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Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway
Twenty years ago, Sam & Max burst onto the indie comic book scene with a daring venture to the Philippines (drawn entirely without reference) called Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple. Today they're the stars of an Eisner-nominated webcomic and a successful episodic game series. Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell and Telltale are celebrating these milestones with the this new edition of the Sam & Max comic book collection, Surfin' the Highway. In addition to all of the content of the 1995 original, the new edition contains 25 pages of content developed over the last two decades, bringing the page count to 197 with 45 pages in full color. The new content includes advertisements for the original Freelance Police comic book, a color version of Fair Wind to Java and recent paintings promoting Telltale's Sam & Max games and the upcoming DVD release of the Sam & Max Freelance Police animated series.
197 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1995
21 people are currently reading
706 people want to read
About the author
Steve Purcell
34 books34 followersSteve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has since grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for Marvel Comics and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by LucasArts as an artist and animator in 1988, working on several titles within the company's adventure games era.
Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. His main work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials such as shorts and video games. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.
Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. His main work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials such as shorts and video games. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
July 9, 2018
You crack me up, little buddy.
February 26, 2009
There are two possibilities when you first encounter Sam & Max. One possibility is that you won't get it; at best, it will seem odd and mildly amusing.
The other possibility is that your jaw will drop in amazement that someone out there speaks your secret language - the language of a style of humor that you didn't realize anyone else knew, apart from you and perhaps a few close friends. You'll feel as if you've been reading Sam & Max all your life, saying the same quirky lines back and forth with your friends. And you'll be laughing like crazy.
Sam & Max are freelance police, a six-foot-tall dog who dresses like a 1940s gumshoe, and a white rabbity thing with serious self-control issues. Both carry very large guns, and they're not afraid to use them on anyone or anything.
They live in a world that is completely insane, filled with volcano cults, frightening clowns, criminal rats, giant Moon roaches, ghosts that haunt Stucky's roadside restaurants, and accountants turned pirate - along with uncounted other oddities from the incredible imagination of Steve Purcell.
The violence is not extreme. Well...okay, there's a lot of shooting. A typewriter may have been hurled through an upper-story window. There may have been a disintegration or two. Perhaps an attempted human (dog? rabbit?) sacrifice. Children too young to understand irony probably won't get Sam & Max, but anyone over the age of ten or so would probably be ready.
Sam & Max have been published in many formats over the years. There have been a few comic books from different companies, a guest appearance here and there, some webcomics, a few animated computer games, a TV series with somewhat toned-down versions of the characters, and most recently a Wii game.
This book collects most of the print versions and many of the webcomics. Pick it up, give it a try! If you're one of the people who gets it, you'll be thanking me.
The other possibility is that your jaw will drop in amazement that someone out there speaks your secret language - the language of a style of humor that you didn't realize anyone else knew, apart from you and perhaps a few close friends. You'll feel as if you've been reading Sam & Max all your life, saying the same quirky lines back and forth with your friends. And you'll be laughing like crazy.
Sam & Max are freelance police, a six-foot-tall dog who dresses like a 1940s gumshoe, and a white rabbity thing with serious self-control issues. Both carry very large guns, and they're not afraid to use them on anyone or anything.
They live in a world that is completely insane, filled with volcano cults, frightening clowns, criminal rats, giant Moon roaches, ghosts that haunt Stucky's roadside restaurants, and accountants turned pirate - along with uncounted other oddities from the incredible imagination of Steve Purcell.
The violence is not extreme. Well...okay, there's a lot of shooting. A typewriter may have been hurled through an upper-story window. There may have been a disintegration or two. Perhaps an attempted human (dog? rabbit?) sacrifice. Children too young to understand irony probably won't get Sam & Max, but anyone over the age of ten or so would probably be ready.
Sam & Max have been published in many formats over the years. There have been a few comic books from different companies, a guest appearance here and there, some webcomics, a few animated computer games, a TV series with somewhat toned-down versions of the characters, and most recently a Wii game.
This book collects most of the print versions and many of the webcomics. Pick it up, give it a try! If you're one of the people who gets it, you'll be thanking me.
