Sam and Fuzzy
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| Sam and Fuzzy | |
|---|---|
 Fuzzy finds beauty in the mundane: a single panel from a comic dated August 10, 2005. |
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| Author(s) | Sam Logan |
| Website | http://www.samandfuzzy.com/ |
| Update schedule | Updates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays |
| Launch date | 2002 |
| Genre | Humour/Slice-of-Life |
Sam and Fuzzy is a surrealist webcomic authored by Sam Logan. With over 600 strips since it began in May 2002, Sam and Fuzzy is drawn by hand with a consistent, heavily contrasting black and white style. Although the comic was originally presented in a four-panel joke-a-strip format, it has since deviated from this routine and taken on an epic storyline, with numerous long-running story arcs.
The story is driven by the bizarre dynamic between the main characters; Sam, an insecure young adult trying to find a direction in life, and his friend Fuzzy, a mischievous bear with a bowtie; and the absurd consequences that it has on Sam's everyday life. The 'everyday' nature of these everyday situations, however, is most certainly not assured - as Sam and Fuzzy adopts a certain surrealist element in its plot construction. Sam's benign relationships with friends and co-workers frequently intermingle with such surreal elements as the elusive and dangerous 'Ninja Mafia', the ambitions of a demonic refrigerator, time travel, shark wrestling, and Fuzzy's mother coming to visit. Yet despite the humorous absurdity, the comic occasionally touches on profound and serious notes.
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[edit] The author
The comic is written and drawn by Sam Logan, a Canadian hailing from Victoria, British Columbia. Sam is infrequently self-referenced in the comic. In addition to his work in comics and freelance illustration, Sam is the graphic designer for YES Mag and KNOW, Canadian science magazines for kids from 9 to 14 and 6 to 9 years in age, respectively.
Sam Logan is currently the chairman of the Dayfree Press, which includes other popular webcomics such as Girly, Able and Baker, Questionable Content and White Ninja Comics. Although Sam and Fuzzy is less well known than some other online comics, it has a very loyal and loving following, and has been linked to by well known artists such as John Allison, creator of Scary Go Round, and "Tycho" (Jerry Holkins), creator of Penny Arcade.
The evolution of Logan's signature black and white style can be seen throughout the course of the comic. At first he stuck strictly to the 4-panel format, but now is more varied in his layouts and is more daring in his composition and character construction.
[edit] The characters
Sam is an idealistic but severely unconfident and indecisive 24-year-old. After dropping out of college, Sam spent the next seven years working as a taxicab driver for X-Per-S Taxi Service. Sam eventually lost both his taxi and his job, after botching a dangerous mission originally intended for the world-famous (yet always unseen) Carlyle. For a time, he worked as a cashier at a bookstore called Bunton's Books in order to pay back the damages to X-Per-S Taxi's owner, Mr. Ackerman. However, he has since become a target of the Ninja Mafia, and abandoned this job and boarded the first bus out of town[1]. For several months Sam's whereabouts and activities were unknown. Logan led the audience to believe that Sam was travelling under the pseudonym of "Aaron", one of Noosehead's roadies, but Aaron was recently unmasked as Jackson, a former Mafia Ninja who fled with Sam, Ox, and Fuzzy after the death of the Ninja Mafia high council. He has just recently been revealed to be 'Crush', another roadie.
Sam's hair and facial design is similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, of whom Sam Logan is a self-confessed fan.
Fuzzy is Sam's roommate, a short bear-like creature. Fuzzy is known for his ambition, ego, propensity for seemingly random violence, and ability to readily flip between extremist political movements/ideologies, namely communism and capitalism. Fuzzy also frequently embarks on get-rich-quick schemes, with consistently dubious results. Some may speculate that he has antisocial tendencies. Fuzzy is very, very sensitive about his eyebrows. He is currently working as a roadie for the fictional metal band, Noosehead.
