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This was probably obvious, but Thera-Tees is meant to rhyme with Thera-py. It seems to be an MLM system designed by the mysterious Mr. Gary, leader of Support Group. It is unclear if Support Group follows any formal methodology or doctrine; it is actually unclear if Mr. Gary has ever even led the group. All we seem to know so far is that Arthur and Mr. Gary once shared a sexual experience behind some basketball equipment.

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Comments

jordan b.

was Mr Gary behind Beef's "I'm the guy who sucks / Plus I got depression" shirt?

Josh Egbert

Nice Pete is a real high-wire act for Support Group Arthur.

Tom P

The homosexual (laudatory) cat bravely endures Nice Pete's first two Thera-Tees, yet is distressed enough for "airplane ears" in the face of the third. In this, he is justified, for Nice Pete is a little much.

Eric Bradford

Please make the last shirt available for purchase. Of course I say this as possibly the only person who bought the "I'm the guy who sucks" shirt

Zen Window

From the title, I was certain this was going to be Beef burying t-shirts with saccharine positive messages in the backyard. What I got was something far better, Nice Pete throwing Arthur's own therapy transmission violently into reverse via the medium of iron-on appliques.

Nicholas Williams

I live for silent Achewood reaction shots such as today's final panel.

E Corcoran

Arthur may have smoked Mr Gary's pole, but in Soviet Russia, pole smoke you!

s b

it really is a great brochure

Clench and Cheese

Nice Pete hasn't met a problem that can't be solved with brutal, secret violence. I assume that this will apply to this situation sooner or later, and this time I doubt that the obnoxious USB driver programmer will be around to Deus ex Machina.

b.zap

Wait till Mr Gary gets a load of Nice Pete's bible fanfic

Jenn

I've missed Mr Gary. Did not think he could ever be fazed. 😆

Ian Stewart

In a similar vein, I guess everybody has their own idea about the Islamic Republic of Iran

Jay Y

I really don't think we'll ever meet Mr. Gary, which is fine, as I enjoy Arthur and his ears.

Achewood

Please no current/divisive events in this space ok? Asking respectfully.

Achewood

We may need to do a strip (exposé?) just on him

Jay Williams

There are moments when my youngest reminds me of Nice Pete. She is “on the spectrum” as they say (not severely so), but she has found her own way, is doing great in school with her own friend group etc. I envy her because she is more certain of who she is at 18 than I am at 56. She can present as very distant and emotionally “flat” - and the sentences that come out of her mouth are sometimes just so … odd. Not 18 months ago, she marched downstairs from her room, walked up to me while I was eating dinner, and said very matter of factly: “How many rolls of paper towels would it take to soak up all of your blood?” I couldn’t even think about how to answer that- all I could think of was the fact that Nice Pete could size someone up and make a fair estimate of the required number of rolls pretty quickly.

Achewood

We don’t know the spiritual status of Mr. Gary. He might be the shadow publisher behind many of Pete’s works.

Achewood

Wait, is that a joke against a certain people…

Achewood

I may be using these a little more often these days, but it feels sooo gooood

Achewood

I’m slowly learning cat from my wife’s two cats

Achewood

Haha yes indeed. Arthur may just be under qualified enough to pull it off!

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

I keep writing and deleting the reasons why I relate and would like to own these shirts. I will keep only one. You should not learn to forage from sheer hunger at 8 years old, but no shit there I was. I ate raw ditch asparagus, wild garlic chives, watercress, peppermint, oxalis, purslane, gooseberries, mulberries, black raspberries, hickory nuts, stray wheatgrass, and red clover in their respective seasons as well as the plain yogurt, shredded wheats, lettuce, egg whites, chewable viitamins, and tap water provided by my eating disordered household. Pete and I should compare notes on rural upper midwest vs Appalachian foods for neglected kids. And yes vengeance does yet lurk but I have pills.

Achewood

I am divided. He fascinates me, but his absence is also a painting of its own.