September 5, 2015
Ahh, good old Sam and Max. I read many of the issues in this book when I was a teenager, and I finally got around to reading this book with all of them. Now, the first thing you need to know about this book is that you will not find philosophical revelations, touching character development, electrifying plots, competent villains that are thrillingly defeated, or really anything except Sam and Max running around wreaking havoc. That's it. They find out about a poorly conceived crime or vaguely defined supernatural creature; they find it; they punch it or drown it or have it disemboweled; and they they probably go eat delicious food and have a laugh. There is nothing here except zany cartoon ridiculousness in the form of a fun-loving doggie cop in a trench coat and an eternally grinning, always-naked bunny who may either carry a weapon or BE a weapon.
There is no consistency. There is no plot. There is no character arc. There is just a bunch of stuff happening and it makes no sense. Sometimes they go to Ancient Egypt with no explanation to go kick something's butt, or they'll go on an unnecessary road trip and wreck their car, or they'll destroy a volcano-worshiping cult by plugging the sacrifice pit with Max's head. And then there are the running gags: Max wears no clothes so where DOES he keep that gun; Sam says "You crack me up little buddy!" when Max does something horrifying; Sam eats a popsicle; Max's absurd proportions (especially his head) are lovingly invoked in conversation. And the art is cartoony, ridiculous, and frequently a bit disturbing.
It's not something I would usually like. It's stupid.
But I think what really makes it for me is the cleverness of the dialogue. There's just no reason for it to be this funny, but the one-liners just kill me. I would laugh at these until I choked because they'd surprise me so much. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. "Hey kids, plan on spending some time in federal prison?"
2. "We would have bought you all presents but it never even occurred to us."
3. [When Sam and Max are very close to being killed:] "I'm alarmed!"
4. "Here's an experiment you can do! Leave a bag of bread on top of the refrigerator for a long time. It will eventually turn grey and taste bad. Now throw it into the street."
5. "An Elvis-shaped whiskey decanter so you can drink from the neck hole of the King!"
6. [While Sam handles a sack labeled "Bag O' Ham":] "I don't know what this is, but I want it. It feels neat."
7. [When Max is asked for his beverage order:] "Dishwater! And put it in a dirty glass!"
8. [A tattoo artist suggests a tattoo design:] "What about a snake eating a rat with the caption 'Born to watch my snake eat a rat'?"
9. "And that's the story of the Little Engine who gave up because nobody loved him. Goodnight Max!"
10. "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"
11. "Halloween! I love any holiday that successfully combines ancient Druidic rituals with teeny tiny snicker-bars."
There is no consistency. There is no plot. There is no character arc. There is just a bunch of stuff happening and it makes no sense. Sometimes they go to Ancient Egypt with no explanation to go kick something's butt, or they'll go on an unnecessary road trip and wreck their car, or they'll destroy a volcano-worshiping cult by plugging the sacrifice pit with Max's head. And then there are the running gags: Max wears no clothes so where DOES he keep that gun; Sam says "You crack me up little buddy!" when Max does something horrifying; Sam eats a popsicle; Max's absurd proportions (especially his head) are lovingly invoked in conversation. And the art is cartoony, ridiculous, and frequently a bit disturbing.
It's not something I would usually like. It's stupid.
But I think what really makes it for me is the cleverness of the dialogue. There's just no reason for it to be this funny, but the one-liners just kill me. I would laugh at these until I choked because they'd surprise me so much. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. "Hey kids, plan on spending some time in federal prison?"
2. "We would have bought you all presents but it never even occurred to us."
3. [When Sam and Max are very close to being killed:] "I'm alarmed!"
4. "Here's an experiment you can do! Leave a bag of bread on top of the refrigerator for a long time. It will eventually turn grey and taste bad. Now throw it into the street."
5. "An Elvis-shaped whiskey decanter so you can drink from the neck hole of the King!"
6. [While Sam handles a sack labeled "Bag O' Ham":] "I don't know what this is, but I want it. It feels neat."
7. [When Max is asked for his beverage order:] "Dishwater! And put it in a dirty glass!"
8. [A tattoo artist suggests a tattoo design:] "What about a snake eating a rat with the caption 'Born to watch my snake eat a rat'?"
9. "And that's the story of the Little Engine who gave up because nobody loved him. Goodnight Max!"
10. "This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"
11. "Halloween! I love any holiday that successfully combines ancient Druidic rituals with teeny tiny snicker-bars."
July 15, 2010
This is hands down one of my favorite indie comics (right up there with Blankets and Adrian Tomine's later work), and is by far my favorite humor comic (just a hair above Calvin and Hobbes).
The insanity, random hyperactivity, and strangely (and hidden) smartness of Purcell's work astounds me. Plus, this book's got new shit in it! I've been waiting to have the complete Sam and Max since my childhood. Today's purchase? Win.
