Sam and Bailey appeared in the very first comic. Kenzie wasn't added until later on in the season.
Sam's t-shirt has three triangles with two lines under them. This was based on a t-shirt I have in real life depicting Napoleon Dynamite, Kip Dynamite, and Uncle Rico from the movie Napoleon Dynamite with a caption beneath the three characters reading "Dynamite Family". In the earliest comics, this design was actually drawn onto Sam's shirt, but as the years went by I just drew triangles and lines.
Early on in the comics, there was a running joke that Sam had a crush on an unknown female character, but it was purposely never said who she was. Early speculation pointed towards the character Jessica, but then a later comic confirmed that she was not the crush. Later the joke was dropped and it was never revealed who she was. The movie adaptation directly claims it was Bailey, and a later comic had Gabri asking if Sam and Bailey were dating, to which Sam replies that they had gone on one date, but since then decided they were "just friends". In Seasons IV and 5, Sam mentions several times not having a girlfriend. In season 7, Sam talks about being friend zoned "more than once".
Only Sam, Bailey, and Mackenzie have been in all seasons of the comics.
Mackenzie's t-shirt originally was a long sleeve shirt that read "Amer-Ican Eagle". Later, it was changed to short sleeves. Later, the word "Eagle" was removed.
Throughout all five seasons thus far, Sam has only ever been shown with a different t-shirt once in Season 1.
Season 1 of the comics has never been released publicly. This is mainly due to two reasons: 1) certain comics from season 1 were "recycled" for season 2 meaning they were redrawn with Season 2 designs or characters. 2) A good portion of Season 1 comics are unaccounted for. They've been lost for several years now.
Kenzie's appearance changed mid season from having a wavy pony-tail to two side braids.
Sam has a pet cat named Bubba. He was based on my real life pet cat Buster, who I called "Bubba". In Season 1 and in "The Origins", Sam had another pet cat who was based on my real-life cat George. George died in 2007, shortly after Season 1 ended. Buster died in 2013, prior to the start of Season 7, and does not appear in that season.
Season 2 Trivia:
Molly was first drawn by combining facial features of her two sisters Bailey and Kenzie. She has Bailey's face (and hair color) but has Kenzie's chin/shape of head.
Rachel was introduced in Season 2, but barely had any appearances that season. She was brought back in Season 3, but was only in 2 of them and never said a word. In an unexpected turn of events, Rachel became a major supporting character in "Sam's Comics: The Movie" the following year. Her role was expanded in Comics Season IV.
Ryan originally had a t-shirt that read "Halo Nerd", but it only appeared at one comic. For several subsequent comics, he just had a plan shirt. Later, the legend "Security" was added. On odd occasion, a box appears around the word.
Throughout the majority of Season 2, Bailey was only ever shown facing to the left side of the frame. She was never shown facing right until the final comic of that season. The reason behind this is that her hair style was tricky to draw facing right, so to avoid having to draw that, I just always had her facing left.
During Season 2, Bailey attended school with Sam and Ryan. However, every other season she does not. This was also implied in "Sam's Comics: The Movie" and was directly confirmed in the Season IV sub-set "The Origins".
A movie adaptation of the comics was actually being considered in 2008 during season 2. This never went anywhere until early 2011. The only part of the story that was the same as in the final film was when Sam gets captured. Everything else was completely different.
Rachel's appearance in the comics has only changed very slightly over the years. Her first appearance had her shirt with just the horse outline. Later, the word "Perseverance" was added under the design. It inconstantly read "Persevere" in seasons 2 through IV, and later on in season 4 it was just "Persevere." In Season 2, the horse was actually facing the opposite way.
Most of the generic characters were modeled after characters from television/movies. For example, a generic character who appeared frequently in the 2006-2008 comics resembled Daniel Radcliffe in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".
Season 3: The Great 2010 Comeback Trivia:
Nick's t-shirt in Seasons 3 and IV says "CLS". This stands for Crystal Lake South, where the real-life Nick attended high school. This was okay for Season 3, (before the town of Lakeville was invented), but slightly contradicted the setting of Season IV. In Season 5, his t-shirt as changed to one that says "BACON".
