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


Whether Permitting, Pt. 42

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Feb 5, 2021

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


"If Jess’s new performance is about how the sun turns her into a big slug, does that mean her giant monster form looks like her slug form? Did Fidgital actually convince her to use her dead form???" -Aaron

I guess today's comic actually answers that question, but no! It was just a costume. Actual shapeshifting slugs are much, much more unsettling looking. (And probably not QUITE that big.)

"Hey now, how can my main man Mr. Duncan (City Council dude) be kink-shaming Devahi's place when we all know werewolves are made after being bitten by vampires (scandalous) and choosing to stay that way. Unless he is just a wolf-man instead of a werewolf which would be different things." -Tom

Ha! Well, Duncan was actually never human. He was born in the Underground to two wolf-person parents. That's a big part of why he his so stoked about the surface -- until six months ago, he'd never even seen it, let alone been able to live there!


Fun Facts: Although wolfpeople were (and occassionally still are) created when humans have a mutative allergic reaction to vampire saliva, most of the wolfpeople running around today are just the descendants of other wolfpeople. And none of them are really "werewolves" per se... they are always in wolf form all the time, and there's no way to revert a wolfperson back to human form unless they are very recently transformed. (This is something I dug into a little in the S&F universe guidebook portion of the Underground RPG!)

As for Duncan's attitudes towards the club... well, I think he is probably just kind of a conservative guy in general. But he's also someone who grew up in the Underground -- a place that was basically a series of territorial fiefdoms run by crooks and despots. Until the "great erruption", Inhumans were forced to live alongside a lot of unsavory and dangerous stuff. Now, Duncan wants things to be better for them on the surface. But he has a hyper-idealized vision of what above-ground living should be like, and can be pretty judgmental of things he considers to be "unseemly" Underground-esque stuff like the Saucy Hippo.

"Your work with Invader Zim has been killer- nowadays, do you have any other licensed properties you think you'd knock out of the park?" -missystrange

I would love to work on a Sonic the hedgehog book! There's no other property on earth I know as well as that one. Except maybe Sam and Fuzzy.

Maybe.

"So [Councillor Duncan] claiming that they only have permits for a human burlesque club... Did Dupont’s lawyers hear that bit of insanity? Because I am next to certain no code on the planet exists that ever would explicitly state 'human'. Or 'burlesque club' for that matter.  It would just be a building category for public assembly (pertaining to entertainment) with local ordinances for adult entertainment.  When the underground went topside, did Newport redo all it’s ordinances to specifically exclude nonhumans?  Shouldn’t people (and nonhuman people too) be concerned about that?" -Pete

Nah! I wrote this story assuming Newport's local laws were similar to the ones on the books here in Vancouver.

My assumption was just that Duncan was going to try to throw a wrench in the works by arguing some sort of stupid technicality... something stemming from the fact that local laws were not written to account for the existense of sentient inhuman creatures and machines. Like, do local adult entertainment ordinances or liquor laws require the employees have a kind of ID that inhumans don't have yet? Do they allow for mechanical attendees, or animals on the premise?  Can the venue somehow technically be classified as a zoo? (I was maybe a little inspired by Vancouver's longtime ban on serving liquor in venues with arcade machines.)

For a while, I thought I might actually have Duncan outline a specific argument in the story, but ultimately I decided not to get into it. It felt like there was no point, since he ultimately drops the threat pretty quickly. I think it was enough to just convey that he was willing to FIND a way to hassle them if it came to that.

What would be the biggest defining story that would unfold in a theoretical Sam & Fuzzy meets Invader Zim crossover? -inversethunder

You know, this is honestly something I've never considered! The tones of the two series' are so different! I think it might be a kind of peanut butter and spaghetti situation.


But if I had to do it, I think my preference would be to write a story that was completely grounded in the setting and style of one of the two series, rather than some sort of multi-dimensional crossover. Like, it would either be an Invader Zim story or a Sam and Fuzzy story... with new versions of the "visiting" characters that were written and designed to fit that world. I guess that's similar to how I handled Pintsize's appearances in S&F! He's not the Pintsize from Questionable Content... he's what I imagine Pintsize would be like if he existed in the S&F universe. Make sense?


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


-Sam Logan


Feb 3, 2021

Great


For a little refresher on Duncan's views re: the "great miracle", check back to this comic.


Come back on Friday for our next comic, as well as a brand new Friday Q and A column! I'll be answering a couple extra questions this week to make up for missing the last one. 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.) See you then!


-Sam Logan



Feb 1, 2021

Workshopping


You gotta admit, Jess managed to put that act together pretty quickly!


Come back on Wednesday for our next comic. See you then, team!


-Sam Logan