The insanity, random hyperactivity, and strangely (and hidden) smartness of Purcell's work astounds me. Plus, this book's got new shit in it! I've been waiting to have the complete Sam and Max since my childhood. Today's purchase? Win.
December 31, 2019
Phenomenal and definitive, this is the complete collection of Sam and Max comics that Steve Purcell made his mark on the world with. The wacky hijinks and anarchical humour have precision timing and the art is gorgeous (the level of detail crammed into every corner of every panel is much like the "chicken fat" that Will Elder became famous for at MAD). Probably the best comic book I've ever read or ever will read, all things considered.
January 26, 2020
Sam n Max hold a special place in my nostalgic heart.
February 9, 2023
I want to be them so bad
June 13, 2023
Jesus, Max, you don’t even like girls!
January 3, 2021
These guys are the best example of a kind of humor I ordinarily don't like much. It's the humor of young guys who think they're being clever by saying things like "I am unable to stop kicking you at this time" or "chaos ensues" (neither appears here, though Max complains if Sam ever says "ensuing"). That ordinary stuff is freshly dug-up ore, but this is more like a giant cast-iron slice of toast that's cheerfully rusting while it waits for the butter.
How does it work? The regular ore goes to a refinery, which starts with the smart-aleck humor of a Coen-brothers villain who won't shut up. This is then put through an interrogation and attacked with a remote-controlled tarantula. Ok, walk back the randomness a bit... Right there. Stop. Stop!! Good. The stories make sense (mostly), and the urban / highway / crime world feels kind of like The Blues Brothers and Indiana Jones and The Ghostbusters crossed with Superfly and Hunter S. Thompson, but somehow realer than most of that—like traveling through the US of the 70s and 80s to see gas stations with the world's largest statue of an ice-cream cone or T-rex, and hillsides where magnetism fails. It's got a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" undercurrent but in a different era. It's true Americana. The flavor is consistent and unique.
I just adore the art and the junky, kitschy world Sam & Max crash around "defending"... or at least chewing through, wearing down, denting, and leaving bullet holes in. Sometimes they change their whole reality in small, lasting ways, thanks to poorly-explained leaps through space and time. For example, the present-day Sphinx incorporates Max's face after their trip back to Ancient Egypt. It's a running gag that Max's head shows up in weird places. It's at different times removed, set on fire in a dogfight, hidden in a jack-o'-lantern in a picture frame, and used to plug a giant meat grinder operated by aliens. Continuing this fetish: a mafia boss has no head—it's a fishbowl with water and a goldfish in it. This condition is why he holds a grudge against Sam & Max. Besides, Steve Purcell was working for a certain Fishwrap Productions at the time and publishing the comic through them. Actually, I didn't really like the mafioso goldfish bowl story, which was the second ever and is fortunately short. (Edit: after reading more about the duo's origins, I stand corrected. Sam & Max go way back to Purcell's childhood, and were co-created by him and his younger brother, who actually started the rabbit + dog team off.) If things were constantly so wacky, it wouldn't work, but a certain balance allows enough of the gags to be shocking, so you keep asking yourself if a story can do that, and why not.
Sam & Max is less like an animated cartoon than you'd think from some of the crazier jokes (I don't want to give away too many of the better ones), but unsurprisingly the concept later turned into the well-loved adventure (story-and-puzzle) games and a cartoon. Steve Purcell eventually went on to work for Pixar on various movies like Ratatouille, Cars, and Brave, as well as one of their shorts, Toy Story that Time Forgot, which he directed. In between, he worked on a number of games for LucasArts and Telltale in various capacities: writer, artist, animator, voice actor, consultant, producer, and designer. His voice can be heard in the movies I mentioned.
Oh, introductions. Let's square that away. Sam is the big one. Max is the little one. S is for soft. Sam's a burly hound who presents as a hard-boiled and acerbic PI, but you know how it goes in the trope: hard-boiled on the outside... Sam's a big softy who takes care of little Max. (Sam actually tucks Max in at night, at least sometimes: "And that's the story of the little engine who gave up because nobody loved him. Goodnight, Max!") Max, on the other hand... Max is for maxed-out, amped-up, maniacal, or maybe just maximum-security prison, which often seems like where he should be. Max is like the vorpal bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, only he's hopelessly sarcastic and identifies as a "lagomorph." (That would be the taxonomic umbrella for rabbits, hares, and pikas. At one point Max says "Seriously, look it up." So I did. But don't listen to him. Officially, he's "a hyperkinetic rabbity thing.")
