Merry Christmas from Sam's Comics!

It's finally here! The Sam's Comics Christmas Special!

Blogger/YouTube/Google is being finicky right now, so forgive me having to put it as a URL in the actual post instead of a direct player link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qglrTw-5uIA

Anyways, Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year! Lots to come in 2014, I look forward to sharing it all with you!

SAM'S COMICS: THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL - Coming Soon!

This holiday season, the world of Sam's Comics comes back to live in an animated Christmas short! When Sam's Christmas party bombs, only the true Christmas spirit can save it. This short will also introduce two of the new characters from the poll a few months ago, so be on the lookout for a good old fashioned holiday film!

SAM'S PICK - TOP 45 COMICS

So I was trying to go back and think of which comics were my personal favorites, and I decided I would make a blog post about it. So here it is, the top 45 comics, according to me. NOTE: for mini-sets of comics (when a story-driven series carries over more then three comics) will be treated as one, since they all deal with one theme.

#45: Sam Meets Bailey
from Season IV (subset "The Origins")

"My name is Bailey, what's yours?"
"Bailey, he's an outsider!"
"Stop it, Kenzie. Just because he's not from here doesn't mean he's any less human than the rest of us."

The oldest friendship in the series is that of Sam and Bailey. While she may not have been the first of his friends that he met, Bailey was shown to be the first one who opened up to Sam after he moved to Laveville. This friendship proves to be the longest-lasting, as Sam and Bailey are two of the three remaining characters who survived season 1. It's also worth noting that Sam and Bailey both appeared in the very first comic ever written together.

#44: Uranus is Gaseous
from Season IV

"Is Uranus a terrestrial or jovian planet?"
"Jovian, because Uranus is gaseous... No double entendre intended."

One of several astronomy jokes from Season IV, this one was a bit of a different one for me, as it was a somewhat dirty joke. The only reason I did it though is because it was based on an actual conversation I had with my lab partners in astronomy class.

#43: Dat Bass
from Season 5 (Subset "Without Sam")

"I've got a bite!"
"Reel it in!"
*Smack*
"Huh. Dat bass."

From the series in which Sam is not present, Connor and Erica go fishing. When Erica catches a fish, she pulls it in too hard and knocks Connor over, causing her to remark "Huh. Dat bass".

#42: Don't Have Sex
from Season Six

"I guess the moral of the story is obvious: If you're in Downton Abbey, don't have sex. You will get pregnant and you or someone you love will die."

Spoiling the cliched Season 3 of Downton Abbey, Sam points out that whenever there is a baby involved, a character dies. This is actually very true, it goes as far back as Season 1.

#41: Fishing Trip
from Season IV

"Some fishing trip THIS is..."

Sam and Carl go on a fishing trip, only to find themselves on the Orca and being chased by Jaws himself.

#40 Tea Bags
from Season 2 (subset "Harry Potter and the Wait for July 2009")

"Ah! The Cup! Tell me what you see, what does your future hold???"
"Tea Bags"
"...I should have foreseen that."

In the subset where Harry Potter characters wait out the time before their sixth film is released, Professor Trelawney was a constant foil for Sam. One of their best moments was when Sam outsmarted her by using tea bags instead of her traditional tea leaves.

#39: Use the force, Ryan!
from Season Six (subset "When Movies Become Reality")

"Force, don't fail me now!"

In their moment of desperation, Ryan uses his new-found Jedi abilities to generate power to the broken 3D Epic TV, thus closing the rift between the real world and the television world. This act of bravery nearly kills him, and he is rescued last second by Sam.

#38: What A Beard Says about a Face
from Season IV

"Some guy at the store asked me if I was Amish."

Towards the beginning of Season IV, Sam, Nick, and Ryan all decide to grow beards. Eventually they reach lengths worthy of Duck Dynasty before shaving them off and donating them to Peter Jackson to be used in the filming of "The Hobbit".

#37: Wizard Board Game Night
from Season 2 (subset "Harry Potter and the Wait for July 2009")

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS GO, YOU SHALL NOT COLLECT $200!"

