Sam and Fuzzy Q & A: Rikk Edition
Got a question you want answered? Just drop me an email with "Q & A" in the subject line!
"Whatever happened to the full size Corgi Ad you did for comic transit thing in Vancouver? Some kind of really cool exhibit with all the contributors?" -Braeden
Ah! For those who don't know, Braeden is talking about this guy:
It was a collaborative project between Vancouver's Cloudscape comics collective, and the City of Vancouver transit department. A bunch of local creators drew comics that ran on bus stop ads around the city!
I don't know what happened to them, actually! I was told before I drew it that after they were taken down, we would probably not be able to request to have them saved for us, so I didn't try. I do sell much smaller (12x18) prints of it at cons, though!
"I always read Rikk Estoban as a spoof of Jhonen Vasquez. And now you write for Zim. A. Was I wrong to assume this? B. Is that awkward?" -Paul
Well, as we all know and never question, Rikk is a real person. Obviously!
But discounting that for a moment, the Rikk character in S&F is intended to come across as more of a wanabe than a parody... someone who strove to emulate "edgy" indie comics artists like Jhonen Vasquez or Roman Dirge, for reasons that were maybe more business motivated than artistic. As you may or may not recall, Rikk actually changed his art style to become more successful, as well as adopting a derivative fake new name. (Which is probably why it is spelled incorrectly.)
By the time Rikk showed up in the comic, I was a pretty huge fan of I Feel Sick and Invader Zim, so any spoofing on those kind of comics and cartoons was done from a loving place. I actually gave Jhonen a Skull Panda book a decade ago, when I first met him. And instead of murdering me, we became con friends! (And him being familiar with my work is part of why I was given the ok to write for Zim.)
"As we see Sam take the buddy bots to save Fuzzy, it got me thinking. We've lost a lot of these buddy bots over the years due to a series of unfortunate events. Do you have a rough idea of how many of them are left? Do you foresee them all going away at some point to save humanity, or is there a pretty close to limitless supply, thanks to Sin's constant manufacturing? I think Bonus being killed off would emotionally scar me at this point. :)" -Ryan
There are a lot of Buddy Bots floating around! Sin built a lot of the "new" model when he reopened the Buddy Bot factory as part of his last big plan -- those units are the ones that are now being used as Erasers!
But the Buddy Bots with personalities, like Bonus... there is definitely a hard limit on their numbers. They're the units that had their original, defective brains -- copies of Eric's that Mr. Sin considered to be too flawed -- reinstalled by Benson. Those brains havent' been made in 25 years, and presumably there are only so many of them. That said, I don't think that many of those Buddys have bought the farm!
YET.
We return on Monday with our next comic. See you then, team!
-Sam Logan
