Mr. executive
Always nice to see Earl again!
Sometimes people ask me if I miss writing or drawing any particular older characters that no longer appear in the strip. The truth is, I miss a lot of them. Honestly, sometimes it's tempting to just cram them all back in! But I think we can all imagine the giant mess that would come out of THAT impulse.
So alas, I guess I have to be vaguely responsible and let the needs of the story decide which characters should stick around and which should take a leave of absense. And as a creator, you have to let some familiar faces go from time to time so that you can work with new characters and new ideas!
But in a universe where I had infinite time to make infinite stories -- where I could keep doing new stuff and revist all my old favourites? We'd almost certainly see more of Earl. And Gertrude. And Sidney. And Andrea. And Mr. Stabbs.
(OK, maybe not Mr. Stabbs.)
-Sam Logan
Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Bonus Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"What desktop wallpaper idea won the book club poll?" -Beckers
At the moment, "NMS Coat of Arms" has a solid lead. Team Fortress 2 parody is in second, and (astonishingly) three different options -- Marvel parody, Ninja Turtles parody, and NMS summer beach party -- are all tied for third.
Some folks still haven't voted (get on it, guys!), so theoretically things could change. All these ideas sound pretty fun to me, though, so I might actually eventually do the top two or three.
"Have you ever considered letting people just give donations for access to the bonus packs?" -Natalie
Good question! I created the bonus packs because I really wanted to provide an extra reward/thank-you to folks who were for dropping the cash on my books, which were a little more expensive to buy and ship than I liked because of their unusually massive size. Because of that, I wanted to keep the rewards exclusive, since they're part of the whole package.
But! As the years go by, we are starting to pile up a lot of previous bonus rewards... rewards that there are actually no way for people to obtain anymore. Which seems kind of silly, I admit! So here's the plan: when the new site design relaunches, I'll be creating a new "digital downloads" section. In it, folks will be able to buy the stuff from some of the older Fix Your Problem bonus packs, and hopefully some other goodies as well. It's in the works, anyway!
"Are the table-salt-and-antihistamine bullets Sam and Dev used to 1435">"simulate death-like conditions" the same ones Mr. Black used to fake Sidney's death? -Matt
"PS: Is it the drug also known as Juliex 2-40?" (Caught that on another read-through, BTW" -Matt (In a separate email, 3 hours later)
That makes so much sense, it must be canon! Guess it's a ninja trade secret.
(PS: I'm sure this wasn't actually the case, but I loved how the timeline of your emails implied that you completely re-read the entire archive specfically looking for more mentions of the drug.)
That's a wrap for this week, team! See you on Monday.
-Sam Logan
Ruxpin
BACKLINKS OF RELEVANCE: You can see Fuzzy storming into the Newport police office to ask about Hazel earlier in this volume. And you can see a flashback of Fuzzy and Hazel's final use of the teddy-bear scam (AKA the "Ruxpin Maneuver") in the final chapter of Sam and Fuzzy Fix Your Problem. (It's actually an interesting scene to re-read in retrospect, since at the time, Fuzzy had no idea just how many times they'd pulled that scam, while Hazel knew all too well.)
In other news... it's only a couple of weeks 'til Emerald City Comicon in Seattle! Like last year, Topatoco is bringing so many different artists, they can't all be contained in booth #202... so Jeph, Jhonen and I will be hanging out across the aisle in booth #203 (affectionately known as the "Topatoco Annex"), most likely hurling things at the other booth. Here's the floorplan of our future battleground, and here's a list of all the other guests who will be at the show!
-Sam Logan
