Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Hairy Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"Is Dev's hair clear in the front? How does she get it to do that? Can anyone's hair be clear if it gets in the way of their face?" -Jeremy
This is a stylistic quirk -- or bad habit, as some might argue -- that I picked up from a youth of anime-watching.
The logic, I suppose, is this: in real life, when a person's bangs hang in front of their eyes, you can often still partially see their eyes between the individual strands of hair. But in a cartoon where bangs have been simplified into a single solid shape, you represent that partial visibility by depicting that solid shape as sort of semi-transparent.
I know some cartoonist who absolutely loathe this technique. I (as you may have guessed) am pretty OK with it.
As for what colour Dev's bangs actually are, I usually colour them as a dark brown that's only slightly lighter than the rest of her hair looks, just because it's thinner. I don't think she dyes it or anything.
"Is the owner of the Kiwi Cola brand a member of the Committee? And if so, who?" -Kennet J
Kiwi Cola is a more-orless regular surface corporation with a "civilian", Underground-ignorant CEO. But like a lot of major surface corporations, several of the Committee's wealthier members -- like the Graves Group and Paxton -- are major shareholders. Meanwhile, like a lot of surface products, Kiwi Cola is imported, market, sold in the Underground by Rexford Industries. (You can learn more about this, of course, in the gigantic Sam and Fuzzy universe guide in the Underground RPG gamebook!)
"Hey Sam! I've bought all your books, and I'm excited for the RPG. What RPGs do/did you play, and how did your relationship with DTD begin, did you have some ideas for the mechanics of a S&F game already, or did you put it in their hands?" -BagelDenzien
This is actually a question from our recent AMA! But it was a good one, so I thought I'd repost it here.
The folks at DTD actually approached me, with a set of mechanics and concepts that they'd come up with themselves! And honestly, I was just so impressed by how well their ideas and systems meshed with the Sam and Fuzzy universe that I just had to say yes. We've been working on it together ever since. It's been a really cool, almost symbiotic relationship -- in general, I provide the lore and art and they provide the game systems and mechanics, but there's been a lot of feeding off of each other, with an idea from one side providing inspiration for the other.
The RPG I played most as a teenager was TMNT and other Strangeness! (It was based on the original Ninja Turtles comic books.) I really liked that game, and I loooooved all the lore-and-art-filled gamebooks... which was a big influence on me packing as much of both of those things as possible into our own game.
As an adult, I'm currently playing a regular D&D 4th ed game, although we're in the process of transitioning it to 5th.
We return on Monday for the start of a new story, and the final week of our Kickstarter! See you then.
-Sam Logan
