Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Subliminal Edition
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"In comic 2020, am I an immature person for thinking that the squid, particularly in the last panel, looks a bit ... phallic? Leading on from that, obviously you work in a visual medium, but with a large amount and focus on the story telling aspect, do you tend to prefer sight gags or written dialogue jokes, or a combination of the two?" -Samson
A few readers have asked if the squid in that panel was meant to be a hidden dong. No! I mean, c'mon guys. (I can draw way better dongs than that.)
I think the plot-driven nature of Sam and Fuzzy causes it to lean heavier on dialogue humour overall. But I'm always especially happy when I pull off an entirely visual "punchline". (This one is one of my favourites.) Comics are a visual medium and I try my best not to get lazy and underutilize that.
"How did Dev get Renaldo to shoot a commercial for NMS? Did she pay him? Did NMS pay him? I remember them both being pretty broke at the time, and Renaldo definitely said he wasn't working for free." -James
Renaldo expected to be paid, but once he showed up, I think Dev just bullied him into doing it for free. That's pretty much it!
When I was writing the story, I considered including a running gag about how Dev agreed to do some unknown "work" for Renaldo in exchange for the commercial. Throughout the story, she would cut Renaldo off any time he tried to tell someone exactly what that work actually was, causing everyone to speculate wildly. Then, at the end of the story, we'd find out she just did a bunch of tedious manual labour or polished his lenses or something equally stupid and innocuous.
But man, am I ever glad I dropped that angle. If readers assumed Dev had been forced to do something she found really distasteful, it would have cast a kind of gross pall over the whole story until the final gag reveal at the end. Plus, the story is supposed to be about getting into Dev's head and exploring how she honestly feels about her job and her boss. That doesn't exactly mesh with a running gag that makes her look like she is nervous and trying to hide something all the time.
"Are you still going to do a second pin-up book? It's been a long time since you talked about it!" -Sara
Sorry! It is definitely something I still want to do, but I've been so busy getting the RPG gamebook finished up that I haven't had time to work on it. The first pin-up ebook was a collection of mostly pre-existing art, but the second is primarily brand new material -- a fair chunk of which I still need to draw! But I'll get there eventually, honest.
That's a wrap for this week. Come back on Monday for our next comic!
-Sam Logan
