13 Days of Halloween – Day Twelve: Sam & Max Freelance Police in Beast From the Cereal Aisle, by Steve Purcell

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13 Days of Halloween, Comics, Horror, Sam and Max, Steve Purcell

Since I pulled out this old comic collection for last month’s Geek Out Challenge, I figured I might as well revisit some of my old favorites. This particular adventure sees our furry anti-heros hired to investigate an outbreak of paranormal activity at the local supermarket.  Equipped with little more than a Ouija board and a lasso, it’s up to them to stop the terror and refocus the malevolent energy into something a bit more positive. But is it a demon? A monster? A spiritual representation of the “collected sorrow and frustration of all those whose apple cart and roadside beef stand businesses were steamrolled into the ground by cold, sterile Megamarts?”  Does it really even matter so long as there’s free food an opportunity for the duo’s particular brand of comedic violence?

This was a fun trip down memory lane, but man are these comics weird.  The tale is admittedly a bit juvenile, but I still liked it for the nonsensical fun that it was.  I’d recommend this to anyone familiar with the characters from their games, but otherwise this one may be limited in its appeal.  As a more or less lifelong Massachusetts resident, though, I must say that the “Lobsta Fahts” cereal box that appears in the background makes me chuckle every time I see it.  Is it immature? Yes. Does it entertain me? Also yes. Moving on.

Now that I’ve sufficiently indulged my not so inner child, make sure you all tune in tomorrow for my annual Halloween Double Feature!  I’ve got some more serious material lined up and a beverage to share!

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30 Day Geek Out Challenge – Day 11: Favorite Manga or Comic Book Series?

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30 Day Geek Out Challenge, Blog Life, Comic Books, Sam and Max

Source: https://preview.tinyurl.com/y5tr26hf

Day Eleven of the 30 Day Geek Out Challenge poses another challenging prompt for me.  I’ve never been into comics (not even the popular ones that everyone is into these days) and while I really enjoyed reading Naruto and Bleach back in the day, I’m not sure either of those stands out as a clear favorite.  I want to pick something, though, so for the sake of this post I’ll pick Sam & Max.

For those unfamiliar with the characters, Sam and Max are a lovable, violence prone dog and rabbit duo that bill themselves as the Freelance Police.  I first came across them in a video game included in a LucasArts box set along with other such classics as Star Wars: Rebel Assault and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and that was more than enough to pique my interest.  After loving the game and spending the next few months following their exploits in some sort of printed LucasArts publication (for reference, this was in the was the mid-1990s so still in the dial-up era and a few years before the ubiquity of the internet) I took the plunge and purchased Sam & Max Hit Surfin’ the Highway, a collection of comics that see them put all their irreverent detective skills and powers of persuasion to face down a list of adversaries that include a cult leader, an ultranationalist cockroach, and a possessed cereal aisle.  Good times. In retrospect some of the bits seem a bit juvenile, so I’m not sure I’d feel quite the same about this if I came across them as an adult, but the nostalgia is real and so is my affinity for these furry guys.  Having said that I would add, however, the adventure game released by Telltale Games a few years back was top notch and definitely worth a look for players into that sort of game.