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0110 — Molly's Play (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-24 18:00:04
Imported:
2025-01
Tags:

Content

The "Making-of" strips always post at noon in tiers 2 & 3, for those curious about the process!

The clapper is the part that swings around inside the bell and makes it ring.

Yes, the genesis of this strip is that I have recently started taking a couple art classes at the local community college. I'm covering my progress right now in the Author's Tier — so far there are several pictures of me with a skeleton, pictures of my skeleton drawings, pictures of my messy test-paintings, and lots of writing about how some things (namely, me) never change. That, and many days' worth of other reading, awaits you there!

Files

Comments

Tom P

One should NEVER have one's masturbatory habits revealed in community college coursework. Not EVER! Save that for graduate school.

Achewood

that's why I'm taking the skeleton-drawing class. Super not hot to me. (if this is an unfamiliar topic, see tier 3 headlines)

Matt Mitchell

Go ahead Molly. Also, what the hell, Molly?

Achewood

thank you, my good man. Licenses to present this play in your local community theater / Burger King are affordable and selling fast.

Achewood

When you live with Beef, you literally have to invent your own fun.

Phineas X. Jones

As arresting as the final scene described is, I have more questions regarding 'abutted buboes'

Matt Mitchell

Very true, I imagine. And they’ve been together a long time now

Jeff

I’m so glad to see Molly. This is a true story and maybe a request that you can ignore: just the other day I was pretty stoned and wished for a Molly strip and now there is one! I also wished for a Molly strip where she and Beef are just having a good fun time cracking jokes and enjoying each others’ company. Some of my favorite Achewood strips from back in the day are like that.

Josh Egbert

I feel like Molly having an exterior life and being given license to mine the depths of Beef's various favors of crackerjacks is critical to them staying together.

Don Rowe

Maybe do some bong rips and wish for world peace? Put those magic cannabinoid receptors to work.

b.zap

Vulcan just pounding on that anvil.

Don Rowe

Members like the anvil of Vulcan, but yet susceptible to plague

Corrine Bredin

This is like one of those basic "22 rules of couples that stay together and happy" according to peer-reviewed research or something, I believe.

Achewood

A testament to the Depravity of Man

Jeff

Good call

Tom Morris

Any similarities etc etc

Achewood

It glows orange, especially the Tip

Achewood

Tell us more about this favors of crackerjacks phrase, is that yours? It’s good

Josh Egbert

Oh bother... flavors of crackerjacks is what I meant, which would just refer to all the various ways his depression & upbringing make themselves known. Favors of crackerjacks is tougher to come up with a definition for.

Achewood

I like it, like there’s a weird surprise in every box of dealing with roast beef , but you never get the tin whistle, it’s often an unwanted temporary tattoo

Jay Y

Welcome to Achewood. There will be a ding-dong in due time. We know not how nor when.

Achewood

You can set your watch to it

Achewood

Hm. Maybe it would be healthy for couples to actually write plays about each other. Illuminating. Next: pat and. I’ve Pete

Bruce Wright

I looked up buboes, and now I wish I hadn't.

Achewood

Try abutted buboes. Try and keep an open mind

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

Is that not a thing all men who are into women do? I kinda want to see more of this play to see more of Beef's hardly-a-perversions.

Omnithea

Molly Ollies Over His Free Oxen

Oppido

Molly's current 'do kind of makes her look like she plays drums in a garage rock band (compliment), which I know must be having all kinds of Effects on Teodor.

Bruce Wright

Perhaps he simply resembled one.

Oppido

You know what, it's the combination of the hairdo and the sleeveless top that makes me think of a drummer: hair tied back for minimum stick entanglement, arms unencumbered for maximum rotational range.

Zen Window

we get to see molly so infrequently that ive built her up as one of the few reliably competent people in this universe so seeing her just roast her boy like this lands extra extra ps their pillow talk about what the barking dogs are saying remains one of my all time favorites beef and molly forever

Achewood

That's a good point. Maybe I don't bring her in often enough because she's not usually up to the moronic antics and conversations of the rest, and is the occasional temperature check on them. There is probably a term for this sort of figure in classical literature but, I would not be the guy to know that, would I

Achewood

Molly could have body odor and pinkeye and Téodor would find a fantasy scenario for it

Achewood

That movie did so much to establish the disappointingly low capabilities of art in my young mind

Achewood

Fair point. But we try to not get caught. It is perhaps in the carelessness of making your partner unwittingly see it that she takes her offense.

Achewood

It is true, I heard you in your Stonedness, asking for a Molly strip like a lamb in a field, and unto the paper like Boswell did I seek to answer this, your prayer, my son and neighbor of God

Bruce Wright

It was no 20 Million Miles to Earth, that's for sure.

Achewood

If that Venus monster had stayed in Rome longer he would have just died from constipation

Alexander Rediger

What would Achewood be without Molly or Philippe to round it off?

Achewood

yeah, I'd actually like to hear folks' answers for this. Maybe.

Uncle Elephant

I actually had just been thinking that Achewood is far longer on male characters with distinct voices than female ones. Molly is... kind of generic? Who else we got: Tina and Philippe and Ray's moms, none of whom show up very often?