Butcher the Cat is a stray cat that was taken in by Sam, and first appeared near the very beginning of the comic's run. Butcher, despite appearing to be in a permanent vegetative state, appears to have delusions of kitty grandeur and spatulas. Although previously thought by many to be male, Butcher has recently given birth to several kittens, including one that resembles a dinosaur when hairless.
Chompy is a horribly deformed cat that was first mistaken for a dinosaur. He has since been adopted by unbalanced artist Rikk Estoban. He is very cute (at least without the hair). His birth and first days of his life were depicted in the "Tiny Miracles" series, which ran from May 16, 2005 to June 10, 2005.
The Fridge - After Sam's electricity was cut off, his fridge-full of spoiled food was possessed by demonic forces. For a time, "Fridge" was a regular (and extremely vocal) fixture in Sam's kitchen, insulting him at every opportunity and claiming to be Satan himself. Later, Fridge occupied the body of a Ninja Mafia member and eventually placed himself at the head of the Ninja Mafia high council. In his most recent appearance, Fridge was apparently killed by Candice, to avenge the death of her father, DJ Positive.
Mr. Ackerman - Previously the owner of the X-per-S taxi firm, Mr. Ackerman may be in the early stages of senile dementia. At times, he has seemed perfectly coherent and collected. At other times, he has insisted that he is not from planet Earth. He has also re-enacted Sam and Fuzzy's adventures using sock-puppets. Mr. Ackerman recently retired, handing the position of head of X-per-S to Lance.
Lance - Sam's ex-workmate at X-per-S. Lance is hard-working, singularly focused, somewhat self-obsessed and relatively insensitive to other people's problems or perspectives. When Sam worked at X-Per-S, Lance appeared to resent Sam because of his whining and his indecisive behaviour. Lance has recently become the head of X-per-S. Recent events point to sort of relationship between Lance and Alexa, with some amount of success. They have had an encounter before but it had ended in failure, to say the least.
Carlyle - An always unseen employee of X-per-S. He is always called upon to take the most dangerous and important jobs, and has twice given Sam some deep advice about life, though Sam has never known it was him. He was also seen giving Fuzzy some advice too.
The Ninja Mafia - A parody of a Yakuza gang, with less-than competent members. Fuzzy was an employee, and later a leader, of a squad of ninjas without Sam's knowledge. Fuzzy's 'squad' included Scott (uptight by-the-books former leader who was replaced by Fuzzy and became a table holder), the rebellious Jackson (recently revealed to be "Aaron"), and the ambitious Sexxica. The block-headed Ox was the 4th member. When Sam fled town, Ox and Jackson went with him.
Future Fuzzy - Fuzzy has shown a limited capability for time travel, and always appears with an onomatopoetic "FWOOSH!!!" wearing a sombrero. He first showed this skill in comic 138.
Alexa is one of Sam's ex-girlfriends, who for a while worked in the same bookstore as he did. They broke up because of Fuzzy's disruptive influence. After Sam left town, she became the head of Bunton's books. Recent revelations in the plot point to Alexa being in relationships with both the now absent Sam and Lance.
Andrea is a worker in the bookstore. A cheerful lady who Fuzzy gets along with quite well. Andrea is also the only person that is not insulted or offended by Fuzzy, as is shown by this comic.
Candice is Sam's former girlfriend, who works/worked as a delivery girl. Her shadowy past and an apparent relationship with Rikk Estoban lead to Sam dump her. Recent revelations include that Sexxica is, in fact, Candice, and that she has been researching demonic possession in an attempt to combat Fridge's infiltration and takeover of the Ninja Mafia, therefore explaining her reasons for involving herself with Estoban. As previously noted, she killed Fridge to avenge the death of DJ Positive, her father. She seems to have sacrificed herself in doing this, but her fate has not been 100% confirmed. However, most believe that Candice is in fact dead thanks to the new progressing story and some remarks that Sam Logan has made himself on his forums.