Nick's sister Natalie was introduced in Season 3, but only showed up twice and never spoke a word. Although the scene did not make it into the film, there was a line in the script for "Sam's Comics: The Movie" where Nick mentions her. She was not brought back for Season IV.
Reaching only 25 comics, Season 3 is the shortest season.
Season 3 was cut short when I started production for Sam's Comics: The Movie.
Season IV Trivia:
Molly's big running joke of only saying one sentence per comic strip was actually a coincidence. It just so happened that in season 2, she never spoke more than once, but this was not realized until season 4. She did reach up to three sentences in one strip once in Season 3.
All characters' last names were altered to sound similar to the original peoples' names except for Elino Pucci, he has his real name.
Frank's last name is "Roudap". That's actually his real-life last name spelled backwards (with the "ou" still the same).
Gabri's butler, Jarvis Boddington, was not based on an actual person. However, he was not invented by me.
Ryan in the comics almost exclusively calls Gabri by the nickname "Red".
For "The Origins", Sam's, Bailey's, and Kenzie's appearances were based on what they looked like in Season 1.
Originally, Carl and Gabri were not going to added as characters in Season IV, but were meant to be held back to be introduced in later seasons.
Kenzie's appearance has changed every season except Season IV, where she retained her Season 3 appearance.
Sarah was my favorite character in Season IV.
Even though he was included in the Season IV promo and two of the "Artwork" portraits, Sarah's bunny Littlefoot does not appear in any comic until Season 5.
Jarvis was only meant to be a one-time character.
Both Sam and Bailey are ambidextrous. Sam favors his left hand while Bailey favors her right. This was implemented because in both cases, I accidentally drew both of them writing with the wrong hand (in Sam's case, multiple times).
The character Molly was born on February 29th. This was mentioned very subtly in a Season IV comic where Sam asks Elino what happens if your birthday is on that day, but the reason why Sam asked was not said. Molly in real life was born in January.
Frank has only been shown smiling two times in the series, once in "The Origins", and once in Season 5.
At the end of Season IV, when Ryan suggests that Sam end the season with a cliche cliffhanger, Gabri comes in to say that she and Sam are distant cousins. This was neither confirmed nor denied, but there are several similarities in the ways Sam and Gabri are drawn. In season 7, Sam finally confirmed that they were cousins. In real life, we are unrelated.
The characters in the series all appear to grow up (most noticeable with characters like Kenzie, Joel, and Molly), but ages have never quite been established. The only time it was directly mentioned was in season 3 when Bailey states that Sam is about to turn twenty. However, in the movie adaptation that came the following year, Sam, Bailey, Ryan, and Nick were eighteen and about to graduate high school. In season IV, the majority of the characters were implied to still be in high school. In Season 5, they are implied to be college-aged. When compared to how Joel in season 3 was little when Sam was nineteen, then when he grew up in Season IV when Sam is implied to still be eighteen, the timeline of the series is completely out of whack and irrelevant.
There is an unofficial recurring character who has appeared in three out of five seasons now: Chad the Hapless Stormtrooper. He was introduced in Season 2, where he asked other Stormtroopers if they wanted his giant pole (the same pole that Han Solo attempts to use to keep the garbage smasher from closing in Star Wars). He later returned in Season IV for the whole "Student Body Rebellion" set, which was when he was given his name. Chad returned again in Season 5, where he is sitting at a sign-up table. His companion Kevin has only shown up in Seasons IV and Six.
A recurring joke in both the comics and my videos is the number 9091. It's an inside joke referencing The Beatles song "One After 909". It appears twice in the sub-set The Origins, first as the bus number, then as Sam's locker number.
The town of Lakeville was introduced in this season. It is never said where Lakeville is located, but going by information given in The Origins, we know that Lakeville is not in Ohio, because Sam moved there from Ohio.
Sam has stated that Bailey is his oldest friend. In The Origins, it's revealed that he actually met Gabri first. However, Sam got to know Bailey better first.
Season 5 Trivia:
In Season 5, Ryan was given a goatee. Ironically, he was given a goatee in all the concept art drawings for Sam's Comics: The Movie, but in the prior season (Season 3), and in the season following the movie, (Season IV), had no goatee.