Achewood

This has been a topic of discussion in the comic since the early days, so your observation tracks with the consensus. Lev Grossman explored the focus on male characters in the anthology intro he penned, which is available in the author’s tier. In brief, people generally regard Achewood as an exploration of the male psyche and its self-perceived role in society. If you read Molly’s blog, or arcs which feature her (such as the wedding arc, or the heaven arc of her introduction) you’ll get a better picture of her personality. I had a greatly-enhanced part for Sondra Smuckles in the Netflix series, but sadly we all know how that went.

C C

In my opus the hero would certainly never allow himself to be disturbed while engaged in any sort of onanistic endeavor. However if this was to happen, his engagement with his wife's silky panties would never be described as "furtive" but rather proud and engaging. Also the hero would of course forthwith depart on long and dangerous journeys that would give his wife time to forgive him and burn that image from her mind.

Thea

Honestly, will you ever attempt to write a female character who's actually a character and not just an accessory to some dude?

Oppido

If anyone's curious, this is the relevant portion of the Grossman intro that Chris mentioned. (I did the *asterisks* thing to indicate where Grossman used italics, since I don't think itals are reproducible in these comment fields.) "Critics of 'Achewood' point to the fact that it’s a very male world, which is undeniably true: of the dozen or so major characters in 'Achewood' only one is a woman—Molly Sanders, an itinerant waitress who was born in 17th-century Wales (long story) and who eventually marries Roast Beef. This might bother me more if it weren’t for the fact that the maleness is the point—'Achewood' is in many ways *about* masculinity, with all its attendant violence, depression, insecurity, cruelty, chest-pounding, alcoholism, hysterical consumerism, Oedipal rage, penis-obsession and suicidal ideation. It’s a toxic labyrinth that the characters are constantly looking for a way out of. "Sometimes they even find it. At the end of the Great Outdoor Fight, Ray and Beef, as the last two men standing, are expected to beat each other down. Instead they demolish the arena and ride off into the sunset. They rewrite the rules. *Our every move is the new tradition.*"

Bruce Wright

Scholars of Henry James often point to the role of the "disinterested observer" in his fiction. It says here on Google.

Achewood

I experiment with trying to write female characters in non-Achewood fiction, and I’m not satisfied with the outcome. It’s no work at all to write (and believe I’m accurately writing) male characters, so I focus on that. I do enjoy the challenge of considering how female perspective differs in the frame of the world, and that’s certainly enhanced my satisfaction in personal relationships, but I don’t consider it a strength yet worth passing into my primary fiction.

Achewood

Odysseus in Juicys. What if I were Romeo in black jeans. Michael penn, 1990

Thea

Well, I appreciate the honest answer.

Achewood

Oppido copied Lev Grossman’s entry on the topic below, if you’re interested in more discussion (it was previously only available in tier 3).

Oppido

It's good to hear you talk candidly about this, Chris -- thank you for being willing to engage on the subject, where I think a lot of authors would get defensive instead. (Also, for whatever it's worth, I don't plan to make a habit of dragging stuff out of the higher-paid tiers into a forum where everyone can see it; I recognize that the three-tiered pay structure is what allows you to make a living. Thank you for being nice about it. Guys, everyone should join tier 3, it's a lot of fun.)

Achewood

Of course, and you’re welcome! No worries on the excerpt from tier 3 - I appreciate that you found it worth sharing.

C C

Odysseus in Juicys? The Sirens would jump off the rocks and come to him!! Plus, How did that song burble up from the depths of your mind where it should safely secured? What's going on in there?

Alexander Rediger

Yes- it's from a guy's perspective, born circa 1975 to 1985. Look up Tittie Buxx and Value Dousche on the Achewood site text search. It's about how guys react. This limits the perspective-- but I've always seen the writer as being true to himself and his vision in his creations. Probably it would take a female writer to extend this- but that may not speak to me. Achewood has always felt like my inner life and world experience is reflected back and amplified with even better takes-- i.e. it speaks to me. But the fact is, the guys' world, a bit like in life, is limited-- and the innocent Phillippe, and the no-bullshit, competent yet largely working-class Molly round off their experience, just like it works for my own. We see the world from our experience.

Achewood

Well-summed, Mr. Rediger. There are many things I will not be known for, but portraying west coast dudes, and a playful relationship with language, aren’t some of the things I will not be known for.

Oppido

Uncle Elephant -- In terms of female characters with strong voices, I do always like seeing Tina show up (although she may be one of those characters who's best deployed in small doses). Sondra's always fun too. Also, maybe this is a weird choice, but I really liked Lurquilla from the high school van arc, she of the illegal chinchilla operation -- she was only in like four strips, but she had a distinct dialect and her own brand of crazy that seemed like it would mesh with the dudes'. Maybe the key to a successful Achewood character, male or female, is simply someone who is venal and flawed and demented and lovable in spite, or actually because, of all that.

