Chainroaker

July 27, 2024

Chainroaker is the collective name of a bunch of different webcomics by the swedish cartoonists Sandra Kjellström and Leon W. Stekla. The name "chainroaker" is an englification of the swedish word "Kedjerökare" which means chain smoker.

History
Chainroaker kicked off with the comic The importance of wearing boots, published on a .tk website.

The importance of wearing boots
The story revolves around furry characters Frenzee and Sondel, an odd couple who shared an appartment and made their money from slaughtering neighbours and other annoying people and sell the meat to the unsuspecting man at the local meat store. One day Frenzee finds a pair of nice boots on the feet of a murdered punk kid. He adopts them, an undertaking that makes him and Sondel accused of having murdered the kid. The Boots kept on for about two chapters before it was aborted and about the same time Chainroaker on a Budget was launched.

In 2006 a shorter story taking place in the same setting called The Gift was printed as a fanzine. This comic featured Frenzee, Sondel, and Sondel's estranged son. It received a good review.

Chainroaker On A Budget
Chainroaker On A Budget, or CHROAB, is a comic strip, launched on the 15th of June 2003, which only ambition was to update every day (although the comic updates became increasingly sporadic), no matter how bad the drawings, or poor the jokes were. The characters were drawn as stick figures and the gags were mostly of the pee and poop-oriented (or in other ways gross) kind. The authors themselves describe the comic as "childish, a tad tasteless and probably preeeetty stupid.". After a few years the comic name was shortened to simply "Chainroaker", but maintained its old abbreviation CHROAB.

The main characters of the strip are the authors' both fursonas, Lyx av Sthlm and Frenzee. The comic is about these characters going about their daily buissness "which means jumping off cliffs in boxes and poking Santa's balls". Reappearing characters are the Pubeduck, the Killer Muffin and Onion Head. Chainroaker has also featured a number of guest artists and characters through the time.

2005 the first CHROAB fanzine was created, featuring a handful of selected strips (some original, others redrawn). Chainroaker on a Budget 1 was presented and sold at the Swedish Small Press Expo in Stockholm.

CHROAB kept on 'til the 24th of November 2005. The authors then took a break from the strip to concentrate on more serious projects. The comic was continued on January 8th 2007 and the 500 strip was published February 10th.