In the camp series, Rachel and Jen go head-to-head in a battle of wits. This was an idea meant to be used in Season IV, but the proper context was never set.
Connor, Erica, and Jen were added to the camp series at the last second to even out the teams.
While Season 5 was being promoted, there were two "mystery" guests who were to be added as supporting characters in the series. Mystery Guest #2 was revealed to be Caroline in the second comic of the season, but Mystery Guest #1 was dropped shortly after the season began and it was never revealed who she was.
The character's birthdays are: Sam - January 23rd, Ryan - August 30th, Bailey - February 21st, Kenzie - July 14th, Molly - February 29th, Nick - December 1st, Rachel - March 7th, Shannon - August 22nd, Frank - June 17th, Sarah - December 2nd, Gabri - November 18th, Elino - (unknown), Caroline - April 2nd, Carl - September 8th, Megan - October 17th, Joel - January 23rd, Connor - June 9th, Erica - May 22nd, Jen - July 31st. Sam and Joel have the same birthday, Erica was born on "Star Wars" day (the day the movie was released in 1977), and Molly was born on a leap-year.
The fifth challenge of the Camp series was completely rewritten at the last second. Originally, the fifth challenge was simply just a popularity contest that ended in the reader's vote. However, when it was revealed that Shannon and Frank were on opposing teams, several readers got excited that the couple would go head-to-head. Since that did not happen in the first four challenges (and Frank is only in challenge 1 and 4), the last challenge was redone to have Shannon and Frank compete in an accuracy challenge.
In Season 5, Sam claims to never have seen the movie "Titanic". When this comic was written, this was true, I had not yet seen the movie. After Sam watches it, he asks if it's so bad that he only cried after everything already happened, which is also true of when I watched the movie shortly after writing the first comic. It's also true that I cried harder at Toy Story 3.
Plans for a set of Halloween comics were made for Season 5, but they were never drawn. Some costumes were planned and sketched, including Sam as Edward Scissorhands, Ryan as a Jedi, Bailey as Hermione Granger (a joke, since Kenzie had dressed as Hermione in Season 3), and Carl as Bane.
Season 5 was the first to retain all recurring characters from the previous season, even the minor ones.
Season Six Trivia:
In Season 6, Kenzie's shirt was completely redesigned. In the first pencil drafts, her shirt was simply grey with black stripes, but in the end, the words "Amer-Ican" were added back on, since her character has never been seen without these words on her shirt.
Some seasons have purposefully different titles for no reason at all. The fourth and sixth seasons are titled "Season IV" and "Season Six", using roman numerals and spelled out numbers. All other seasons are simply "Season 1", "Season 2", "Season 3", "Season 5", and "Season 7".
Season Six is the only season not to add at least one new character.
Special comics in Season Six were released in color.
This season's uploads were released every other week as opposed to once every week like all the other seasons.
Shannon mentions "Pottermore", and that she, Sam, and Gabri all are in the house Hufflepuff and Caroline is in Slytherin. This is actually true in real life.
In the sub set "When Movies become Reality", most of the characters become like movie characters, including Sam (Indiana Jones), Ryan (a random Jedi from Star Wars), Bailey (Ellie Satler from Jurassic Park), Frank (Spock from Star Trek), Shannon (Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games), Joel (Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings), Caroline (Lady Mary from Downton Abbey), Elino (Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter), Carl (Captain America), Sarah (Alice from Alice in Wonderland), and Nick (Doc Brown from Back to the Future). Kenzie, Molly, Gabri, Megan, Erica, Connor, and Jen never actually find out who they are.
It was considered to have Season Six be the final season.
With the "Reality" subset, Shannon has been shown with a bow and arrow in the series at least four separate times.
The concept for "When Movies Become Reality" predates even the 2011 movie adaptation of the comics.
The "When Movies Become Reality" was all drawn with pen, as opposed to every other season being drawn in pencil. This was done with the intention of having the subset be released in color.
Season Six (not including "Reality") starts and ends with basically the same joke, first with most of the characters watching the Superbowl with Sam, Gabri, and Caroline watching Downton Abbey; then with most of the characters watching the Chicago Blackhawks (we're all from Illinois) while Sam watches Masterchef alone.