Sam, Harry Potter, and Gandalf enjoy a nice game of Monopoly, until Harry gets a community chest card that sends him to jail while Gandalf reads him his sentence.

#36: Genie
from Season 2 (subset "Christmas Countdown")

"I am the Genie who lives in the gravy boat. I shall grant you one wish."
"Sweet! I wish for a lifetime supply of Coke!"
"Sorry, that'd be too much work. Any other wish?"
"Well, can you help me understand girls?"
"Do you want regular, cherry, or vanilla Coke?"

When Sam starts dusting off a holiday gravy boat, he finds a Genie that lives inside. When he makes a wish, the genie becomes too lazy to grant it... until Sam asks for something much more difficult.

#35: Student Body Rebellion
from Season IV

"Aren't you a little skinny for a Stormtrooper?"

What starts as a disagreement in the Student Body Council turns into open rebellion when Sam and Sarah form an alliance against President Carl. Carl responds by sending Darth Vader and his two stormtrooper henchmen after them. After Sarah is captured, Sam and Ryan disguise themselves as Stormtroopers to rescue her.

#34: These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For
from Season Five

"Hey Ryan, have you seen my iPod and my iPad?"
"These aren't the droids you're looking for..."

Ryan "borrows" Rachel's iPod and iPad so that he can watch the Bulls and the Bears at the same time. When she finds out, he quotes the famous line from Star Wars.

#33: Narnia
from Season 3: The Great 2010 Comeback

"I went into my closet to get my coat, but all I found was Narnia..."

One of the one-liners from Season 3, Sam and Bailey are about to go outside, but Sam cannot find his coat because his closet has become Narnia.

#32: Formation of Drama Club
from Season IV

"Tell them that this school lacks the cultural aspect that only theatre can provide. Really inform them of what our mission is, how this can benefit all students seeking to better their education of performing arts, or for those with acting skills to hone their skills in the purest sense. We aim to entertain and to pass on knowledge."

"...So why do you want to start this club?"
"We want to put on plays and stuff."

Shannon, Frank, and Shannon aim to create a Drama Club for their school. When they need a representative on the Student Body Council to make a case as to why the school needs a Drama Club, Frank entrusts the responsibility to Sarah. After making a monologue about why the school needs this club, Sarah goes to the council and says nothing that Frank told her.

#31: Milkshakes
from Season Six

"Ah, false alarm, boys. That's a smoothie, not a milkshake."

Shannon makes herself a smoothie, only to find all the boys in her yard, mistakenly thinking that she was making milkshakes.

#30: Kenzie Dies
from Season 2 (subset "Harry Potter and the Wait for July 2009")

"She's dead. Voldemort killed her."
"That can't be right."
"What do you mean 'That can't be right?' She's dead."

Brian Griffin was not the first cartoon character to bite the dust. The final chapter of the "Harry Potter and the Wait for July 2009" subset involves Voldemort taking over and killing Kenzie. However, as Sam is still in control of the comics, Kenzie is brought back.

#29: Itsy-Bitsy Spider
from Season 5 (subset "Without Sam")

"Down came my shoe and killed the spider dead."

Frank observes a spider crawling up the water spout. He improvs the rest of the song with his shoe instead of rain.

#28: Mythril Scissors
from Season 2

"Rock smashes scissors!"
"These are Mythril scissors."

Gimli and Legolas from Lord of the Rings engage in a rock, paper, scissors fight. Gimli cheats.

#27: Find the Needle in the Hay Stack
from Season 5 (subset "Camp Awesome")

"I may or may not die of blood loss right now."

As the first challenge of Camp Awesome, Frank cuts himself to find the needle in the hay stack. He cuts a major blood vein and bleeds out quite a bit, tanking him out of the competition and causing Ryan as captain to replace him with Jarvis.

#26: Zombies Attacking
from Season Six

"... a coat..."

Using the internet meme "Zombies are attacking! Quick, the object to your left is your weapon, what is it?", Ryan finds a kitchen knife, Sam finds a shovel, Carl finds a BB gun, Nick finds a baseball bat, but poor Molly only finds a coat.

