R and arrrrr

Whew! Sorry team, but I think I need to take a week off from Q and A. All these unusually long and/or complex comics that I've been doing lately have been severely eating into my question answering time. Plus, I'm due to draw a fresh batch of sexy, sexy bookplates for our artist edition books, and I want to make sure I give them all the loving attention they deserve!

I'll try to do a couple extra questions next Friday to make up for it. In the meantime, enjoy today's long and splash-panely strip. And be sure to come back on Monday for the next instalment! I got to draw some pretty wild stuff for next week's comics... can't wait to hear what you all think about 'em!

-Sam Logan

SOPA

Barring a couple of server malfunctions beyond my control and one unexpected sudden onslaught of appendicitis, Sam and Fuzzy hasn't missed an update in its nearly-ten-year lifespan. It's a personal compulsion. Rain or shine, a comic has to go up. The thought of not updating the site on schedule makes me feel physically ill.

Is that a sissy reason for me not to participate in today's "internet blackout", where countless websites are taking themselves offline for the day to protest the ridiculous and potentially internet-damaging SOPA and PIPA acts? Yes, probably. But add that to the fact that I'm Canadian, and that I feel a little awkward about using my website to so brazenly "butt in" to an American political issue... well, the end result is that you are not getting a blocked site or big protest graphic. I totally respect and 100% support my peers who are participating but, well, I guess this particular reaction just isn't my style.

But you know what is my style? A self-effacing yet honest newspost in which I politely tell you that I don't like SOPA and PIPA. So here we are.

Online piracy is a real problem. But SOPA and PIPA are horribly broken... rushed and ill-thought non-solutions that would do almost nothing to slow or deter actual pirates. But what they would do is grant the ability to block any website -- including the one you're visiting right now -- without trial or notice, just on the unproven suspicion of copyright violation. If these powers were used, how could any small independent artist or businessperson fight back... let alone someone like myself, who isn't even an American citizen at all? The answer is: they couldn't.

American friends, I am not going to tell you what you should think about your government. But I encourage you to learn more about SOPA and PIPA and make up your own mind. And If you find yourself coming away as concerned as I am, consider contacting your senator and letting them know how you feel. Independent artists like myself need an uncensored internet to bring you the work you love.

-Sam Logan

YOU

I suppose the flip side of the "two-strips-in-one effect" you sometimes get in an update to a story comic like mine (as mentioned in last Wednesday's newspost) is that you also occasionally get strips like today's: stylistic indulgences that are admittedly pretty light on plot development. I do try to keep the story moving as much as I can, but sometimes you have to dial it back a bit for the purpose of good overall pacing. Well, and for the purpose of drawing lots of caves.

But completely coincidentally, Wednesday and Friday's comics are both extra long... three-pagers, instead of two. (I know they were big because I'm still exhausted from drawing them.) Come back in two days to oggle the first of them!

-Sam Logan