Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Spiral Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"Is there a reason you chose to use very similar black and white circles to represent both Hazel and Brain in Fuzzy's vague dreams as well as Hart and Candice talking to Brain? Is there some deeper meaning behind that or was it just a coincidence?" -Sullivan
Sort of! They're both examples of a broader use of spirals and circles to represent repressed, altered, and damaged memories, which is something I've tried to do consistently throughout this entire era of the comic. After establishing that language in the earlier books, I thought drawing Hart and Candice in a similar swirly fashion would help them "read" clearly as an invasive presense in Brain's mind, rather than literal ghosts that exist floating around him in the "real" world. But there's no particular significance to the fact that Hazel and Candice are a white swirl while Brain and Hart are a black one, other than the fact that Brain and Hart are both demons.
My personal favourite instance of spiral imagery is this three comic sequence from near the end of Sam and Fuzzy Under the Influence, where Fuzzy nearly has his mind wiped (again) by Brain. In particular, I like the panel where Sam's face is mostly missing, but there's a lot of neat stuff in that sequence.
"We have seen many shots of the committee throughout many chapters, most recently the original set created alongside Rexford, but we have never seen a full frame shot or official count. How many committee members are there? Has there ever been a group that was disbanded like the Ninja mafia? Could that mean Hazels Coordinates are wrong?" -Georges
Not to turn this into a big plug, but there are actually portraits and bios for all of the Committee members and factions in The Underground RPG/Guidebook (Available to purchase as a book here or an ebook here)!
There are 31 member factions in total, and although many of them have gone through various changes over the years, all of their pit codes were successfully preserved in some form or another. The ones that wound up in the most complicated-to-retrieve scenarios were Mr. Sin's (because his mind was hard to read), the Ninja Mafia's (because it was hidden in a missing artifact), and Theo Designer's (because Unit 01 vaporized him). That's why Hazel and Brain saved those ones for last, and why they resulted in some of our big stories over the last couple of years!
"How is it that none of the current Committee members know of Rexford's age and origins with the original Committee? Does anyone else know about his past, and simply has not come forward to share?" -Dawson
I think it's the later, for sure! As Dawson pointed out elsewhere in his email, if the Committee was formed in the 1500s or so, there are some long-lived species on the Committee (like the vampires) for whom possibly only 3 or 4 generations have passed. That's not a lot of lifetimes for a fact to be lost to history.
That said, Rex is a powerful and intimidating figure, and there's a certain amount of mutual respect within the Committee for protecting each other's secrets, especially among the inhuman factions. Not to mention a lack of trust... one member is not necessarily going to believe what another has to say about Rex, even if it's true. I believe the way I put it in his Underground RPG profile was that everyone knows Rex is weirdly old, but not necessarily how old... he doesn't talk about it, and most people chose not to ask.
So my thinking is, when Rexford loudly denies that he is old enough to be around when the Committee was founded, some members probably believe him, some probably have their doubts, and some probably know he's lying but chose not to call him out on it. Some might think he's the original Rex, some might think he's the original's son or grandson, some might think he's a clone... a big mess of rumours and heresay. That's what I was going for, anyway!
We return on Monday with a new comic. See you then!
-Sam Logan