#25: Kreacher
from Season 2 (subset "Harry Potter and the Wait for July 2009")

"The muggle is asking Kreacher for a favor. Kreacher will fake his own death to avoid answering."
"The effect wouldn't have been better even if you hadn't said it aloud."

Kreacher briefly showed up in the Wait for July 2009 subset, but his best moment was when Sam asked him to do something for him.

#24: Set Fire to the Rain
from Season IV

"I don't care what Adele says, this doesn't work!"

Kenzie finds Sam out in the rain with a lighter.

#23: Dropped Phone Calls

"... I don't mean like a date or anything..."

Sam asks Bailey if she wants to see a movie with him. Their phone call drops and Sam is left thinking that she doesn't want to go with him.

#22: ELMO WANTS HUGS!
from Season 3: The Great 2010 Comeback

"It's not THAT scary..."

Sam, Kenzie, and Bailey enter a haunted house, where the sisters are scared by paper skeletons and bed sheet ghosts. Sam is scared by a life-sized Elmo who tries to hug him.

#21: Downton Abbey
from Season Six

While everyone enjoys watching Superbowl Sunday, Sam, Gabri, and Caroline are in the other room watching a new episode of Downton Abbey.

#20: Breaking Sam's Fourth Wall
from Season 5 (subset "Without Sam")

"That was every bit as fun as I thought it would be."

When he finds out that Sam has gone and left him, Shannon, and Bailey in charge, Frank immediately abuses his power by taking a sledgehammer to Sam's "Fourth Wall".

#19: Forrest Gump
from Season IV

"My Momma always said 'Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'"
"You know there's a key in the inside of the lid, right?"

Sam reminisces of the time he had to wait for a bus in Alabama, where he met Forrest Gump.

#18: Meme Face
from Season 5 (subset "When Movies Become Reality")

"Your face! It's a meme face!"
"This is my regular face."
"Can't you do another one?"
"NO."
"Gah! That's even worse!"

When Shannon accidentally opens a Troll vortex, everyone starts becoming memes. None is more hilarious than when she discovered Frank having a Rage Comic face.

#17: Gordon Ramsey
from Season IV

"It didn't help that Gordon Ramsey was dining at the table next to us..."

One of the few times the movie adaptation of the series is mentioned in the comics, Gabri asks why Sam and Bailey aren't dating anymore. Sam explains that they went on one date that didn't go well because Gordon Ramsey was sitting next to them.

#16: Illegally Blonde
from Season IV

"That was WAY too much chloroform, Molly."
"Gets the job done, though."

What started out as Gabri trying to make a statement about how hair color doesn't have anything to do with personality turned south when she and Bailey dyed their hair brown. Gabri only used temporary dye, but Bailey wasn't aware of this and used permanent dye. The only way they could calm her down afterwards was to knock her out and dye her hair blonde again.

#15: I BELIEVE I CAN FLY
from Season 5 (subset "Camp Awesome")

"She could die on impact!"

The most intense moment of Season 5, when Sarah flies into the air and begins falling to her death. She is rescued last second when the two teams of the camp work together to catch her.

#14: Hurricane Bailey
from Season 2

"What's wrong with him? Is he queazy at the sight of blood?"
"No, he just ate at the cafeteria earlier."

When Sam accidentally sends Bailey into a flash hurricane, she gets hospitalized. Several hospital-themed jokes follow.

#13: She Loves Me (Not)
from Season 2

"Rats..."

Based on true events, Sam begins picking the pedals off a flower. He ends up with only one pedal left, which can only be "she loves me not".

#12: Frank's Sacrifice
from Season Six (subset "When Movies Become Reality")

"Only you can stop the rift... keep calm and prosper..."

When the only hope of stopping the rift that causes the real world to merge with the movie world is threatened, Frank selflessly exposes himself to lethal radiation to fix it. He then dies a hero's death, mimicking Spock's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Don't worry, through time travel, Frank is saved.

#11: Dense and Intense
from Season IV

"What did you put?"
"I just wrote that they are dense and intense."