Achewood

24 (human man, 56, all surfaces cleaned to sterile perfection)

Crumbles

I can't wait to see Pat's shirts

Jay Y

I remember one of my best friends writing in to request the "I'm the guy who sucks" shirt and then being completely mortified when the request was granted. Alas, he could not bury the shirt, as his backyard was full of rebar under the surface for some reason.

Bungus Bronbo

"Childhood can be very important" is the kind of withering insight a person can only acquire through proper years of education as a therapist, in the same way only someone with a doctorate in astrophysics can acquire such blistering insights as "space is very big"

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

To be fair, peeling a bird you find could reference removing the inadequately browned skin of a roast chicken. Probably not, but it could.

Johnny Deans

So, are these tees going to be available in the store soon?

Chris Martin

I hope Mr. Gary has his own group to go to. And some strong deadbolts on his doors.

Achewood

Where is your novel / podcast about all this? My side of the mountain indeed

Achewood

Ah great idea. Lots of barber hate, no breakthroughs there

Bruce Wright

I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

John Gentile

I recently subscribed to this Patreon after being out of the achewood loop for like 10 years. These "new era" strips are soooo good. Kudos to you Chris!

Achewood

We’re forced to wonder if he’s the satoshi of self-help

Achewood

Ha, no. But I am going to open a print on demand version of the store for experiments like these

Glen N

Really like pat's expression of kind of benign approval in panel 9. He seems to have gotten so accustomed to Pete that he's just thinking "hey, good for him, really working through some stuff."

Clench and Cheese

Probably a named bird that wore clothes and made snappy remarks. Just a guess, though.

Andrew Derho

Arthur couldn't handle that apostrophe.

Professor Hazard

call me old-fashioned but I think Arthur should sit on a canary

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

I am a diarist, not a novelist. I thrive by flying under the radar and keeping very quiet most of the time. Black Forager is a fabulous and extremely in depth content creator should anyone really want to go into how to live off what land we have left. She can take a handful of tree squeezins and make a pie and a cup of tea and an all purpose cleaner. I may yet flee to the northwoods anyway.

A. C.

love the group therapy ones

Thunk

"The homosexual (laudatory) cat bravely endures" could be a tee shirt too

Achewood

All of achewood should take place in a group therapy session

Achewood

Exactly. He knows Pete better than anyone, we just don’t know how.

Achewood

Thanks John! Can I quote you in the socials? Screen grab? Can fizz out the name

Zach M

its so cute how his little ears slick back because he's terrified!

GruntyGinMan

Pat isn't exactly over-encumbered with self-reflection

Paul Kim

Mr. Onstad, I was curious: who do you consider your literary influences? I ask because I was reading Midnight's Children and I realized it reminded me of Dickens (the florid grammatical structures), Melville (the long, rambling tangents), and you (the delicious turns of phrase).

Douglas Wykstra

I remember the strip about Arthur smoking Mr. Gary's pole primarily because, around the time I first read it, The Daily Show had recently debuted a segment with British comedian Dave Gorman called "Poll Smoking with Dave Gorman," which from the banter that would always follow the introduction led me to believe that "poll/e smoking" was a reference to smoking weed, and the comic made me wonder whether I had misinterpreted the lingo or encountered a novel application of it. Anyway, it looks like Mr. Gary's screen-printing business is not going as well as he'd hoped.

Douglas Wykstra

Every long-running piece of fiction benefits from having a Vera/Maris figure, I think. It's like a vanishing point in an illustration, giving the illusion of there being further vistas beyond what we get to see.

Duncan

Pete's blogging directly onto a Hanes here!

Distant Egg Song

The fact that Arthur has been to multiple sessions with Nice Pete and has survived, apparently unscathed, speaks to the social skill and capacity for self-control that a dedication to the teachings of Mr. Gary can bring.

Jay Y

I was going to go with Bill Brasky, but we've seen (and heard!) the son of a bitch from behind. Your take is more pleasantly literary.

Phineas X. Jones

Achewood continues to lead the field in t-shirt designs that could lead to involuntary mental health detainments

rickward

Nice Pete is learning Coptic! Coptic, I tell you!

