Happy New Year!

I'll be back to regular posting for this fresh, yummy new year!

Hit the Road Backgroundorama

Here's the work of a LucasArts fan. He's pulled background art from LEC adventure games including SAM & MAX HIT THE ROAD and presents them clean with none of the gameplay assets included. Browse through his other LEC GALLERIES HERE.
The original source of this post is The International House of Mojo.

BOOGA BOOGA San Diego!

This must have been done as a convention sketch though it seems overly clean for such a thing. I just now threw some quick color over it on the Cintiq tablet to dazzle the eye and make you think of Laffy Taffy.

Speaking of conventions, I'll be at San Diego Comic Con this weekend and though I'll be roaming free for the most part I'll be attending Dan Scanlon's (Director of Monsters 2) feature mockumentary, "Tracy" on Friday at 5:30 in Marriott Hall 2 at the Marriott Marquis & Marina, next to the Hall A side of the Convention Center.

If you're down there, check out TRICKSTER, a new venue for interacting with comic book creators in a drinking, eating and bookstore environment. I expect to find myself lurking about there at some point.

And if you'd like to say Hi or have me scribble on something for you, I'll be parked at Telltale Games booth #5337 Sunday from 11:00 to 1:00.

Tattoo Friday #6

This installment of Tattoo Friday comes from Jen Shaffer who sports a gleefully capering Max wielding his beloved Luger and surrounded by random geometric shapes, making him appear to be plucked out of an animated kids show from some far off land.

I love how Max's happy shark grin dominates Jen's shoulder in this piece of living folk art. But could it be disconcerting to have Max's gun forever pointing at her face? Only she can tell.

10 PC Games That Had Great Voice Acting

Here's Sam & Max on another fine list. TAKE A LOOK!

The Ten Best Comic Book Video Games Ever Made!

Comic Book Resources included Sam & Max Hit the Road on their preferred list of comic books adapted to games . TAKE A LOOK

Color Section...

This is one of my favorite cryptic images of Max. It was originally thought up for a sketchbook, the title page for the "color section" and would have been in color itself, or maybe just the baboon's ass.

The Tell Tale Tail

Here's a concept sketch from the Sam & Max animated series episode; "The Tell Tale Tail". We were trying to do the classic Frankenstein lab where Max's severed tail would be re-animated as well as some version of the monster that wasn't going to infringe on the Universal Studios copyright. For pace and jokes, It turned out to be one of my favorite episodes.

Tattoo Friday #5

Here's the current installment, smartly sported upon the desecrated flesh of Cartoonist/Filmmaker Matt Kristek. He's funny.

Enjoy a Scalding Beverage!

Here's a rough for a printed coffee cup I was thinking about. I always liked diagrammatic cartoons going back to reading R. Crumb comics when I was a kid with his fake adds with millions of captions and such. Don't know if I'll ever do this product. I might try another angle on it first.

Stuffies!

Here's some more excellent ammo for people who wonder why I can't get around to manufacturing plush dolls of Sam & Max. These were made by Alix at arixystix creations. I think they are pretty cool and though these aren't for sale you can browse more shots of Sam & Max as well as other great pieces she has conjured up at her etsy store.

Tattoo Friday #4

Here's a lovely installment for Tattoo Friday. Inscribed upon her living flesh, Lorna sports this gorgeously pixelated tat which depicts agent Mittens, who appears in the LucasArts game, Sam & Max Hit the Road.

Mittens speaks in the growl of a Broderick Crawford and though he has squirreled away an important document deep inside his gizzard, Max does not hesitate to retrieve it, resulting in wacky comic buffoonery.

Created by tattoo artist Ash Ghoulmore at Retro Rebels, in Aberdeen, Mittens may now be content, living forever within the dermis cells of Lorna's alabaster shoulder.

Picker

I found this scrap with a scrawled dialog exchange. I have old sketchbooks with little blurbs written like this all through them and I haven't yet used up all the notes. Sometimes they get slugged in as is or maybe lead to a better or goofier idea. This one seemed pretty meanderingly random which usually winds up being my favorite category.

From the Ooze

Here's a yellowed, dusty relic from the dawn of the disco era. An early page from the time when Sam & Max was just beginning to break away from the slavish parody of my kid brother Dave's comics and beginning to establish what would eventually become their personalities as we know them today.

Years later I adapted this idea as an actual comic story with real jokes and semi-professional-looking drawings. And years after that the comic story was adapted as an episode of the TV series which actually references and shows onscreen a panel from this story. Like the Native Americans I believe in fully exploiting every grisly hunk of content; from the tough, furry hide all the way down to the lip-smackin' bone marrow. Marking pen on paper 9 X 11g

Collect 'Em Trade 'Em!

This image was created for a trading card which I think was part of a Wizard Magazine promotion (wow, the old brain cells are sluffing off like dried rose petals). I was excited that I was going to get a big box of them to hand around because I'm simple, and fascinated by small shiny things. Alas, my comp cards vanished in the ether between the publisher and myself and I ended up with two of the cards.

