Sorry for using last year’s Christmas front page, but what with finals, Adventure Developer, and laziness I didn’t have time to prepare a new one. What I do have, though, is a new interview with Sam & Max, conducted recently by one Adam Norton for an unkown purpose. This one is quite good, needless to say you must read it!I’m actually on “vacation” at the moment visiting family, so this isn’t a full update. In the coming week look for more fan art and some far cooler Sam & Max cameos in EMI. Merry Christmas!

Escape from Monkey Island was released a couple of weeks ago to (mostly) praise from (mostly) everyone. Since then players have found Sam & Max in two places (though neither of them is as obvious as their appearahces in earlier MI games). Max, facedown, can be seen in the bottom left corner of the Voodoo Lady’s house (The International House of Mojo) on MÈlËe Island. In the Palace of Prostheses on Lucre Island enter in Monkey/Monkey/Pumpkin into Deadeye Dave’s filing system controls to reveal the file for a Mr. “Sam N. Max.”

Theres lots of news since I last updated, so lets just get started (yes I know its been a while! I’ve been busy setting up the new Mixnmojo, as well as that whole school thing… but now I’m back)!First off, the thing I’ve been asked about the most, is that online booksellers like Amazon.com and Barnesnoble.com are reporting “publisher out of stock” on the Sam & Max comic collection, Surfin; the Highway. Unfortunately this isn’t some fluke in their databases, or the publisher waiting for a reprint. Marlowe, the publishers of the collection, have decided to stop printing the book. Why they’ve stopped is beyond me, since it was a popular collection and went through numerous printings and reprintings. Apparently it’s cancellation has something to do with some employee/management changes within the company. If you still want one (you should!) you can check any lesser known online bookstores, or ask at your local comic book store (a more likely way to get your hands on a copy). Steve Purcell has told me that there will likely be a reprint of Surfin’ the Highway or a new collection issued sometime in the future, but was unsure when. It’s possible that it will be after the new comic is out, so it can be included in the revised collection.

As for the release of the new comic, I’m not entirely sure. If I remember correctly the estimation was for it to be finished by the end of this year, and that was just an estimate so don’t be dissapointed or angry or assume it’s been cancelled if nothing shows up by the end of this year. It will come out eventually, it’s just a matter of time.

And what would a large update like this be without new goodies to look at? I’ve got a big pile of them this time. First off, in the animated series section there are two new pieces of original promotional/concept illustrations, one for promotional purposes and one of some toy concepts (obviously the toys were never made). Also I’ve added scans of some old products and promotional items originally sold in the Adventurer magazine, namely two pins and a Hit the Road pen, as well as a “Protected by Sam & Max” sticker. Once again thanks to Steve Purcell for getting this stuff to me.

My messageboard has been down for a while, and it was always rather primitive and unadministrated, so I’ve decided to instead redirect all messageboard traffic to Isaac Klinger’s well managed, well designed up and coming Sam & Max messageboard “Surfin the Information Superhighway.” The new board features discussion about general Sam & Max stuff, sections devoted specifically to the LucasArts game and to off-topic discussion, and an area to post links to your favorite Sam & Max sites.Also (today is apparently Isaac Klinger day) I have a piece of Fan art by Isaac that’s been added to the Fan Art site. It’s another one in which Sam is insane, and features the guest appearance of the Max Head bag puppet.

I asked around about the tshirt mentioned in the last update, and got many responses, including this concise informative one from Steve Purcell:

It was made in 1992. We sold them at a booth at the San Diego Comic Con. We also had enamel pins and window stickers. They were subsequently sold through the Adventurer for awhile.

I’d like more news than this since I’ve been posting so infrequently… Something new will be coming along soon though.

