Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Vol 4 Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"In the limited bundle, are we able to choose a very specific theme (e.g. Fuzzy as Captain Kirk), or does it have to be something more like the chart, with a general "Fuzzy as a sci-fi thing" type of request?" -Keith
This wasn't actually a Q and A question, but I thought I'd answer this one publically, since a lot of people have been asking!
Yes, your request can be that specific if you like! The chart is just for people who are indecisive or who have a gambling spirit. The options on it are more general/thematic to give me some flexibility after I roll.
Incidentally, here are a bunch of the drawings I've done so far! Some of them were specific requests, while others were generated using the chart:
If you'd like to get a drawing like one of these with your copy of Volume 4, just select the Limited Bundle over at Topatoco. They're available until Nov 1st! And I'm having a lot of fun drawing them. Look at that friggin' Totoro Alphonso! My job is awesome.
"I'm starting a webcomic soon. When I'm drawing a lot of the time I will unnintentionaly copy little bits (eyes, hands, etc.) from Sam and Fuzzy characters, while the story is similar to Fullmetal Alchemist, because S&F and FMA were my two biggest inspirations. What were your inspirations, and do your early comics reflect that?" -Cam
The answer to this question is kind of complicated by the fact that Sam and Fuzzy are characters I've been drawing off and on since I was a little kid. They went through many, many different itterations and premises, personalities and designs, before I settled on the version you all know today. So instead of having one or two major influences, it just picked up tons of little bits of all the things I was a fan of during all the various times I tried to rework the characters.
Narratively, there was a time Sam and Fuzzy was about a kid with a secret, magically living bear, ala My Pet Monster. Later, Sam grew into a teenager, and the idea shifted towards the two of them battling jokey sci fi threats like Simpsons-esque Kang and Kodos aliens. There were some very Calvin and Hobbes-styled one page strips, with the characters discussing commercial cynicism and other big life issues. There was even a period of time after I discovered Sam and Max where the comic turned into something blatantly Sam and Max-y. (Sam and Fuzzy became quick-bantering detectives.) Little bits and pieces of all those itterations mixed together to form the final strip.
The art's a giant grab bag of things throughout my childhood, too. The way I draw eyes is, I think pretty obviously, a mutated legacy of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sam got his tie when I was into Sam and Max. Fuzzy got his eyebrows after I started reading Bone. It's all over the place. (The one thing that was not a big influence, incidentally, was Invader Zim! I used to get asked about that a lot, especially in the early days of the comic. But I didn't really get to know Jhonen's work until after I'd started Sam and Fuzzy.)
In retrospect, it's funny how directly some things were inspired. I think the saving grace of being an adult cartoonist is, by that point, you've absorbed so many different influences that your work is no longer an obvious rip-off of one thing. Instead, it's a series of tiny rip-offs of thousands of things!
That's a wrap for this week, team. See you on Monday!
-Sam Logan
