Skull Panda's Gift
It's a busy time of year! Which is why I was glad to hear infamous alternative cartoonist Rikk Estoban offered to step in and cover today's update with a new Skull Panda comic! Then he sent me this, at the last minute, when he could be sure there was no time left to find anything else. Thanks, Rikk! Sort of.
Come back on Friday for the start of a special brief holiday Sam and Fuzzy storyline, featuring everyone's favourite appliance. That's right... the Brave Little Toaster! See you on Friday, team.
-Sam Logan
Last Day for Express US Shipping!
Whooooo likes really long comics? I hope you do. Because there's one up there!
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY for Americans to get pre-Christmas delivery on Sam and Fuzzy swag using EXPRESS shipping! If you need something for the 25th, today is yer last chance.
That's a wrap for this first chunk of the Six Years Earlier flashback story! We will return to past-Sam and company very soon, after a brief break for special Holiday Programming. Come back on Wednesday for the first bit of it!
-Sam Logan
Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Jess Star Wars Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"When instant fan favorite Jess Star was first introduced was she intended as a one-shot character or was she always intended to be a prominent character?" -Tom
Jess Star was a character I introduced with the intent of bringing back, then decided not to, then brought back even later for a totally different reason!
Originally, I was considering writing a story about Fuzzy that took place between when he was abandonned by Hazel and when he first befriended Sam. During that time, Fuzzy was going to kick around in the Underground for a while, and I set Jess up in her initial appearance to be an acquaintance of his that he would re-meet during that period. But ultimately, it just didn't feel like that time period was really worth exploring. So I skipped over it.
Years later, I was considering inventing a new "master of disguise" character for what ultimately became the Double Jeopardy story. After thinking about it for a while, I decided Jess was a much more interesting character, and one that could have a more substantial role in the stories that followed it. And that is how the Jess character we know and love today was really born!
"I was reading through the archives and saw you got a question about how to find an artist you had trouble answering. In case it comes up again, I recommend pointing people at this article by Jim Zub on the subject." -James
Thanks, James. I got a few helpful messages on this topic, but I wasn't really sure how to pass on all that advice in a digestible way. Fortunately, Jim has done that for us already!
Jim is a talented and experienced dude, and he knows what he is talking about. For anyone interested... there are lots of great tutorials and other articles on his site, both about the business and the creative side of being a professional comics human!
"Out of curiosity, what is your favourite existing Star Wars film?" -Karn
Empire! I think it has the strongest acting and best character work of all the films, and so I find it the easiest to get super-invested in. It also has my favourite battle scene (Hoth) and light saber battle, which doesn't hurt.
I have heard a lot of folks argue that the also quite good A New Hope edges out Empire because it's also complete, self-contained story, while Empire is not. But I think Empire is absolutely a complete story! It's just a story about what it's like to lose, but not to quit. It'd be a bummer place to end the series, but I don't think that invalidates it as an individual tale.
OK, team! Up next: the tail end of this Dev flashback, some special holiday programming, then back to Sam and co. See you on Monday!
-Sam Logan