There were hints leading up to "Reality" in Season Six, including Sam, Gabri, and Caroline watching Downton Abbey (Caroline and Jarvis adapt to living in Downton). Later, these same three discuss the ending of the third season of Downton. In another comic, Sam has a lightsaber, Gabri has an axe, and Shannon has a bow and arrow as Sam says "Let the Hunger Games begin" (Shannon embodies Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games and uses the Bow and Arrows). In another comic, Ryan says that Sam's aim is "worse than a Stormtrooper's." (Stormtroopers become an important part of "Reality"). In the following comic, Sam and Ryan are shown with members of the Enterprise crew, including Spock (Frank embodies Spock). It can also be noted that during this season, artwork portraits featuring movie poster parodies of Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Star Trek. In the Hunger Games and Star Trek portraits, both Shannon and Frank are depicted as the characters they play in "Reality." Also, an artwork portrait from Season IV has Sam as Indiana Jones, which he then is depicted playing in "Reality".
In "Reality", only Carl, Ryan, Shannon, Kenzie, and Joel are shown confronting a stormtrooper. Out of all of them, only Shannon is shown killing one. She kills at least six.
Originally for "Reality", certain characters were originally supposed to be other movie characters than they ended up being. Molly had an important subplot as Harry Potter, Nick as Chef Brody from Jaws, and Kenzie as Elizabeth Swan. Gabri was initially supposed to be Lady Mary from Downton Abbey, but the part was rewritten with Caroline, who at that point was not going to be in the subset. Also, Elino was going to be Gandalf instead of Dumbledore and Sarah was going to be Spider-Man instead of Alice.
Deleted subplots from "Reality" included 1) The team had to look for missing pieces of the television, which was originally why they went to some of the places they did. 2) Ryan becoming "Darth Awesome" (a parody of Darth Vader) and killing several other members of the team. This one was removed because of plot holes created by characters dying and having to be brought back to life. 3) Kenzie and Nick sail out to sea to find a missing piece of the TV and encounter Jaws. 4) Molly "dies" but actually lives, becoming a Harry Potter-like character with a scar on her face.
Season 7 Trivia:
Season 7 is the final season.
The entire season is story-driven like a normal subset, even though the plot doesn't show up in every installment.
First season not to have a subset since Season 3. Instead, there was a special animated Christmas video released at the end of 2013 to promote the upcoming season, as well as the animated spin-off web series "Team S.A.M.".
Several new characters are introduced in this season. This is the first time new characters have been added since Caroline in Season 5.
The Christmas video attached to this season has actually been in development since 2011. It first began development shortly after "Sam's Comics: The Movie" was released. It was meant to be shot live-action to be released around Christmas of 2012. However, it was never put into production. The first draft of the script only had the original seven characters (Sam, Ryan, Bailey, Kenzie, Molly, Nick, and Rachel). In the summer of 2013, this script was picked back up and rewritten to instead include Sam, Ryan, Shannon, Frank, and Sarah before again being shelved. In December of 2013, the script was again brought out, this time with the intention of being animated. Zach was added to a third draft, and by the fourth, Sarah was replaced by Joey and later Amelia in the interest of having two characters from each "generation" in the video. Monica was also going to have a cameo at the end, but her part got cut for the same reason of only having two of each generation. All the characters in the Christmas Special are voiced by their real-life selves. Previously in "Sam's Comics: The Movie", Ryan was portrayed by Travis Cooper.
As a surprise for Frank Padour (Frank in real life), the School Dean resembles George Clooney.
New characters Zach and Amelia were first introduced ahead of the rest because of their inclusion in the Christmas video. In the first installment, their introductions into the comic family are officially made.
To help balance the amount of characters in this season, a lot of the new ones don't come into contact with the older ones.
Jani was first introduced with long hair, but it was later changed to short hair, since no other female characters have short hair.
The series has now gone through and retained characters from three "generations" of comics. The first generation consists of characters from Seasons 1 - 3 (Sam, Bailey, Kenzie, Molly, Ryan, Rachel, Nick), the second generation consists of characters from Seasons 4 - 6 (Shannon, Frank, Sarah, Gabri, Caroline, Elino, Carl), and now is going through the third generation with Season 7 (Amelia, Monica, Zach, Jani, CJ, Joey, Morgan, Sara).