Most of the book is in black & white, and the drawings are super bold and clean and full of cute little details that set up and pay off their own little jokes. But the additional color drawings in the Anniversary Edition are gorgeous. And going through the whole sequence of 12 brief episodes in color for The Adventurer (they're all over the web, and this is where I first met the characters, in a pamphlet), I was amazed by dimensions I'd never noticed before. For flat cartoons, these images can certainly use a vanishing point for spatial depth. Max's blanket in one feels soft to look at. A drenched Sam is obviously wet in another, even without dripping or rumpled clothes. Maybe it was seeing them on a large page that put me in a rapture over the artist's karate chops... I mean, well, you know what I mean.
It occurs to me I haven't quoted them much, so here are a few more examples of the style:
Sam says with his usual irony: "I can see the murky outlines of terrible immense beings lumbering through a nightmarish cityscape." Soon the two of them are standing under the gigantic insects. He looks up and continues, "It makes me feel so... so... insignificant." Max says, "I always feel that way about you, Sam."
On an activities page where you're supposed to cut things out, there's a shirt with a little foldy tab at the bottom so it can stand up: "Secretly Encoded Hawaiian Shirt: Sam's seductive, writhing native dance could convey a significant message in the right circles. Or inspire a shooting." (This sounds drastically worse now, especially after the Orlando nightclub tragedy. And don't expect me to brush that aside - I was two buildings away from the Virginia Tech mass shooting, just leaving Nervous Systems & Behavior and stepping onto the quad from the psychology department when we were called back in for a lockdown. We watched ambulances and police cars wailing by in the dozens for the next hour, losing count. Everyone I knew knew someone injured or killed. A thing like that affects you deeply. For better and occasionally somewhat worse, there's no way you can miss that the humor is intentionally edgy. This was a laugh-and-grimace. Wow, these parentheses got serious fast.)
Sam & Max talk to a giant floating rat's head, and Max chimes in while waving goodbye: "We'll keep an eye out for the rest of your body." Until now the missing body hasn't come up... except when Max was saying, "A pest problem? A townload of rats has a pest problem, Sam. That's pretty funny. And from a flying head. Amazing." The punchline is that Max loses his own body later.
Asked for their orders at a bar, Sam says "How 'bout a root beer popsicle and an orange julius?" Max says "DISHWATER! And put it in a dirty glass!"
I could spend a lot of time picking quotes, but the best way to think about this is as a fictional scrap book. It isn't a graphic novel. It's the opposite. Maybe (the pandemic's on everyone's mind) it's a vaccine? It's this niche-but-not-really-niche comic that does all kinds of things: skits, one-page strips, ads, PSAs, plot arcs, kids' scissor-and-glue activities that are not at all for kids, science fiction, fantasy, film noir, Americana, gonzo (the drugs are popsicles and M&Ms and Snickers and the like), self-consciously excessive gun violence that I think satirizes the NRA, etc.
I really can't do it justice, and having read quite a few of the strips and played Sam & Max Hit the Road way back, I'd say that, much as I love all those, individual pieces don't do it justice either. "More than the sum of its parts" is not exactly how I'd characterize the sense I get, though. These comics are so restlessly inventive. You don't see it by looking at one.
It took a while to stop expecting them to tell a story the way I expected, and to stop expecting Sam and Max to talk substantially differently from each other. They sound alike, a few verbal tics aside (for example, it's like Max to pipe up with a "Lookie, Sam!", and Sam routinely says "You crack me up, little buddy" or "You bust me up"). To be fair, Sam & Max have similar names for a reason: they're two sides of a coin. Their similar names make a throwaway joke in one episode, and they inhabit the same body in another. They're best buddies and partners in crime(-busting), and they have their own chatty cadence. It feels like Sam is the grown-up sibling, and Max is his embarrassingly/dangerously psycho much younger brother. Sam is not particularly responsible at all, but next to Max, he seems positively parental. Anyway, as comically puffed up as these two can sound (and that's part of the joke...), voice actors actually can and do make their lines sound natural, not to mention make the two sound very different from each other. But still, back to the paper page: it can be a bit frustrating. Which-furry-guy-is-saying-what comes up in half the panels. It's small, but it's my biggest complaint. Different lettering would have been enough.
