artist check out Krazy Larry Not to say he wasn’t good to begin with, but as the strip progresses he get’s REALLY good, basically perfecting his skill to the point he has come to today.