Sam & Max
While most may know Steve Purcell’s Sam & Max from their 1993 computer game, “Sam & Max Hit the Road”, Sam & Max have been quite busy across all kinds of media.
They started in comic book form, in 1987 in various comics from a variety of publishers. They were available in collected form in a comic called “The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin’ the Highway” in 1995.
Sam & Max showed up in a few cameo appearances in different Lucas Arts games. They starred in their own adventure game, “Sam & Max Hit the Road”, in 1993.
In 1997, Sam & Max had their own animated series in the UK, called “The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police”. The show aired on the Fox Kids programming block in the U.S. and Channel 4/S4C in the UK, airing 24 episodes from 1997 through to 1998.
In August 2002, Lucas Arts announced that a sequel game, “Sam & Max Freelance Police”, would be released in the first quarter of 2004, but the game was canceled in March 2004 due to a change in management that felt it was not the right time to release an adventure game.
In September 2005, it was announced that Telltale Games, a small company started by members of the creative teams behind numerous Lucas Arts adventure games, would create a new episodic series of Sam & Max games with the help of Purcell.
The first episode, “Culture Shock”, was released on October 17, 2006 as part of the Game Tap download service. Each individual episode or the whole season of six can also be bought online at the Telltale website. Starting in December 2005, a new online comic strip was released to celebrate the collaboration. The online comic is very well done, and was nominated for a 2007 Best Digital Comic Eisner Award.
What’s next for Sam & Max? Steve Purcell currently works at Pixar in their Story Development division. Maybe Pixar will allow Steve to create a Sam & Max short film, or even better, a feature film? Who knows what the future holds for these freelance police?
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On September 3rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
That would be amazing if they made a full-length Sam and Max movie, but I just don’t think it would capture the same feeling as the original game did.
On September 4th, 2007 at 12:00 am
That early game had a lot going for it. The animation was pretty solid for computers at the time as well. A feature film, if done correctly, could be an amazing bit of animation.
On September 4th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I was introduced to the franchise through the animated series. It seem like a nice oddball cartoon. If they make a movie, I’ll be willing to check it out.
On September 4th, 2007 at 12:00 am
This game was so much fun. A full featured movie? That would be amazing.