When asked to describe a cloud formation in meteorology class, Sam and his classmates make a rhyming answer. Based on true events.

#10: Trust Fall
from Season Six

"What the heck, Nick?!"
"Sorry! I trusted that you would actually fall towards me!"

Sarah surprises Nick with a trust fall. She falls away from him, however.

#9: Gabri Wins at Life
from Season IV

"Jarvis, please escort them out and then throw rocks at them."

Money corrupts. When Gabri wins the lottery, she goes to live in a mansion with a butler named Jarvis. Sam tries to convince her to come back, but it's only when Ryan admits that he truly misses her that she gives up her money and her house to come back. She keeps Jarvis, though.

#8: Titanic
from Season 5

"Is it so bad that I only cried at the very end AFTER everything had already happened?"
"You cried harder at the end of 'Toy Story 3'!"
"What is wrong with you?!"

When Sam admits to never having seen Titanic, Bailey and Shannon force him to sit down and watch it with them.

#7: The Death of Michael Jackson
from Season IV

"It's a shame he overdosed."
"I thought his doctor killed him."
"No, 'Glee' killed him."

A comic that exploded on Tumblr, Sam, Bailey and Gabri speculate on the true death of the King of Pop.

#6: Baby Training
from Season 3: The Great 2010 Comeback

"Don't judge me."

When Sam realizes that he is growing up, he begins to panic about getting married and having children. He starts to carry around a bag of flour as "practice" for when he has a child. He gets overly attached to it and names it Siobhan. In the end, Bailey babysits Siobhan and Molly accidentally uses it to make cookies. This joke later returned in Season IV, but with Sarah.

#5: Jurassic Camp
from Season Six (subset "When Movies Become Reality")

"Mother of Dang. That's a dinosaur."

A good chunk of the story for "Reality" was when Sam, Kenzie, Molly, and Gabri try to find Bailey at Camp Awesome, which because of the Movie Rift, has become Jurassic Camp. Dinosaurs get lose and chase them all around until Elino arrives just in time to rescue them.

#4: If I Jumped in front of a Train
from Season IV

"If I jumped in front of a train for you, I would die. And you would be watching my blood spurt everywhere and we wouldn't be in love anymore, because I would be DEAD."
"Sometimes love just hurts, Frank."

A running joke in Season IV had characters listening to the radio and making comments on how ridiculous the lyrics are. This one was the most popular, when Frank tells Shannon why he would never jump in front of a train for her.

#3: The Ballad of Sarah Drinking Dr. Pepper
from Season IV

"Moon walking upside down in midair..."
"Okay. Now I'm worried."

This miniset of comics was based loosely on reality. When Sarah drinks Dr. Pepper, she goes wild and gains super-human abilities until the effects wear off.

#2: Stupid Leprechauns
from Season IV

"Look! A pot at the end of the rainbow!"

Sam and Frank discover a pot at the end of a rainbow, only to find it filled with skittles.

#1: My Little Mermaid
from Season IV

"Wait, Mermaid tears are magical? Dang, crying really could get me anything I want."

Shannon's wish of becoming a Mermaid is granted... until she is captured by Blackbeard on his quest to find the Fountain of Youth. It's up to Sam, Gabri, Jarvis, Ryan, and Joel to find her before she is killed.

WELCOME NEW CHARACTERS!!

The votes are in! After about a month where you could choose your favorites as new characters for the upcoming Season 7 and a whopping 66 votes, the top five have been chosen!

IN FIRST PLACE with 26 votes...

IN SECOND PLACE with 20 votes...

IN THIRD PLACE, also with 20 votes...

IN FOURTH PLACE with 14 votes...

IN FIFTH PLACE with 13 votes...

These five characters will all be a big part of an over-arcing subplot for Season 7. Let's all give them a warm welcome!

New Characters Poll!!!!

For the first time since Season 5, new characters are finally going to be added into the group of friends at Lakeville college! There are eleven possibilities that we can go with. All eleven of them will be in the upcoming Season 7, but here's the deal: Since the series already has over 20 recurring characters, only a few of these new characters will become regularly occurring characters.

