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New In-Universe Feature: STRIP-ROAST (Jan 22, 2003) (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-18 18:00:07
Imported:
2026-09
Tags:

Content

Welcome to STRIP-ROAST, a new feature for tiers 2 & 3 where I look at old strips and roast them. I also discuss non-roasty aspects of them, such as their geneses, things I remember people saying about them — "just whatever." And if you have a particular memory of the first time you read the strip, share it in the comments. I typically get in there and reply soon after a post goes live. Enjoy!

Files

Comments

Amy Lewis

This font stuff is extremely my shit.

Conor Nelson

The font crap you have to do is savage. Will never look at a comma or italic in Achewood the same ever again.

Aaron J. Rushton, Writer of Words

Man I've always taken Habib to be the cashier's actual name and just assumed a first-name basis between Biz and probably most all of the staff at 7-Eleven. Like he knows he's gotta ask Habib, but he also knows Habib will let him. He doesn't have to ask Jeremy (third shift, weekends). Ain't no point in asking Debbie, she barely lets him buy stuff.

Bruce Wright

Maybe try... a different font?

Anthony Thompson

I'm taking it a step further: will never look at a comma or italic in Achewood ever again!

Matt Mitchell

Re dialogue coming from off-panel characters - it forces a deeper level of reader engagement. Relative ease of execution on a technical level doesn’t negate potential effectiveness. In my opinion (also fact).

Clench and Cheese

I want to see some more photos of your Adobe Illustrator desktop that has all the premade characters and props on the sides of the artboard. When I go back to my 2006 Clench and Cheese strips I am often amazed at all the reusable components. That's how I could tell I was more of a writer than a cartoonist.

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

I always thought you created that font from scratch.

Nicholas Williams

It is stupefying to learn that the font doesn't italicize, because Achewood is basically built on the exquisite dispensation of italics. Also, I assumed that the clerk's actual name was Habib and Showbiz regarded him as a kind of friend. A "yo my boy Habib lets us microwave mad slim jims" situation.

boothnavy

This is a fantastic addition. I approve.

Jake McIntyre

I remember thinking - 20 years ago, my goodness! - that panel 6 seemed out of character for Showbiz - that the opportunity to racially abuse the 7-Eleven cashier wouldn't outweigh forfeiting the chance to surreptitiously shoplift the heated meat food product.

Achewood

Oh, Achewood has some font opinions. Unleash the questions.

Achewood

Every comma was copy-pasted, or re-fonted in place. By candle light, in long, trailing stocking cap, long after the family had retired to slumber.

Achewood

It's a good panel because represents both his local 7-11, and any 7-11 he might walk into. I can reuse it forever.

Achewood

I'm afraid there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth. For a brief period in the mid-teens I had to use a microscopically different version of Blue Highway and oh boy were there comments. It made the strip look like a knock-off.

Achewood

The perspective-skewing of his menu really bothers me, now that you mention it. Did I not have eyes to see what I was drawing? This digital stuff is infinitely editable; why did I never bother.

Achewood

Ah good, then everybody will forgive the series where they were locked in a pitch-black dumbwaiter for a few strips.

Achewood

That does happen from time to time, and it will be seen in the (b)-noon strips. Most often when I go through the old artboards I see that I had I had pasted the entire lineup of characters from the Badass Games, and a Ray in Lazarus Loafer, for convenient reuse.

Achewood

There was an age when I would have done that. This one, curiously, is also the font used on highway signs around America. There's one major departure in road signage font choice, but by and large you will notice Blue Highway. Image search for "blue highway font road signs"

Achewood

This is probably why I use italics so sparingly. Habib: see my reply to Aaron below.

Achewood

as Uncle T decrees it, so it shall be!

Achewood

You understand the character's constant internal calculus very well.

Achewood

Thanks! My favorite part is the "ugly plant"

Bruce Wright

Comics fans ARE a stylistic conservative lot

Achewood

There are probably purists who won't read anything after the "Philippe is Standing on it" strip.

Mina Roller

This strip was so hilarious. I was much younger, and remember thinking that I had way more in common with Showbiz. I never once noticed Ray's glasses or the empty parking spaces.

Achewood

If, after I pass, you put an unoptimized speech bubble near my lifeless hands, they will still try to shape it into something nearing professional respectability. Ray's glasses: Have you ever seen a timeline of how Garfield is drawn? The elevation of his glasses is my that.

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

Now I can't unsee it. "Hella Des Moines," "Such as Tuscaloosa," "Frikkin W-W-W-Waukesha!"

Caleb Gerard

2) if you use windows. there is a small app called Character Map that will display every character and glyph in a given font, and you can select them to copy and paste as needed.

Achewood

Yeah I quickly got wise to the copy-paste from some ASCII website. I could never get the keyboard ascii codes to work on a Mac, but they’ve made it much easier now.

Stuart Davidson Tribbs

I love this always fun to hear about technical aspects of art creation as a non-art-doer

Achewood

Some day I may post a video of me moving the mouse around to draw with

Amit Katz

How does it feel to go back over 20 years to look at your creative output? Personally I can't stand looking that far back, it hurts

A. Hamster

I always thought Garfield was just one of B Kliban’s cats that Jim Davis overfed.

A. Hamster

My history with Habib goes back to Married With Children, and two episodes specifically. The first, where Al Bundy is too poor to pay for gasoline, so he is conscripted to work at the gas station and is given a shirt with the name Habib embroidered upon it. The second has three Habibs (just point to the one you wish to speak to and say Habib).

Achewood

I’m relieved to note that for the most part, I still enjoy it. I killed myself to meet my own standards back then so it better have been worth it, you know?

Achewood

I really should watch an old episode. I must have dedicated hundreds of hours of my life/ brain to that show.

Achewood

Why hasn’t this become a meme graphic thing

Sedric and Charlie

I remember once, maybe 15 years ago, going to ridiculous lengths to find out what the Achewood font was so I could use it in a silly panel edit. I too had huge gutters of free space in one of the speech bubbles