My favorite stories are "Bad Day on the Moon" (they drive to the dark side of the moon, the 'how' happily glossed over of course) and the three chapters in the "On the Road" arc. In the first of the latter, they're basically just stocking up for the road trip, but it's hugely entertaining. In the second, I especially love the way Max is obsessed with stopping at every Stuckey's he sees, like a little kid, and Sam either downright ignores him or finds some ruse to distract him. Those have the best stories, but to leave it at that would be to miss most of what's original in here.
I'll just say I was expecting to give this 3 stars when I was half-way through, even though I love the characters. But as you go through time (publication date, irreverently depicted epoch) and pages, I don't know... something happens. The fragments draw together and unite. I saw that I'd been looking for one thing and missing another. These guys are just enough and way too much, chasing after the subtly absurd with the absurdly absurd. The same can be said about their book: not many pages for a complete works, and correspondingly packed to the gills.
How does it work? The regular ore goes to a refinery, which starts with the smart-aleck humor of a Coen-brothers villain who won't shut up. This is then put through an interrogation and attacked with a remote-controlled tarantula. Ok, walk back the randomness a bit... Right there. Stop. Stop!! Good. The stories make sense (mostly), and the urban / highway / crime world feels kind of like The Blues Brothers and Indiana Jones and The Ghostbusters crossed with Superfly and Hunter S. Thompson, but somehow realer than most of that—like traveling through the US of the 70s and 80s to see gas stations with the world's largest statue of an ice-cream cone or T-rex, and hillsides where magnetism fails. It's got a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" undercurrent but in a different era. It's true Americana. The flavor is consistent and unique.
I just adore the art and the junky, kitschy world Sam & Max crash around "defending"... or at least chewing through, wearing down, denting, and leaving bullet holes in. Sometimes they change their whole reality in small, lasting ways, thanks to poorly-explained leaps through space and time. For example, the present-day Sphinx incorporates Max's face after their trip back to Ancient Egypt. It's a running gag that Max's head shows up in weird places. It's at different times removed, set on fire in a dogfight, hidden in a jack-o'-lantern in a picture frame, and used to plug a giant meat grinder operated by aliens. Continuing this fetish: a mafia boss has no head—it's a fishbowl with water and a goldfish in it. This condition is why he holds a grudge against Sam & Max. Besides, Steve Purcell was working for a certain Fishwrap Productions at the time and publishing the comic through them. Actually, I didn't really like the mafioso goldfish bowl story, which was the second ever and is fortunately short. (Edit: after reading more about the duo's origins, I stand corrected. Sam & Max go way back to Purcell's childhood, and were co-created by him and his younger brother, who actually started the rabbit + dog team off.) If things were constantly so wacky, it wouldn't work, but a certain balance allows enough of the gags to be shocking, so you keep asking yourself if a story can do that, and why not.
Sam & Max is less like an animated cartoon than you'd think from some of the crazier jokes (I don't want to give away too many of the better ones), but unsurprisingly the concept later turned into the well-loved adventure (story-and-puzzle) games and a cartoon. Steve Purcell eventually went on to work for Pixar on various movies like Ratatouille, Cars, and Brave, as well as one of their shorts, Toy Story that Time Forgot, which he directed. In between, he worked on a number of games for LucasArts and Telltale in various capacities: writer, artist, animator, voice actor, consultant, producer, and designer. His voice can be heard in the movies I mentioned.
Oh, introductions. Let's square that away. Sam is the big one. Max is the little one. S is for soft. Sam's a burly hound who presents as a hard-boiled and acerbic PI, but you know how it goes in the trope: hard-boiled on the outside... Sam's a big softy who takes care of little Max. (Sam actually tucks Max in at night, at least sometimes: "And that's the story of the little engine who gave up because nobody loved him. Goodnight, Max!") Max, on the other hand... Max is for maxed-out, amped-up, maniacal, or maybe just maximum-security prison, which often seems like where he should be. Max is like the vorpal bunny in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, only he's hopelessly sarcastic and identifies as a "lagomorph." (That would be the taxonomic umbrella for rabbits, hares, and pikas. At one point Max says "Seriously, look it up." So I did. But don't listen to him. Officially, he's "a hyperkinetic rabbity thing.")
