New Shirt Now on Sale!

My new Edwin shirt is now on sale! "Vampirism Does Not Make Stalking Attractive" -- the golden rule of the Alexander Stake Vampire Re-Education Center -- can now be proudly emblazoned on your chest at all times. (Well, except when you are washing it. Please wash it.)

I have a second t-shirt coming soon, too... the ring-noming "Blue Hedgehog" that was such a popular button design. You can see a preview of it to the right. It is not on sale yet, but I figured it was probably a good idea to warn you it was coming, in case you want to get both shirts shipped together!

And of course, if you are in a gifting mood, we also have our exciting new Christmas cards. Be warned: we only have a limited quantity of these suckers.

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

"How do you make your comics look so nice -- clean, crisp and dark lines -- when hand drawn?!?" -Karissa

I'm glad you asked! The answer is actually a combination of witchcraft and animal sacrifice. If you don't have a goat handy, consider your least-favourite household pet.

Ok, I kid. (Sorry, Rover.) In seriousness, it's a combination of working with a brush and ink, and then scanning the resulting artwork with the correct scanner settings. You can learn all about it in this previous Q and A.

"Are Roger the disembodied head and Roger the man that Fuzzy imprisoned to replace Sam the same person?" -Chris

This was a very popular theory on the Sam and Fuzzy forum, back in the day! I actually just used the name Roger twice accidently, but hey... believe whatever messed up stuff you want to believe!

"Where would the whale weigh its tongue? At the whale weigh station! Hahahah!" -Tom

I'm not sure you understand how this works, Tom.

Then again, I did post your message. So maybe you understand how it works much too well.

That's all for this week! Our story continues on Monday. See you then!

-Sam Logan

Krrnch!

It is always a pleasure to draw these kind of unhinged visuals. And Sam and Fuzzy provides me with so many opportunities! Sometimes I wonder how all the earnest, hard working auto-bio cartoonists resist the temptation to just toss realism aside and draw a bunch of ridiculous crap.

Of course, some of us can have it both ways. But we can't all live a life as surreal as Jeff's! I'm not even sure it is legal in most countries.

-Sam Logan

My Skills are Varied

One of my favourite parts of New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the "Super Skills" movies -- video clips that show off hilariously elaborate trickery to earn piles of lives or beat levels incredibly fast. Of all the clips I've seen so far, this is probably my favourite, but there's one for every level of the game.

For years, you've been able to find videos similar to these all over YouTube. But those videos were of the classic Mario titles, and they were made by fans -- crazy fans, dedicated to completing these games in the fastest or most outrageous ways possible. At times, the "secrets" these guys uncover look like they are practically breaking the game. After all , surely the developer never intended to have folks earn infinite lives, or beat the entirety of the original Mario Bros. in under six minutes.

But with the "Super Skills" videos, Nintendo have tipped their hand. They're not just aware that these kind of gamers exist. They are deliberately designing the levels to facilitate all those ridiculously esoteric tricks and perfect speed runs. On purpose!

Who knew?

-Sam Logan