The image was drawn in pen and ink and color applied in markers to a xerox copy of the line art. I hate coloring with markers but I liked how it turned out, maybe because there's enough black in the drawing to pull it together and I reduced the palette down to a few colors. The subject references Sam & Max Hit the Road which was released on disk in 1994.

Pen and Ink and Marker 8 1/2 X 11

It's All Potential...

Another page of the un-realized saga. I don't want to get too far in, so there might be something left in case I can manage to finish this thing. The response to the previous sneak preview post was nice and I always enjoy putting words in these guy's mouths so I'm trying to clear the decks to get it back on the drawing table. Pen and Ink 10 x 15

Road Trip

Sam & Max is frequently about travel and for awhile I was fascinated by the artifacts that people would bring back from Mexico. At the time, not having been there myself, I went through a stretch where I enjoyed acquiring and depicting crudely stuffed iguanas and dead cane toads.

This drawing was done as a convention sketch. I included it in one of the Sam & Max sketchbooks but here it is in queasy glorious color to wash over your incredibly thankful eyeballs. Pen and Colored Pencil 8 1/2X11

True Detective

A photo I took in my old apartment long ago with items readily found in the home.

The Title Sequence

Here is a story board for a possible title sequence for a defunct Sam & Max game. This was only to try to explore Sam & Max's acting and how the background elements might play against them.
The idea was that there would be colored flats moving in the background depicting various threatening villains. The little rappelling figures are like anonymous silhouetted henchmen for Sam & Max to pick off. The little shaggy rectangle in the last frame indicates a title just in case there was some possible way you didn't already figure that out.
There are some color concepts that go with this which I'll go hunt for at some point which convey a widescreen version of the idea. 8 1/2X11 each page Ballpoint and Marker

What Kind of Dog is That?

In art school I was working on a Sam & Max weekly strip and one episode found Sam & Max walking down the street hallucinating on cherry pie that had been drugged. In one panel they see each other as real animals and I found myself trying to figure out what kind of a dog Sam would be. In the same way Foghorn Leghorn claims to be a Rhode Island Red, Sam from that point on became an Irish Wolf Hound. The proportions don't quite add up but he's well in the ball park I would say.

Be Mine...

An old convention drawing with a bit of color added tonight with my clunky laptop thumb pad. Go ahead and print it out for your most beloved loved ones. They'll never stop thanking you for it. 8X10 Pen and Ink

Lost Comic

When I'm asked if I'll ever any more comics, this story comes up. I started it a long time ago for an anthology then put it in a drawer when some other opportunities turned up. I tell myself I'll have to finish it off at some point so I can finally strike it from the vast ledger book of half-made projects.
Pen and Ink 10 X15

Addendum:
I should mention that the lettering on these pages was done by Official Sam & Max letterer Lois Buhalis. I was just glancing at these pages and appreciating the artistry of her hand lettering. Though I have used the canned stuff it's just not the same.

Booga Booga!!

Here, proudly displayed on the skeleton of William Burroughs, is an amazing item made by a fan and given to me years ago.
The well-executed Sam & Max faces are cast in latex and held in place with Velcro so they can be removed to launder the shirt. The whole thing creates a pleasantly disturbing effect.
Due to what I assume is my chronic lead poisoning I've forgotten the name of the skilled craftsman who presented me this item. If you're out there, please remind me so I can credit you and thank you again.

Parking Lot Jackal

Here is a monster design I'm pretty happy with. He was part of the Sam & Max Plunge Through Space design, one of a threatening pack that patrol the enormous multi-level parking structure near Green Mama's, the re-named space bound casino version of the Statue of Liberty. Acrylic 8X10

Inspired

Here is artist Drew Millward's contribution to current Gallery 1988 show "MULTIPLAYER". It's a screen print in a signed, numbered edition of 50 sold through the gallery. Always fun for me to see a totally different perspective on these characters. Screen Print 19X19

The Bouncer

I love drawing rats and roaches, our tiny, highly adaptable vermin cousins on this planet.
Here is a character designed for either the ill-fated or the not-yet-fully-realized game/movie/whatever, "Sam & Max Plunge Through Space".
He's a bouncer at the intergalactic casino which has been repurposed from the stolen Statue of Liberty, now perched on a remote asteroid.
That story is back in the deep freeze for the time being but imagine my delight when there came a prominent role for a man-sized roach named Sal, designed by Ryan Jones for Sam & Max, The Devil's Playhouse, the most recent season from Telltale Games. I'll post him later. Acrylic 8X10

Lego SAM & MAX CubeDudes

Angus MacLane, super-talented veteran Pixar animator as well as Director is a huge Lego fan. Besides his Pixar credits he has officially collaborated with Lego, designing the exclusive Star Wars CubeDudes for the 2010 ComicCon.

His office at Pixar is a sight to behold, a castle turret packed with robots and CubeDude representations of every pop culture character you can imagine. Sam & Max made Angus's to-do list and he just showed me this final result.
Sadly these aren't being sold. It's purely an art piece.