Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Varney Edition
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"So l decided to start through the archives at the veeery beginning, as l have too much time on my hands, and l stumbled across this little gem. l noticed that Fuzzy was sidestepping his age. Since now we clearly know he doesn't remember anything, that just leaves me with one question: Whatever happened to the Kiwi Cola empire?

Or you could talk about the age thing, l guess" -Kyle

Pretty much from the beginning, I've treated Fuzzy as though his true origins were unknown and inexplicable. (Although of course, at the time it was more for practical reasons and comic effect!)

I'm always glad to hear when an old strip resonates well with a current story. I certainly can't claim that it's the result of me planning out the entire comic back in 2002. But when I finally did start constructing Fuzzy's backstory, I definitely looked back to the early years of the comic, and tried to write something that fit with what those old strips established.

"What's with the fox and lizard on the Save States shirt?" -Max

The coat-of-arms motif called for two shield-carrying animals, so in honor of the the two biggest gaming franchises of my youth, I picked a two-tailed fox and a saddled, long-tongued dinosaur. (Both of whom have plenty of in-game carrying experience.)

That design is loaded with nods to plenty of different classic console gaming series, some more subtle than others. If you're curious to read more about how I picked and designed them all, you should check out this tumblr post I made about it! There are a lot of words and pictures.



"Is that the Varney the Vampire in Fridays strip? Like the one who threw himself into Mt. Vesuvius? Not that I question him still being around after the whole throwing himself into a volcano, he's got that token Pulp immortality to the point where it wouldn't surprise me if he got better from a mild case of falling into a volcano. I'd just be kind of surprised you read them because those stories are pretty old and were pretty terribly written to boot." -practicallyevil

We can all thank my lovely wife Shannon for naming Varney. He is, of course, named after the classic Victorian penny dreadful character, who despite being outrageously popular in his time is now almost completely forgotten. (A fate that I can't help hoping will be shared by more than a few currently famous fictional vampires... ha!)

That's a wrap for this week, gang. See you on Monday!

-Sam Logan

I'm So Excited About Whatever

Over on my tumblr, I posted a little bit about the design process for the new "I'm So Excited About Whatever" shirt. And I'm going to try to do similar posts for "Winners Don't Use Save States" and "Shoulda Ordered Pizza" later this week. ("Save States" in particular went through a lot of different concepts.)

I like using tumblr to share this kind of behind the scenes production stuff! If you're interested in seeing previous posts about design process -- like for the Volume 3 book cover or my big Green Lantern parody piece -- you can find them all here.

Thanks to everyone who has been picking up the new books and swag! (Or the old books and swag, for that matter.) I feel super privileged to be able to do what I do for a living, and you guys are the reason why I can do it!

-Sam Logan

New book available now, new shirts and apron on sale later today!

Good news, everyone... my new apron and two new shirts are now on sale! I hope you guys are as excited about these as I am... I think they are some of the strongest designs I've ever done!

Thanks for a great convention, Edmonton! The crowd was great, with lots of new readers to meet, more than a few familiar faces from Calgary Expo, and plenty of interested newbies to introduce to our stuff! Based on the quality of the show and the turnout it got, I think it's going to grow really big, really fast. I'll definitely be back next year!

And unrelated-but-equally-vigorous thanks to everyone who has picked up a copy of Sam and Fuzzy Under the Influence! (Or one of our special multi-book bundles.) I'm also really happy to see so many folks picking up the "Artist Editions" that come with a random sketch inside. (To dismiss a worry a few of you expressed: if you get all three volumes as Artist Editions, you won't wind up with drawings of the same characters, even if you bought each book a year apart. I pick a different set of characters to use for each volume!)

-Sam Logan