Achewood

An intriguing take on a never-mentioned character. I like this line of reasoning. What about the rich lady squirrel who Sensitive Todd pissed off? Or the old lady in the crosswalk who Ray threw money at? Molly’s mother? Etc

Datura

I don't think Molly or the other bit female characters are accessories so much as they are seen through the lens of maleness, which is the lens of Achewood, and it is the lens of a lot of media, though Achewood is more honest about it. I would rather have this than hollywood fake girlboss superhero stories written by men about not the powerful women that women hold in high regard, but the powerful women that those men want to be their girlfriend. I think it is too often that men portray women as what they would like women to be, rather than what they actually are. I think this male lens shows a lot of subjective truth, in other words shows what men think of women, and what men think that women think of them, and what men think that they do that bothers women, and generally the experience of womanhood IN the male experience. The act of growing up and being encultured as a man is so vastly different from the act of growing up and being encultured as a woman, it's a difficult gap to bridge. I think it's better for a man to gracefully withhold effort than to try but end up with just another fantastical woman-who-acts-like-a-man. Living with a woman for 6 years showed me that I really, really don't understand their perspective, and to write one well would probably require an advisor. But the mysterious truthy-but-not-truthful subjective perspectives are what life is made of, no? Not everything has to be about a thing and everything else, and when it tries I think it often ends up being about none of that everything else

Achewood

Goddam, that is smarter than anything I could have written. Well said, Dr. Datura, and thank you for bringing a sincere and balanced take to the party. This thread also made me want to ask: can anyone please provide examples of female characters, written by men, who are generally acknowledged by women to be accurate/believable in their portrayal of an internal and external female experience? By that I mean not just the way the female character experiences society, and is experienced by society, but also her inner monologue.

Oppido

I got curious about this as well, and did a little Googling, and there seem to be, uh, many more examples out there of men writing women poorly than doing it well. I did find this: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/14/book-clinic-male-authors-who-write-from-a-womans-perspective-lara-feigel And various discussions in this vein on Reddit (so take that with all the usual Reddit quotient of salt): https://www.google.com/search?q=which+men+write+female+characters+well+site:www.reddit.com&sca_esv=556e0fb3fe8dd81f&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZ9vu6mZmLAxWEMlkFHSH6CcAQrQIoBHoECDEQBQ&biw=1792&bih=998&dpr=2 Personally, as a guy, I try to consume a lot of writing by women (books, comics, blogs, articles, Twitter feeds, etc), and keep some of those voices in mind when I'm writing female characters, and ask myself whether what I'm writing seems authentic. And I am lucky enough to have a sister, and some very close female friends, and a therapist who is a woman, and various partners over the years, and my relationships with all of them have helped me develop a feel for how (at least these INDIVIDUAL) women think and speak and act. But I'm sure I still get plenty of stuff wrong anyway. What are you gonna do! (Edit: Watching TV shows and web videos and stand-up comedy written by women has also been helpful to me!)

Datura

Thanks, I’m flattered—I thought it was maybe a bit wordy, ‘mansplaining’ if you will, but on the other hand, men splain. Something about that boyish autistic focus yang-energy penetrative explorative maleness. As sperm do. On the other other hand of course there are toxic manifestations of it and you have to look at the good and the bad of—wait a second I’m doing it again!!

Jay

As far as deep and engaging female characters written by men, Los Bros Hernandez/Love and Rockets stands out to me, both Jaime and Beto's stuff. Women I've talked with about their comics have agreed, but it's not like that's a huge sample. I'd be curious to hear Other Opinions.

Achewood

Isn’t love and rockets the one where the ladies are all mean wrestlers with massive breasts?

Jacquelyn R Walters

Late to this party. Re: fictional women written by men who read as authentic by women, they're few and far between, but they do exist. An example that always stands out in my memory because I read it in university is As for Me and My House by Sinclair Ross. My professor was a woman and she agreed that it was pretty remarkable that this novel from 1941 written by a man born in 1908 seemed like it could have been written by a woman.

Jacquelyn R Walters

Re: The strip above, it made me laugh and make a funny noise.

RJ Carmine

I was assigned female at birth and raised/socialized in girlhood and didn't get to transition until I was in my late 30s. Others like neuroscientist Dr. Ben Barres had a lot of interesting things to say about experiencing misogyny and marginalization that I highly recommend. Personally, I have been reading Achewood since a couple months after it launched in 2001, and other webcomic artists like Dorothy Gambrell have also issued commentary on how rare female characters like Molly appear as sympathetic foils to main characters like Beef. Onstad's work has meant a lot to me over the years, and like he described upthread, authentic writing comes from writing what one knows. One of my favorite authors, William Gibson, branched out after decades of writing male protagonists like Henry Dorsett Case, and I really enjoy his characters like Cayce Pollard, Mona, Molly Millions, Flynne Fisher, Verity Jane, Eunice, and others. In my opinion, his expression of women protagonists has made me wonder if Gibson may be privately nonbinary or genderfluid himself, because he writes them so well.

Achewood

Thank you, longtime Cho RJ. I started Gibson's /Agency/ last year but life got in the way; do you consider the female lead in that work a good example? I wouldn't mind popping back in to the audiobook.

rickward

Zeus and Hephaestus, or Jupiter and Vulcan?