Phineas X. Jones

(Related item: This last halloween someone was at the party I attended wearing a Roast Beef get up with a handmade 'I'm The Guy Who Sucks/Plus I Got Depression' tee and I was delighted.)

Michael G.

It was an act of love!

Achewood

The wikipedia entry is a good summary — let's see if I can do it from memory: Vonnegut, Irving, Douglas Adams, Twain, Wodehouse, Hesse, Dave Barry, Ben Elton...and a whole host of others who are getting the shaft because it's 5:30 on a Friday and I'm feeling mentally flaccid. Thanks for asking! Oh, the thing I read the most as a kid? The entire Hardy Boys series, 1930s editions, maybe a dozen times each.

Achewood

Arthur was so animated in that strip. Usually he's a dopey buffoon. I'm itching to trawl his deeper waters soon. Maybe a six-month mega arc starting at birth and culminating in his epic smoking of Mr. Gary's pole on the other side of some basketball equipment.

Achewood

BTG = Blog To Garment. It's an exciting time to be alive. You can wear any opinion in the world, in any font you like .

Achewood

I think Pete read Arthur immediately as a harmless, harmed guy who's just trying to get by. There may be a low form of kinship there. I doubt he sees Arthur as possessed of any significant Shakti.

Achewood

Nice Pete is learning it would be a real cakewalk to steal everything out of Arthur's apartment and tie him to an appliance

J. Alex

Mr. Gary never actually shows up for these things and I do NOT blame him.

Minty

You’ve done it again

Achewood

I will assume this is positive - thank you!

Holler Wizard

Distraction piglets will not deter the more dangerous creatures.

John Gentile

please do quote me and leave my name intact!!! I am a PROUD achewood fan!!!

Oppido

Since we're talking about that 12/3/04 strip, I just have to say that Teodor's lack of expression in the last panel (or is it an expression of nonplussed-ness?) is an exquisite finishing note. In that moment, what's unspooling on the radio is so weird that T's facial muscles can't even find a way to react. (https://achewood.com/2004/12/03/title.html for reference.)

Achewood

Magreaux piglets are the only sufficient piglets

severecorvid

If I Don’t Peel The Birds, Who Will?

cody

This is Babe Ruth walking up to the plate and just being like “I’m not going to do the bases thing today. Just keep throwing and I’ll keep relocating the balls to outside of the park.”

Tom

Had the same thought on that panel, like in the 2nd Pat was maybe not sure what was coming out the bag, but by #9 Pat had kind of a self-assured smile. Mainly on account of it being a big ol proverbial turd floating in Arthur's proverbial punchbowl, which makes Pat all the way happy

Achewood

I know Pat and Arthur have a rocky history, but here I see Pat as happy to see his “friend” successfully engaging with “the work.” Probably because it makes Pat look good to have brought a participating new member — one that also makes him look relatively sane.

Achewood

I am not confident enough in the old art skills to leave the flipping of the shirt simply to some "motion lines"

Andrew

Me but as the facilitator (not joking, actual therapist—there's just something I love about Nice Pete's comfort around death).

Achewood

There's an *actual therapist* in the house? Quick, what's wrong with Pat

Andrew

He's a dick (In all seriousness, to the extent you can diagnose a cartoon, he probably meets the criteria for OCPD)

Achewood

The camera swoops around and stops over the therapist's shoulder; we see the casual cursive on his clipboard, underlined twice: _TOTAL_DICK_

Thunk

Strangely this one isn't showing. I can rest the post but not the strip. The other strips do show up. Anyone else with the same issue? EDIT nevermind, restarted app and it works

Achewood

wait til you see his *mad* ears in a subsequent strip

Datura

wunderbar

Professor Hazard

Arthur: Secretly owner of a canary named Mr. Gary?

Achewood

and if mr. Gary ever came over he'd pretend the bird's name was just Chuy or something

Professor Hazard

this is invaluable insight into Arthur's character (it is not valuable)