Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Tablet Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!

"Hi I just started reading Sam & Fuzzy around last Friday or so and so far I managed to get caught up (I have no life) but I don't know where to go now, should I work backwards and go to volume four, three, two, one, then zero? Or should I read it some other way? Also, what's the book supposed to be? A compilation of strips?" -Cal

Once someone is all caught up on our most recent era (the era which began with Sam and Fuzzy Fix Your Problem), I'd recommend one of two things!

If you would like to read another big, sweeping, story-based epic, you can go back and read Volume Four (AKA Noosehead). Like the current material, it stands pretty well on it's own without any previous knowledge of Sam and Fuzzy.

Or if you're really hardcore, you can go right back to Volume 1! (Or Volume 0, if you're curious about the REALLY old strips.) These comics were more gag-a-day based to start, but get more story-driven as they go along, and eventually climax in a big saga that was served as a sort of warning sign preview of what the comic would turn into in the future. It's optional reading, but our current story does reference these strips fairly regularly!

As for the books... the two we have now collect the Fix Your Problem and Are Very Famous storylines in gigantic, attractive dead tree format. Like most black-and-white webcomics, Sam and Fuzzy looks much, much prettier in print, and I consider the books the definitive version of the strip. Eventually, I'd like to go back and collect all the previous volumes into books as well, but whether or not we can make that happen is reliant entirely on how our existing books sell first!

"Apart from being badass when the plot demands it, does Fuzzy have any special abilities?" -Jack

Nothing you'd call superhuman! Unless you count being abnormally strong for his size. He does, however, possess a wide variety of traditional cartoon character skills, such as the ability to hold objects without having any fingers, or the ability to somehow store and produce small objects without having any pockets!

"Psychonoauts is a fantastic game I started playing it after the Q&A discussion. I do agree a Sam and Fuzzy version would be fantastic! Are there other obscure games that A) you highly recommend and B) that you want to do a Sam and Fuzzy spoof on?" -Sam

It's always hard to decide exactly how obscure really counts as "obscure" when answering these kind of questions!

Beyond Good and Evil, de Blob 2, Henry Hatsworth, and Ghost Trick are some of my other favourite (relatively) recent games that never found the sales or success they deserved. I also tend to have a major soft spot some of the really great old 2D platformers that never really took off, like Ristar, Dynamite Headdy and Maui Mallard (the Megadrive/PC version, not the weird SNES port).

I'm not sure if any of these games lend themselves particularly well to Sam and Fuzzy spoofs, though. Maybe some sort of overall mix-and-match project could work, though!

"What is up with the 'Browse Archive by Character' function for the characters Susan and a Susansmith? I know that Susan Smith reporter extraordinare appeared in this strip, as she directly refers to her name. And I am fairly sure that she also appeared in previous strips, like all the way back in this one." -Tom

Susan Smith has appeared in a lot of strips as the host of Fact Copy, but Comic 1028 was the first time she was ever referred to by name. So from that point on, I started tagging her appearances with "susansmith". (In order to differentiate her from the other Susan, Sam's sister.)

Of course, there are a ton of older appearances of Susan Smith that don't come up in the search engine, because I never went back and tagged them. I guess I should go back and do that! It's a little intimidating, because it's a few appearances spread out over a lot of strips.

Also, because of how the tagger is programmed, selecting "Susan" actually appears to show all the appearances of both characters. Whoops! I guess I might have to change her tag to Susansister or something.

"In Strip 1047 you talked about the enthusiastic responses to the
"ultra-dynamic Conscience Cat/Dr. Crab splash panel". But since then there was no new news about a poster. Or I didn't read far enough! (I'm still at page 1089.) So here is my question: will there be a ultra-dynamic Conscience Cat/Dr. Crab Poster?" -Saad

Alas, this never ended up happening. It's always still an option, though, if enough people are interested! Who wants one?

Anyhow, that's a wrap for this week. See you on Monday!

-Sam Logan

Say cheese

Whew! Quite a few commission requests have come through since my Monday warning. (Which is awesome.) If there's anyone else out there hoping to order a custom drawing and receive it in time for Christmas, drop me a line as soon as you can. A man can only draw so many pictures in a month, and I am rapidly approaching my limit!

Speaking of stuff (vaguest segue ever), I still want to see your photos of our new swag in action! Especially the whiteboards and magnets, since they are so... interactive! I am dying to see what sort of things you are crafting and constructing. Here's a free tip: don't be afraid to incorporate other magnets into your magnetic Fuzzy monstrosities. (And bonus points for anyone who uses a fridge poetry set to write dialogue for them.)

We return on Friday, with a brand new comic and a brand new round of Q and A! If you've got a question you'd like to add to the consideration pile, just pop it in an email with "Q and A" in the subject line.

-Sam Logan

Commission Zone

Bam! November, WEEK TWO. That's full throttle November, bucko. And as is often the case at this time of year, I'm starting to get a lot of requests for commissioned art. To which I say... great idea! But if you're hoping to get something made in time for the gift-giving season, I'd recommend getting in touch via email sooner rather than later! I always hate to do it, but at some point I'll reach holiday commission critical mass and have to start saying no to folks until after Christmas.

Of course, we've also got a bunch of swell potential gifts in the Topatoco store. I know, I know, it's kind of disturbing thinking about that kind of thing so early. But it never hurts to give yourself some mailing lead time... especially if you are one of our international readers and are hoping to use the most economical shipping option.

But either way, if you want stuff... we've got stuff.Books! T-shirts! Whiteboards! Magnets! We've even got some Christmas cards... you know, if you're into that kind of thing. All this stuff is sitting there, for whenever (and if ever) you're ready for it.

(Assuming anyone can ever be truly ready for two-dozen magnetic disembodied bodyparts.)

-Sam Logan