A new poll has been opened over on the side! (this won't be visible for mobile users). You have until November 21 (I think?) to cast your votes! At least two if not three winners will be added into the series as regulars!

Who are they? Well, meet them down below!

Alex, a newcomer and explorer of the internet, jumps into school head first with style.

 Practical and to the point, Amelia attended business school prior to coming to Lakeville Collge (that's the college in the series)

 Though perhaps abrupt, Andy is not afraid to make himself heard.

 All around a cool, cool guy, CJ could rival even Nick and Ryan at sports.

 Formerly a student of film while in high school, Jani is a fearless young woman with a vision.

 Joey, a friend of Carl's, joins him and the rest at school.

 What Leo lacks in tact, he makes up for with his passion for learning.

Monica's power of sarcasm can easily rival that of Shannon's or Kenzie's.

 Kinda nerdy but full of fun, Morgan is a bit obsessed with Batman and Scifi originals.

 Robin, a great creative mind, comes to school hoping to make a big splash in his life.

Last but not least (he got stuck at the bottom because of alphabet), Zach is another cool cool guy with great ideas.

 Please cast your votes! The winner will be announced the day voting ends!

Season 7 Update!

I finally have some details about Season 7 of the series! It took a while for me to crack this season, but I finally have come up with something I can roll with.

My first decision is to not have any subsets. This is for two reasons. Firstly, I have no good ideas for a subset. Secondly, I want the entire season to be story-driven.

Going off of what I just said about the entire season being story driven, I mean that there will be an over-arcing story interwoven throughout. There will still be the same amount of funny comics, but every so often, there will be serious ones thrown in to advance the story.

What is the story? You'll just have to wait and see. I will say this, however: It deals with moving on and growing up.

Another thing I plan to do is to have at least two new characters added in! I haven't made a decision as to who they will be, but I'll let you know when the time comes!

Tuesday Oddities - Artwork Portraits that didn't make it

I don't always put up all the artwork portraits I make. But when I do, I prefer to use the good ones.

Bad memes aside, I make more artwork portraits than what goes up on the blog or on Facebook. Here are a few "rejected" portraits that weren't used for one reason or another.

First off, here is a Season 1 teaser. The reason it says "We're Back" at the top refers to the fact that I took a break during Season 1 around the end of 2006/early 2007. It also has the original series name (that only lasted for that season).

Next, this is an artwork for the Season 2 subset "Christmas Countdown". This one wasn't used in favor of another one that depicted Sam and Santa.

I don't have any for Season 3, as there was only one made for that season and it was used. I do however have a few unused artworks from Season IV. The first one was definitely made before the season began, as it features the Season 3 Joel design. The second one shows an abandoned storyline where Sam, Ryan, and Nick receive a visit from their future selves (I just couldn't make that one funny enough for myself, let alone anyone else). Finally, an unused artwork for the subset "The Origins", which feature several different designs than the ones that ended up appearing in the final. Most noticeable are Nick, Frank, and Shannon. Ironically, Rachel is exactly the same as she is in the regular series.

Next, a Season 5 artwork. As Nick's shirt is blank and Ryan doesn't have his goatee yet, this one is also early.

Finally, here are some Season Six ones. The first one was an accident. I literally spelled Comics wrong. Instead of throwing it away and redoing it, I made a joke out of it. This one nearly made it, but was dropped in favor of the one that showed every character with their colored backgrounds. The second was one that I started but realized I had undertaken a drawing too complicated to spoof. I'm talking the Sgt. Pepper album cover. I stopped it before it was finished.

Tuesday Oddities - Other Things I've Drawn

I don't just draw comics. I doodle all the time, things from Star Wars characters, to Harry Potter, to Grumpy Cat... there are a lot. Here are just a few. There was one other Pirates of the Caribbean drawing even better than this one that I wanted to include here, but I can't find it.

Tuesday Oddities - Just Some Cool Misc Stuff

Tuesday Oddities are all about the oddness of some of these drawings that I don't normally put out. That being said, here are some more cool miscellaneous drawings for the series that I've come across.

