Sorry I forgot to mention this earlier but the syndicated Sam & Max newspaper comic that was announced back in April has been postponed indefinitely, or maybe cancelled (depends on what you call it and if you’re in marketing or not), since Steve Purcell is now busy working a whole lot at Pixar. Sort of a dissapointment, but who knows what’s up at Pixar now, eh?
Are we back? Is this thing on? Hey everyone, just letting you know that if you haven’t noticed, I’m back and actually updating again! Better news than that, though, is that we’re on a brand new server, and we’ve got a spiffy new URL: http://unofficial.samandmax.net! Tell your friends!
It gets even better, though. Metallus, a webmaster at sister-site Snuckey’s, and myself have with the input and approval of board moderators iisaac and Jester, opened some brand new slap-happy Sam & Max forums, now online and waiting at http://forums.samandmax.net. What are you waiting for? Make an account and go post!
Canadians, and Americans with expensive sattelite TV setups can now catch the “Sam & Max: Freelance Police!!!” television series 9 times a week on the Canadian BBCKids network. Though they’re not making any new episodes (from what I’ve heard, which is absolutely nothing), the original FOX Kids season from 1997-1998 can be seen 3 times a day every Saturday, Sunday and Monday at the following times:
Saturday: 11:00 AM, 5:30 PM, 12:00 AM (midnight)
Sunday: 11:00 AM, 5:30 PM, 12:00 AM (midnight)
Monday: 3:00 PM, 6:00 PM, 9:30 PM
All times listed are Pacific time. So add an hour for Mountain, 2 hours for Central, and 3 hours for Eastern. They seem to have one feed for the whole country so those times should be accurate. For details and whatever else BBCKids has to offer, check their full weekly schedule.
“Sorry PC heads, it looks like we get to sit in the mouth of a metal fish this time around.” I want to cry. Anyway, moving on…IGNX-Box has written a brief feature on the new, unnamed, next-gen console Sam & Max game (woo!). Their writeup is, as they admit, just trying to connect the dots using the 5 pictures and one or two facts given on Infinite Machine’s website. Though they have no new information you can tell the writers are big LEC junkies, mentioning a brief history of the company, Tim Schafer, and Justin Chin’s past work, all seemingly off the top of their head. Hats off to that. Here’s a bit from their article, the part where the author does his best to guess at facts about the game, and will probably be decently right:
The original game took place around America’s most famous landmarks, both real and twisted. This time it looks as if our favorite characters have ditched the planet altogether, and are taking their private investigation skills to deep space. You’ll be able to tow asteroids, you’ll get a chance to do some gambling at good old Green Mama, your home away from home if your home is 3 million light years away. You’ll be able to meet and greet the prettiest woman with a handful of legs you’ll ever meet. You’ll hear the crooning of Slippy, the slickest alien singer this side of the other side of the asteroid. Other than that, we’re assuming it’s all about biting people on the butt and spewing witty, sparkling commentary.
I’m going to come out of hiding here (yes I’ve been working on the new site, but its been slow) to mention that Infinite Machine, rumored development of a new Sam & Max game has in fact confirmed its existance on their site. The game is for next gen consoles (presumably for XBox, since thats what they do at Infinite Machine, but they say “consoles” so there may be PS2, Gamecube… even Dreamcast ports being done as well. Who knows), and goody goody they’ve put up 5 pieces of concept artwork from the title [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Here’s a snippet from the site:
Let’s keep this short and simple. Yes, we’re working on an action adventure Sam & Max game (for next gen consoles). We’re working directly with it’s creator Steve Purcell and have been talking to various publishers about the project.
From the looks of the shots the game will take place at least in part in space, and from the filenames contains characters known as Slippy & Mena. I havent had a chance to look into any details yet but, uh, yeah this is pretty big news. As usual, stay tuned.
As for this site, yes it will be back in full shortly. Hopefully with the rest of Mixnmojo, which we have all been working furiously on.
Ok, here’s hoping this isn’t the most drawn out elaborate April Fools joke of all time… An announcement was just posted to STISH by Gordon Kirkland, the president of At Large Features Syndicate, announcing that Sam & Max is going into weekly syndication in newspapers as a comic strip! Here is a snippet from the press release which was sent out to over 5000 newspapers earlier today:
Gordon Kirkland, President of At Large Features Syndicate, Inc. announced this morning that the very popular comic book, computer game, and animated television series stars, Sam and Max, have joined At Large Features Syndicate, Inc.Speaking through their representative, comic artist Steve Purcell, the crime-fighting dog and “rabitty thing” said that they were very excited to be bringing stories of their escapades to newspaper readers.
[…]Kirkland said he was pleased to have Purcell and his characters on board adding, “When we decided to launch the comic section of At Large Features Syndicate, Steve was the first person I thought of. The previous success of Sam and Max in other mediums, and the numerous fans of the characters, make it a great prospect for newspaper comic sections in the United States and Canada.”
More on this as information is available! For now you can check out the Steve Purcell/Sam & Max page at At-Large. In his posts on STISH Gordon Kirkland encouraged readers and fans of the series to write local and regional newspapers asking them to contact At-Large about carrying the strip, so get those letters mailed!Thanks to Isaac Klinger for tipping me off, once again!
The redesign is progressing slowly, hopefully I can get more work done on it this coming week (like finish it). More previews (woo!).Isaac Klinger pointed me to this, apparently an interview with Steve Purcell done a while ago about the TV series. It has some weirdness in it though, like claiming Afterlife was a game in the Sim City series by Maxis.
… to be rebuilt from the ground up! I decided some time ago that for the site’s second birthday (That’s today! Wooooo!) I’d give it a brand new look. Being myself, of course, it has ended up taking longer than originally anticipated. This current mini-main-page is up partly to make the new site look that much more impressive in comparison, but mostly so I can tear down everything behind the scenes while you’re not looking (of course the old site is really not that hard to find if you go digging and clicking around so if you just need to read that Adventurers comic feel free:). If you’re now so itching to get a hint of the new design that you think you might explode if you don’t (in other words if you’re insane) I’ve put up a teeny bit of it here.As for community news, the forums over at STISH (Surfin the Information Superhighway) are going strong (though Isaac’s closed them down for a bit for an overhaul as well). If you haven’t visited you definately should - once they reopen.
Andrew Langley at Highland Productions has made a terrific MP3 from the Hit the Road map music too. Get it in the Sam & Max section of that site.
More progress and details on the redesign later this week, for real!
(ironic that the bare-down-to-the-speedo Max is wearing more than he does on an average day)
Indeed. The more astute readers may have noticed that I haven’t been updating all that often recently (read: not at all). Due to lots of school, other things, and general laziness the site is going to sleep for a bit (if only for two more weeks). This does not mean I’m closing the site by any means, quite the opposite. I’ve just needed to take a break from most things for a while, but I (we?) should be back soon and better than ever. Honest.