Rikk Estoban - One of Fuzzy's infamous friends, Rikk is an "artist" who is only interested in death, gore, and Skull Panda. Rikk was originally hired by Fuzzy to draw his comic "Skull Panda", and has had a recurring role since. Rikk has provided a guest comic for Questionable Content, and comics 370 and 389 for Sam and Fuzzy. Rikk also hosted a Guest comic week during the week of July 17th, 2005. During the week Rikk experimented with several different artistic styles, and denounced daily the allegations that he was not the actual artist drawing the strips. Sam Logan has hinted that he's a real person, but the character seems to parody comic book artist Jhonen Vasquez.
Skull Panda was first created by Fuzzy, as a character designed to "appeal to alienated youths, and wannabe social outcasts". Although after this 'creation' Skull Panda appears to have become a wholly autonomous character. In his first incarnation it was firmly established that Skull Panda loves kitties. The only known language of the panda is constructed by the repetition of the word "Narn".
Skull Panda has also been a protagonist in the ongoing pseudo-feud between Sam Logan and Jeph Jacques (see the section "Webcomic Rivalry") - having killed the latter's main Questionable Content character, Marten, by implanting a broken Arcade Fire CD into his eye sockets, and hacking him to death.
Sidney - The leader of the world famous heavy metal band Noosehead, he was introduced in Sam Logan's most recent book. While Sideny is famous for his edgy and angry attitude, he is introduced into the story with a very sweet personality, hugging kittens and singing songs about happy animals. This recent change in attitude is the result of the most recent break-up (of many) with Nicole, Sidney takes on this new personality for a chance to get her back. Later Sidney finds he prefers being happy in contrast to angry and frustrated, and continues to try and stick to the new image after he hears that Nicole is dating some else. He still gets frustrated and angry with constant pressure from his manager to return to his old image and the fact that Nicole is dating some unknown slime ball, who Sidney does not know is actually his honest and supportive friend Crush.
Nicole - Noosehead's backup singer, she has known Sidney for seven years, and has been dating him on and off the entire time. Fed up with Sidney's bossiness and his gloomy attitude after so much success, she dumps him without showing any signs of returning to the relationship. She starts dating Crush (Sam), who is exactly the opposite of who Sidney was at the time, and though she seems to generally care about the roadie, has been trying to turn him into Heavy Metal singer (like Sidney) since day one of their relationship.
Earl - Nooseheads large and mostly competent manager, Earl was appaled by Sidneys new change in image and has been trying to convert him back to heavy metal ever since. Though at first Earl seems the purly greedy and selfish type. we find out that the man does in fact have a conscience and doesnt really seem to want to hurt Sidney back into his angry, depressed stage. Still, Earl is in a bit of a bad position with his boss, and doesnt have much say lately in what happens to his lead singer.
[edit] Webcomic Rivalry
Sam Logan often suggests that he has a fierce rivalry with Questionable Content author Jeph Jacques. The rivalry appears to have first been stated in this comic. Jacques has levelled such accusations at Sam Logan as the existence of the Hobolliseum of Doom in his basement, where Sam supposedly stages brutal hobo fighting tournaments.
The full list of "accusations", and their rebuttals can be found here, and a guest comic made by Jeph for Sam in December, 2005 can be found here.
Logan has publicly admitted that the rivalry is only a joke, meant to mock some of the real publicity generating insult-slinging that exists in the webcomics world. However, that has not stopped either him or Jacques from continuing to slander one another through their respective websites. A final announcment of peace can be found here
[edit] Print Media
Print versions of select Sam and Fuzzy comics appear in the weekly publications of The Martlet, the student newspaper of the University of Victoria located in Sam Logan's home town of Victoria, British Columbia. The comic is also published in The Peak. Book collections of Sam and Fuzzy comics are also available through Logan's website. Both mini-books ("Weekly World Sam and Fuzzy" and "Noosehead") were created primarily as a gateway for new readers at ComicCon, but also contain several bonus pages which will never be reprinted in other collections or on the internet. The first complete volume of the comic is in the works, possibly to be released in 2007.