First up, here is a random drawing, circa Season 1 of the four lead characters. Of these four, only Sam and Bailey survived "the purge" of Season 2, in which Jessica only appeared once. This drawing appears to have been done later on in Season 1, since Sam's hair design has gotten slightly longer than it was earlier in said season.

 The following set of drawings were done specifically for Instagram, and have never been shown elsewhere. They all feature comic characters as the characters they portrayed in the "Avengers" artwork portrait. Carl's "Captain America" one turned out so good that it made me wish I had done it in pen so it could be colored (doing a colored version of a pencil drawing with my limited resources is difficult and almost not worth it).

 Next on the list is a pencil sketch of the "Minecraft" artwork portrait. I had the idea initially and couldn't find a pen, so I sketched it in pencil to redo later in pen.

 The next picture I have is a very different one. I can't quite remember what it is supposed to be, but it has more details put into it and both Sam and Gabri wearing different clothes. This picture more closely resembles the concept artwork for "Sam's Comics: The Movie", but it can't be from those, as Molly's design is clearly from her Season IV appearance and Gabri was not yet added into the series (nor had I even met her in real life at the time I made the concept art for the film). I honestly have no clue when or why I made this. I have no memory of it.

 Finally, here is a map that I made. I've done a few variations of this map from Season IV onward, but this one is the most recent and hasn't changed since the end of Season 5. It takes into account locations from Sam's Comics: The Movie, Sam's Comics: The Origins, the Camp Awesome subset, and other places featured in the series, showing that Sam and Bailey live on opposite ends of the park (shown in The Movie and referenced in The Origins), The Old Abandoned Storehouses (The Movie), The Forest (The Origins), The Camp (Camp Awesome) and that Gabri and Frank live outside the town, making them "Outsiders" (The Origins). There are a few other niceties thrown in, including Three Mountain Heights (misspelled I know), which is implied to be what Sam's T-shirt currently depicts.

Tuesday Oddities - Original Pencil Sketches

sketches are how every character design start out. Design conflicts have kept certain characters in the series back from being introduced earlier, and I never include a character unless I'm happy with the way they look. Today for Tuesday Oddities, I have for you a series of original pencil sketches of various characters.

First off are some Season 3 designs. Season 3 was a turning point, as pretty much every character in the series had an update to their look from the previous seasons. Sam's look in particular is important, as this design has remained the same ever since (give or take a few smaller tweaks). Megan and Joel, as new characters, were done in pencil first to see if I liked the way they looked. Nick was also done this way, but unfortunately I seem to have misplaced Nick's original pencil sketch.

Next for you, I have a Season 5 redesigns of Sam and Shannon. Neither of these designs actually caught on, and both characters retained their Season IV looks (and still do).

Finally for today, we have some Season Six sketches. Several characters were redesigned in this season, and as per usual, Kenzie's look was updated. Her redesign started before Season 5 had ended, and was still in question up until Season Six began. Her initial redesign was drastically different from any previous Kenzie design, as it changed her outfit completely by giving her a new striped shirt and jacket and removing her "Amer-Ican" logo. In the end, I decided the old logo itself was a part of Kenzie's character, and added the legend back onto her new shirt. Her hair design was changed last second. An alternate version of Kenzie was drafted, but never used that had Kenzie dressed as a "Hipster".

 

Kenzie wasn't the only one who was redesigned. Bailey, Molly, Elino, and Gabri all were redone. Molly and Elino's changes were simply to the lengths of their hair, so they didn't get new sketches. Bailey's sketch, similar to Kenzie's, gave her a new outfit including a jacket. One sketch had her with a scarf instead of her necklace, but in the picture below, I decided against the scarf and X'd it out. Her hair was an updated version of the Season 5 ponytail, which was an update of her Season 2 design. Gabri was given a new sleeveless shirt, sunglasses, and longer hair. In the earliest colored pictures for Season Six, Gabri's new shirt was colored blue, but in every subsequent appearance, it was back to grey.