I've found a new way
The new Franz Ferdinand record contains a lot of fun surprises. It is loaded with any number of things I would never have expected to hear on one of their albums... from crunching synthesizer riffs to bizarre, looping acid-jazz grooves. And of course, there's also Ulysses... the song that sounds like the lead singer has forgotten the words to his own chorus. "Nah... uh... nah nah nah... something... Ulysses!" Easiest sing-along ever!
The next installment of "Help Wanted" arrives on Friday, as does our next Q and A feature. See you then!
-Sam Logan
Broaching brooches
As a Canadian, I'm generally pretty enthusiastic about fabulously counter-intuitive spelling. Heck, sometimes I even throw a second extra "u" in colouur just for good measure! But something really bothers me about "brooch". I know it's pronounced "broach"... but man, I just can't type the word "brooch" and not hear something that rhymes with pooch. Brooch sounds like it should be, I don't know... the term for a litter of baby ferrets.
-Sam Logan
Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Third Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"What is Sam's last name? Is it Logan? :o" -Gurgy
No! I know it's probably natural to assume otherwise, but Sam is not meant to be an avatar or stand-in for myself. Our shared first name is just the legacy of some very, very old (and terrible) quasi-autobiographical comics that I drew as a little kid. A few years worth of revamps and redesigns later, Sam had very much become his own man, no more based on my own appearance or personality than anyone else in the cast.
But as for comic-Sam's last name... it has somewhat implausibly never been mentioned, not even once, in the entire history of the strip. I won't say any more on the issue for now, but it's going to be kind of... uh... "discussed"... in a fun story coming up later this year.
"Is anyone in the comic based of people you know?" -Lizzy
They are not! The supporting cast, much like Sam himself, are throughly fictional and are pulled more or less entirely from my imagination. They are inspired more by the things I notice about human behaviour and hang-ups in general than by any specific individual people.
One exception to that rule is the few characters created to be parodies of celebrities, like some of the musicians who were trapped with Sidney on the Island of Lye. But even then, they are only most general of homages, and have their own unique names and personalities to clearly differentiate them. I just really struggle with the idea of putting words into the mouths of actual real-life human beings.
The one other notable exception, of course, is Rikk Estoban. But Rikk is kind of an exceptional guy in general.
"What's with your new style of shading? I really dig it." -Robert
For those who haven't noticed, a single, flat shade of gray was introduced into the previously two-tone world of Sam and Fuzzy last Monday. It was one of two tweaks I made to the comic's art at the start of Volume 5 -- the other being the move to drawing everything on larger sheets of paper.
These are both things I've been planning to do for awhile, although I waited until the start of the new volume just to keep the previous one visually consistent. But basically, adding the gray adds a bit more depth and visual oomph, and drawing the original artwork at a larger size helps me make comics that are cleaner and more thoughtfully constructed.
They're small tweaks, but I think they really add a lot to the look of the comic and I'm very excited about them. That said, I decided not to actually mention that I'd changed anything, because I wanted to see how people reacted without being prompted. Announcing change is practically commanding people to look for reasons to be annoyed. Slipping it in gets a much more honest reaction... even if that reaction is often the total failure to notice that anything has changed whatsoever!
-Sam Logan