Most of the book is in black & white, and the drawings are super bold and clean and full of cute little details that set up and pay off their own little jokes. But the additional color drawings in the Anniversary Edition are gorgeous. And going through the whole sequence of 12 brief episodes in color for The Adventurer (they're all over the web, and this is where I first met the characters, in a pamphlet), I was amazed by dimensions I'd never noticed before. For flat cartoons, these images can certainly use a vanishing point for spatial depth. Max's blanket in one feels soft to look at. A drenched Sam is obviously wet in another, even without dripping or rumpled clothes. Maybe it was seeing them on a large page that put me in a rapture over the artist's karate chops... I mean, well, you know what I mean.
It occurs to me I haven't quoted them much, so here are a few more examples of the style:
Sam says with his usual irony: "I can see the murky outlines of terrible immense beings lumbering through a nightmarish cityscape." Soon the two of them are standing under the gigantic insects. He looks up and continues, "It makes me feel so... so... insignificant." Max says, "I always feel that way about you, Sam."
On an activities page where you're supposed to cut things out, there's a shirt with a little foldy tab at the bottom so it can stand up: "Secretly Encoded Hawaiian Shirt: Sam's seductive, writhing native dance could convey a significant message in the right circles. Or inspire a shooting." (This sounds drastically worse now, especially after the Orlando nightclub tragedy. And don't expect me to brush that aside - I was two buildings away from the Virginia Tech mass shooting, just leaving Nervous Systems & Behavior and stepping onto the quad from the psychology department when we were called back in for a lockdown. We watched ambulances and police cars wailing by in the dozens for the next hour, losing count. Everyone I knew knew someone injured or killed. A thing like that affects you deeply. For better and occasionally somewhat worse, there's no way you can miss that the humor is intentionally edgy. This was a laugh-and-grimace. Wow, these parentheses got serious fast.)
Sam & Max talk to a giant floating rat's head, and Max chimes in while waving goodbye: "We'll keep an eye out for the rest of your body." Until now the missing body hasn't come up... except when Max was saying, "A pest problem? A townload of rats has a pest problem, Sam. That's pretty funny. And from a flying head. Amazing." The punchline is that Max loses his own body later.
Asked for their orders at a bar, Sam says "How 'bout a root beer popsicle and an orange julius?" Max says "DISHWATER! And put it in a dirty glass!"
I could spend a lot of time picking quotes, but the best way to think about this is as a fictional scrap book. It isn't a graphic novel. It's the opposite. Maybe (the pandemic's on everyone's mind) it's a vaccine? It's this niche-but-not-really-niche comic that does all kinds of things: skits, one-page strips, ads, PSAs, plot arcs, kids' scissor-and-glue activities that are not at all for kids, science fiction, fantasy, film noir, Americana, gonzo (the drugs are popsicles and M&Ms and Snickers and the like), self-consciously excessive gun violence that I think satirizes the NRA, etc.
I really can't do it justice, and having read quite a few of the strips and played Sam & Max Hit the Road way back, I'd say that, much as I love all those, individual pieces don't do it justice either. "More than the sum of its parts" is not exactly how I'd characterize the sense I get, though. These comics are so restlessly inventive. You don't see it by looking at one.
It took a while to stop expecting them to tell a story the way I expected, and to stop expecting Sam and Max to talk substantially differently from each other. They sound alike, a few verbal tics aside (for example, it's like Max to pipe up with a "Lookie, Sam!", and Sam routinely says "You crack me up, little buddy" or "You bust me up"). To be fair, Sam & Max have similar names for a reason: they're two sides of a coin. Their similar names make a throwaway joke in one episode, and they inhabit the same body in another. They're best buddies and partners in crime(-busting), and they have their own chatty cadence. It feels like Sam is the grown-up sibling, and Max is his embarrassingly/dangerously psycho much younger brother. Sam is not particularly responsible at all, but next to Max, he seems positively parental. Anyway, as comically puffed up as these two can sound (and that's part of the joke...), voice actors actually can and do make their lines sound natural, not to mention make the two sound very different from each other. But still, back to the paper page: it can be a bit frustrating. Which-furry-guy-is-saying-what comes up in half the panels. It's small, but it's my biggest complaint. Different lettering would have been enough.
My favorite stories are "Bad Day on the Moon" (they drive to the dark side of the moon, the 'how' happily glossed over of course) and the three chapters in the "On the Road" arc. In the first of the latter, they're basically just stocking up for the road trip, but it's hugely entertaining. In the second, I especially love the way Max is obsessed with stopping at every Stuckey's he sees, like a little kid, and Sam either downright ignores him or finds some ruse to distract him. Those have the best stories, but to leave it at that would be to miss most of what's original in here.
