WHOOOM!

Wow, things are really blowing up at the Saucy Hippo! (Sorry, sorry.)

NEXT TIME: Come back on Friday, when I will have both a brand new comic and our traditional Friday Q and A column! If you've got a question you'd like me to answer, just pop it in an email with "Q and A" in the subject line. (Or tweet it at me.)

-Sam Logan

Compromise

I don't think that's what that expression means, Duncan.

Come back on Wednesday for our next comic!

-Sam Logan

Sam and Fuzzy Q & A:  Escape Clause Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!

"So we know Jess's kind reverts to her true form in the sun. So now adays, do they enjoy bopping around in the sun? Does Jess enjoy the sun? Or rather: has Jess ever seen the sun?" -Tom

While Jess is now technically able to go out in the sun, she generally chooses not to. Jess considers her human form to be her true form, and doesn't enjoy having to slug it anymore. I also don't think she particularly enjoys being in the sun, anyway. I think of her as being primarily nocturnal.

But she has definitely seen the sun before! In addition to seeing it in slug form, she can go outside while staying humanoid by completely covering her body in clothing -- as she did when she was impersonating Mr. X. (As you can see in that comic, she wore skin-colored gloves.)

"I was going to ask about the Santa Clause thing, and then I started reading a storyline that was linked in last week's Q&A... and it turns out that The Santa Clause has been very important for a very long time. I know you said it would be difficult to explain how you've seen it over 25 times... but can you please do so? For us? The readers? (I only watched it myself for the first time a month ago!)" -Keith

Haha! I've noticed a lot of people are seeing it for the first time this year. Probably because of Disney+?

I first saw The Santa Clause as a little kid, when it was in theaters! My mom took me, and it was just one of those rare times where we saw a kid's movie that we both really liked. And because we liked it, we bought it on VHS the following year so that my Dad could see it to. He also liked it, so we rewatched it again the following year.

And well... that's how traditions start I guess! The more times you do it, the weirder it would feel to stop. Thus, I have watched The Santa Clause with my folks every single year since 1995, except for one year when I was out of the country during the holidays. When you see a movie that many times, you really start to know it backwards and forwards. I can probably recite large portions of the film from memory, and we've noticed all kinds of stupid details with every rewatch. (Did you know that the menus in the "Dennys" have the name of a different restaurant printed on them?)

The reason I say it's hard to explain is, well... it's not like it's any of our favourite movies. It's just a thing we do every year. That said, while I'm certainly not as hot on it as I was as a child, I honestly do think it's a pretty OK Christmas movie. It has some pretty OK jokes, and a script that I would describe as "ruthlessly efficient". lol

Bonus trivia: I saw The Santa Clause 2 once and absolutely hated it. I've never seen The Santa Clause 3.

"What apps do you use [to make comics]?" -Ahsan

I have been making all my comics in Photoshop CS2 since the start of Sam and Fuzzy Fix Your Problem! I know it is kind of hilarious that I have never upgraded to a newer version of Photoshop despite being a professional artist, but, well... I have never needed to, and I'm cheap. So I never did!

That said, I just bought myself a Cintiq for the first time, and it doesn't seem to like CS2. It's a newer Cintiq, so it needs to use the current Wacom drivers... and they don't seem to be compatible with how CS2 manages lineweight "shape dynamics". (When shape dynamics are enabled, I start getting weird random gaps in all my lines.) Unless I can solve that problem, I guess I won't be able to use my Cintiq in Photoshop without upgrading to the new version.

But because of this, I've finally been experimenting with Clip Studio Paint! I bought it years ago but never got around to trying it until now. So far, it seems great. The inking in particular feels much better than Photoshop. (Well, better than Photoshop CS2, anyway!) I'm still learning how to use it, but it's possible I might eventually move over to doing everything in Clip. We'll see!

That's all for today, team. Come back on Monday for our next comic!

-Sam Logan