Luke Meeken recently provided me with a scan of an older Sam & Max tshirt. I’m not exactly sure when the shirt was originally made or for what purpose (the LucasArts store, convention, miscellaneous, etc), but I do know that you can’t buy them anymore, except at funky stores that sell things like old used tshirts with pictures of suit wearing dogs and naked weasel-toting rabbity type things on them (sorry :). Theres a larger image of it in the products section. If you want a Sam & Max shirt dont fret, the word is a new one is in the works.

Everyone needs to go check out Tom Sweeney’s two new submissions in the Fan Art Misc/Single Pics section. He’s been asking me for a while to put them up and I keep dropping the ball… But they’re there now so enjoy.

Er… Ignore all references to Monkey Island in the title there and concentrate… on this: My friend Joonas over at LucasFans recently updated the last part of his two part interview with Steve Purcell and an interview with Sam & Max themselves! (note: it is entirely different from the one mentioned down a couple lines in my last update) He has some really great questions for both Steve and Sam & Max, like this:

Could you tell us something about the making of Sam & Max Hit the Road adventure game? Any delicious behind-the-scenes jokes? One of the fun things about Sam & Max is that when we talked about putting whatever weird idea in the game (as we did on every game), in this case we could just leave it in. One thing that didn’t make the cut for obvious reasons was in an early version of Wak-A-Rat that Mike Stemmle wired up. It had little Indiana Jones figures borrowed from Fate of Atlantis popping up in place of the rats. Their tiny heads would spew like geysers when you bashed ‘em.
How did you first meet?

Sam: In third grade, Max pulled a bully off of me. Even though he was vastly outweighed, Max made mincemeat out of the little skunk. It was really something to see.
Max: He thinks you’re kidding, Sam.
Sam: No really. He literally “made mincemeat” out of him. You know, the pie filling. There was an inquiry.
Max: They couldn’t nail me cause the punk was packing a blade.
Sam: Well, sure, if you want to call a popsicle stick a “blade”.
Max: Okay, okay.

The interview can be found under the Interviews section of LucasFans if you’d believe it, so go and read!Actually don’t go quite yet, since theres more to look at here first! There’s a new Sam & Max page right here by Ariel AKA Rastaman, definately worth a look, as well as another vast Sam & Max Fan Page by ‘Alex’ at surf.to/thehighway. Both have also taken home their very own Sizzling Weasel on a Stick.

Also of interest is another interview, this time with Mike Stemmel and Sean Clark, project leads on Escape From Monkey Island, over at the Clearly Unofficial Escape from Monkiey Island website. The interviewer remembered, as you all should, that Mike Stemmel and Sean Clark were also project leads on Sam & Max Hit the Road, so he asked them this:

One quick question before we continue. Ever wanted to make Sam and Max 2?Mike and Sean: Yes, yes, oh God, yes. That is to say, um, sure.

Don’t know the likelihood of that happening in the near future, but its very cool nonetheless. There was some fan art that I was going to include in this update as well but I seem to have misplaced it. If you’re out there reading and you don’t hate me yet please resend it and I’ll put it up asap! That goes for the rest of you as well. Fan art is goood. For instance, DJG insisted that I run this little artistic gem he made over the last 5 minutes as a last ditch effort to give me a fan art update.And, last but not least, don’t forget to vote for Sam & Max in the poll at lucasarts.com. Thats right, forget that Guybrush Whatshisname guy and vote for the crime fighting duo with nearly symmetrical names!

Over a month since the last update. Wow. Anyway, no worries the site isn’t dead or anything. In fact, I have what may be the biggest update yet: An interview with Steve Purcell, creator, writer and illustrator of Sam & Max (although if you didn’t know that you wouldn’t be here would you). Steve talks a lot about Sam & Max’s history, his experiences relating to Sam & Max, school, other illustration work, time at LucasArts working on the Monkey Island games, and (oh yeah) talks about the new Sam & Max comic coming soon! Go read now.

Isaac Klinger recently sent me three pieces of Sam & Max Fan Art he made parodying Red Meat. I really like the second one. A lot.