The character Audrey was a last-second idea added to the series to fulfill a storyline that wouldn't work without a female love-interest. She is the second recurring character to added into the series who was not based off a friend of mine (the other being Jarvis). She was based on a real person as her looks were loosely modeled after actress Jennifer Lawrence.
Many characters say goodbye in this series. Some goodbyes were suggested by the people themselves, including Ryan's, Shannon's, and Joey's.
Audrey's name was suggested by Zach Jarom. Other names considered for her were: Mandy (suggested by Shannon Asprooth), Katy (suggested by Zach Jarom), Lola (suggested by Carl Mohr), Elise (suggested by Carl Mohr), Lily (suggested by Frank Padour), and Shelly (suggested by Monica Breyne).
Monica has a catch-prahse: "Dangnabit, this is why we can't have nice things".
Sara Anderson was the final character added into the series. Unlike Audrey, she was based on another friend of mine.
Because Season 7 was not written sequentially, there are moments when characters' appearances change back and forth from original sketches and updated sketches. This is most noticeable with Monica and Jani. There was a cover story written to account for Jani's difference in hair length.
Even though Gabri is in it, this season does not include and makes no mention of Jarvis.
The villain character Garth Nayder was loosely modeled after a friend of mine, Roy Nayder. Roy had a cameo earlier in the season when there was free pizza.
SPOILER ALERT!
Trivia points beyond this give away significant plot spoilers for Season 7!
A good portion of Season 7 deals with saying goodbye. Several characters, both main and lesser, depart the series (although nearly all return in the finale). In order they are:
- BUSTER, Sam's pet cat dies before the season begins.
- CARL, graduated before the season begins.
- JEN, graduated before the season begins. No mention is made of her friends Erica and Connor, it is implied they also graduated.
- BAILEY, moves away to attend college out-of-state.
- KENZIE, moves away to attend college out-of-state.
- MOLLY, moves away with her sisters Bailey and Kenzie.
- NICK, drops out of school to pursue his dream of becoming a culinary student.
- CAROLINE, it is unclear if she graduated before the season began, or if she also drops out to become a culinary student.
- SARAH, checks herself into rehab. Later returns.
- JOEY, dies. Later reveals he survived.
- RYAN, revealed to be a Jedi, must return to Corescant
- RACHEL, revealed to be a Jedi, must return to Corescant
- ZACH, gets hired working in the film industry.
- CJ, gets hired working in the film industry.
- JANI, gets hired working in the film industry.
- SHANNON, runs away with Frank.
- FRANK, runs away with Shannon.
- ELINO, revealed to be a Time Lord the whole time.
Of the primary characters in the season, Sam, Amelia, and Monica don't have any "goodbye" moments. Their endings were left open-ended in preparation for the spin-off series "Team S.A.M.", even though the series took place during the season, it was left open incase of future seasons of the web series.
The original ending for the season took place at Sam's wedding, not his engagement party. Designs for characters in their wedding clothes were made for Sam, Zach, Joey, and Frank before this idea was dropped.
Joey says he was at Dairy Queen the entire time they thought he was dead. This is a joke referring back to season IV when Megan and Joel returned after a prolonged absence and used the same excuse.
Jani gets a job in New York. Jani in real life is from NY.
Bailey, Kenzie, and Molly have very few appearances in this season. This was done for two reasons. 1) More time needed to be spent establishing new characters in the first half of the season 2) Saying goodbye to them was actually really hard for me to do.
At the end of Season IV, Shannon suggests that they end the season by riding giraffes into the sunset. That is exactly how her exit from the series is carried out.
Bailey appears in both the first comic in Season 1 and the final comic in Season 7.
There are only six people with Sam in the final comic, two from each generation. These six people were chosen very specifically because of their significance.
FIRST GEN: Ryan and Bailey. These two are Sam's closest friends. Indeed, in the series Bailey is Sam's oldest friend.
SECOND GEN: Frank and Shannon. These two have been important to the series since their introduction in Season IV, leading them to becoming fan favorites.
THIRD GEN: Amelia and Monica. These two were picked because of the spin-off series released after Season 7's finale. Amelia also had a larger role in this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment