New extras added to Volume 4 digital bonus pack!

Thank you so much for your support of Sam and Fuzzy Vol 4's first week! This may not be a crowdfunding project, but rest assured, you hit the true stretch goal: in my heart.

So, I'm expanding the bundle of free bonuses I'll be sending to everyone who orders a book before November 1st! In addition to the digital PDF copy of the book and original two desktop wallpapers everyone was already getting, I've now added two more wallpapers as well!

One is a spin on our classic Conscience Cat print, and the other is a piece with a Simpsons/Family Guy theme, based on a reader-requested commission. The commissioner let me follow my heart on the specifics of that last one, which resulted in a heroes vs villains casting theme and a lot of violence.

These two wallpapers, along with all our other bonuses, will be emailed out in November to everyone who ordered a copy of Vol 4 before November 1st! And if things keep going well, don't be surprised if I throw in even more bonuses as the month goes on.

All right! Come back on Wednesday for another new comic, team. In the meantime, we'll be busy over here taking care of our NEW PUPPY AAHHH!

-Sam Logan

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

Vol 4 Commission Livestream today!

Thanks for all your support so far for the release of Volume 4! As always, I'm touched and slightly overwhelmed.

A number you have jumped on the special limited bundle, which means I've got a bunch of character portrait commissions to make. (Some were specific requests, while others will require the use of the chart of fate!)

So, I've decided to thrown an impromptu livestream today while I draw 'em! It starts at 1pm pacific time (4pm eastern). I'll be streaming a videofeed live on livestream, and also posting the finished pieces on twitter.

Here are some character portrait examples from past sketch offs, if you're curious:

-Sam Logan