SAM & FUZZY, by Sam Logan (updates M/W/F)


Skull Panda Loves Fanfiction

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Jul 22, 2009


San Diego Comic-Con

Today brings the first of three Skull Panda strips that will run while I am off gallivanting at San Diego Comic-con. It is always a pleasure to have the disturbed output of infamous alternative cartoonist Rikk Estoban grace the webpages of Sam and Fuzzy.

And if you enjoy these strips as much as I do... consider our new book: Skull Panda in Love. This miniature tome of Rikk's work collects all the strips you'll see this week, all the strips we've run in the past, and tons of brand new strips exclusive to the book. The centerpiece of it all is "Skull Panda is in Love" -- a multi-part epic romance that, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of Mr. Estoban's output.

Our 1-inch button pack is also available to order online. This is something you guys have been asking me to make for years... sorry I took so long! You can nab it by itself, or pair it up with the book to save on shipping.

All these goodies are also available at Comic-Con too, of course, at the Dayfree Press booth! Con-goers, just use the map above to find us. I look forward to seeing you all there!

-Sam Logan


Jul 20, 2009


San Diego Comic Con

That's a wrap for "The Big Cheat". I hope you all enjoyed it!

Meanwhile, I'm getting ready to head down to San Diego for the big show. All you Comic-Con attendees can find me and my cartooning cohorts at the Dayfree Press booth, which -- as you can see from the map on the right -- is nestled firmly in a veritable three-ring-circus of webcomic booths. It should be a lot of fun!

As usual, I'll be armed with a bevy of t-shirts, including the new "Scare Myself" and "Neville" designs. But I'll also be debuting another pair of new items: a set of six 1-inch Sam and Fuzzy buttons, and the first ever print collection of Rikk Estoban's Skull Panda comics: Skull Panda in Love.

I'll be making both items available to buy online, too, and I'll be running three of my favourite never-before-seen Skull Panda strips right here on the site while I'm away. Truly, this is an exciting time to be alive!



-Sam Logan


Jul 17, 2009

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

"In this comic, which version of "Loving Feeling" is playing? The Righteous Brothers, Elvis Presley, Dionne Warwick, Hall and Oates, Neil Diamond? I need to make sure I have the right version stuck in my head." -Sticky

The Righteous Brothers, obviously.

Obviously.

Jeeze.

"You mentioned you use 11 x 14 size paper to draw the comic. Do you scan these yourself, or at a copy shop? I can barely fit my 9 x 12 paper onto my scanner. Did you use all your plentiful t-shirt sales earnings to buy an expensively huge scanner?" -Charles

I scan all my pages myself, using the unglamorous-yet-effective technique of scanning each page in chunks and seaming them back together in Photoshop.

Reassembling all the different scanned pieces of a single, full-page 11 x 14 illustration is a nightmare. But it's not terribly hard to do with panel-based comic art, when the pages are already divided into pieces anyhow. It's certainly workable at least, which is good news for any cartoonist who does not want to shell out more than a grand for a larger-sized giant scanner.

"When you first started Sam and Fuzzy, was it simply your intention to keep doing gag-a-week strips? Or were you always intending the epic stories and started a gag-a-week strip because that was the only thing in webcomics at the time?" -JPV

When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a comic book artist. I was never really interested in becoming a newspaper cartoonist or doing gag strips. Almost all the comics I drew were longer stories, including a lot of the really early, prototypical Sam and Fuzzy comics.

But the version of Sam and Fuzzy that you're all reading today actually started as a strip in my university student newspaper. Putting them here on the website was really only an afterthought! I just figured that, since I was making all these stand-alone gag comics for the paper anyway, I might as well run them online, too.

Once the website started to take off, it became my primary focus, and I started making my comics with less and less regard for the needs of the newspaper format. And over time, I just kind of naturally gravitated back towards the kind of story-based comics that I'd always drawn. There wasn't really an exact point where I made the switchover, but you can see it happen gradually throughout volumes 2 and 3.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like I have the most boring possible answers to these questions. I change my mind. I actually transformed Sam and Fuzzy's focus to long-form stories abruptly and deliberately, in a ballsy attempt to revolutionize the entire webcomic universe. No need to thank me!

That's all for this week! But there is actually one more strip left in the "Big Cheat" storyline. Tune in on Monday for this unusually-timed finale!

-Sam Logan