Sam and Fuzzy

Sam and Fuzzy is a webcomic written and drawn by Sam Logan. It initially appeared in 2002 in "The Martlet" as a four-panel gag strip with a rough yet consistent, heavily contrasting black and white style. In May 2002 Logan began posting the strips on his website, and it quickly transitioned to an online format. Since then, it has run over 2,900 strips, and developed into a more story-driven format with multiple short arcs connecting into longer epic "volumes".
The comic is about the unusual friendship between its title characters, a young adult named Sam and a mischievous, unruly teddy bear-like creature called Fuzzy. Sam struggles with his insecurities and his need for direction, while Fuzzy generally creates mayhem, disrupting Sam's life. Despite the comic's shift from a slice-of-life format to an action-adventure story, this character dynamic has continued to drive much of the comic's humor and drama. The comic has become known for its increasingly intricate plots, which involve conflicts with supernatural adversaries and the "Ninja Mafia" crime syndicate.
Author and history.
The comic is written and drawn by Sam Logan, a Canadian hailing from Victoria, British Columbia. In addition to his work in comics and freelance illustration, Sam is the graphic designer for Canadian children's science magazines YES Mag and KNOW. Logan is also the chairman of Dayfree Press, an informal webcomic syndicate containing 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 prominent webcomics such as "Scary Go Round", "Penny Arcade" and "Ctrl+Alt+Del".
The evolution of Logan's visual style and story structures can be seen throughout the course of the comic. Early comics conform to the one "page", 4-panel format. A consistent format was necessary for publication in "The Martlet", the student newspaper of the University of Victoria located in Sam Logan's home town of Victoria, British Columbia. As the comic gained its primary audience through the website, Sam gradually experimented with other layouts, occasionally doubling, tripling or even quadrupling the usual comic size. "Sam and Fuzzy" now regularly features at least two "pages" in each strip, and in 2009 Sam introduced a single shade of gray for more variation in the art.
Certain "Sam and Fuzzy" strips were collected into three "mini-books" ("Weekly World "Sam and Fuzzy"", "Noosehead" and "Skull Panda in Love"). These books were created primarily as a gateway for new readers at ComicCon, containing popular strips and exclusive original strips. In 2010, Sam published the first book-length collection, Sam and Fuzzy Fix Your Problem. Although the book collects strips from the story-line of the same name beginning in 2009, the book is numbered as the first volume. Logan has since published the second volume, "Sam and Fuzzy are Very Famous", a third, "Sam and Fuzzy Under the Influence", and the latest, "Sam and Fuzzy Ruined Everything". The next volume, "Sam and Fuzzy Race to the Bottom", finished on 22 November 2019, with the author stating that he will continue to make comics and storylines in the canonical universe, with new characters taking the stage.
As a running joke in news posts and at conventions, Sam Logan often suggests that he has a fierce rivalry with "Questionable Content" author Jeph Jacques. They regularly sling humorous accusations at one another, including in the foreword of Sam's first print book.
Characters.
"Sam and Fuzzy" has an enormous cast of characters. When Logan begins a new storyline, he often abandons the characters of previous stories or reduces them to cameo roles, choosing instead to focus on new characters. The current main cast of the comic includes the following:
Groups and organizations.
Many characters in "Sam and Fuzzy" are affiliated with one or more organizations:
Archive.
The comic's online archive is split into three distinct "series", which Sam has stated that he considers as comprising three different comics.
The Classic Series consists of material dated from 2003 to 2006, split into three "volumes", Taxi-Cab of Dreams, Growing Pains and Love and War. During the earlier part of this series, the comic consisted mainly of one-off gags with some brief arcs, but as the series continues the emphasis shifts toward longer storylines involving Sam's changing employment, his romantic relationships, and encounters with the "Ninja Mafia", a Yakuza-like crime syndicate which is sometimes deadly but sometimes humorously incompetent. This series concludes with Empire, the comic's longest storyline that point, in which Sam becomes involved in his ex-girlfriend Candice's plot to assassinate the Ninja Mafia Emperor.
The Noosehead Series consists of material dated from 2006 to 2009. It is likewise split into three "volumes", The Band, The Run and The Showdown. In the aftermath of the "Empire" storyline which concluded the previous series, Sam and Fuzzy have been forced to flee from the Ninja Mafia, and have become roadies for the metal bend Noosehead. A notable feature of this storyline is that for the first year, Sam is disguised, and it is not immediately clear which, if any, of Noosehead's roadies is actually Sam. The story involves many interweaving threads, relating to the power vacuum in the Ninja Mafia, Sam's pursuit by high-ranking "Blankface" Ninjas named Mr. Blank and Mr. Black, A love triangle between Sam, Noosehead's lead singer Sidney, and a backup singer named Nicole, and the apparent murder (but actual kidnapping) of Sidney.
The current "era" of "Sam and Fuzzy", which has been ongoing since 2009, comprises five volumes (so far): Sam and Fuzzy Fix Your Problem, Sam and Fuzzy are Very Famous, Sam and Fuzzy Under the Influence, Sam and Fuzzy Ruined Everything and Sam and Fuzzy Race to the Bottom. In the aftermath of the Noosehead series, Sam finds himself in charge of the Ninja Mafia, and attempts to use its resources to do good. Meanwhile, Fuzzy's origins are explored, as a mysterious figure from his past, the thief Hazel Kim, returns.
The comic has been collected in print, with each of the first two series available in a Kickstarter-funded "omnibus" edition, and each volume of the present series available as a graphic novel.