I'll just say I was expecting to give this 3 stars when I was half-way through, even though I love the characters. But as you go through time (publication date, irreverently depicted epoch) and pages, I don't know... something happens. The fragments draw together and unite. I saw that I'd been looking for one thing and missing another. These guys are just enough and way too much, chasing after the subtly absurd with the absurdly absurd. The same can be said about their book: not many pages for a complete works, and correspondingly packed to the gills.
July 29, 2025
Sam & Max is one of those rare cult-following oddities; you either know it, don't know it, or just plain forget about this wacky and wonderful duo.
Starting out as independent comics and then spanning popular point-and-click adventure games to a short stint on TV, Sam & Max, a pair of anthropomorphic freelance police, take themselves wherever the commissioner calls, and it's nothing short of cartoon comedy genius. Chaotic and just the right blend of randomness, it's got zero development in anything, and that's exactly the point.
Steve Purcell has a talent for his writing and art; not only does Sam & Max have some of the funniest exposition in comics, playing heavy on tell, don't show, but it's also accompanied by detailed panels that are filled to the absolute edge of the border with background noise—you'd be staring at some of these till your eyes start burning.
The unfortunate obscurity of this book makes it a hard recommendation, but if you can get ahold of the pair’s adventures, I promise it’s worth it. Whether it's the chaotic streets of NYC, the open road of the USA, or the empty void of outer space, Sam & Max, freelance police, will be there to keep the peace.
Starting out as independent comics and then spanning popular point-and-click adventure games to a short stint on TV, Sam & Max, a pair of anthropomorphic freelance police, take themselves wherever the commissioner calls, and it's nothing short of cartoon comedy genius. Chaotic and just the right blend of randomness, it's got zero development in anything, and that's exactly the point.
Steve Purcell has a talent for his writing and art; not only does Sam & Max have some of the funniest exposition in comics, playing heavy on tell, don't show, but it's also accompanied by detailed panels that are filled to the absolute edge of the border with background noise—you'd be staring at some of these till your eyes start burning.
The unfortunate obscurity of this book makes it a hard recommendation, but if you can get ahold of the pair’s adventures, I promise it’s worth it. Whether it's the chaotic streets of NYC, the open road of the USA, or the empty void of outer space, Sam & Max, freelance police, will be there to keep the peace.
August 18, 2024
FUCK YEA TANK GIRL BUT LESS AUSTRALIAN FUUUUUCK YEAH
May 27, 2020
I've been a fan of the Sam & Max computer games since around the first Telltale stuff but haven't taken the time to dig through the source material until now, and I regret waiting because this is one of the few comics I've read to truly make me laugh out loud. Purcell doesn't go for the usual slapstick gags and in both the visual and verbal humor manages to pull genuinely surprising punchlines out of nowhere and the results are always great. It's a good natured, yet deranged kind of humor that pokes fun at the weirdness of kitsch americana and the world in general and fans of the games will feel right at home with the humor. If you're a fan of other Lucasarts adventure games, you'll love the little newspaper strips near the end that see the duo stumbling
The artwork is absolutely fantastic. Every panel is dense with detail and little background jokes, and Purcell's linework is extremely clean and expressive, making for a book that's as gorgeous as it is funny. The small handful of full color stories near the end bring things to another level with a beautiful watercolor look and it's stunning to look at.
The one critique I could really level at this collection is that while the stories are hilarious, they don't always come to a satisfying conclusion. A large number of the earlier ones end with some kind of non-sequitur or Deus Ex Machina, and while it is done in the name of comedy, it's not always the best storytelling, especially when it comes at the tail end of one of the longer stories and I don't think you can just use "it's comedy" to excuse a cheap way out. Throughout the series Sam and Max are both shown to be legitimately competent at fighting and problem solving, they aren't just "haha loser comedy protagonist who can't do anything right", so having the climax of the stories be out of their hands kind of keeps them from being the heroes of their own stories, and it's really only the final two of the longer form stories that they actually fix things themselves and then the series kind of ends.
It's a shame Purcell didn't continue making more Sam and Max comics, because I feel like near the end they got very close to hitting their full potential, and while I think the long-standing video game series finally used that potential to the fullest, we still haven't quite had the definitive long-form Sam & Max comic story (though the Road Trip and Moon stories are pretty close and clearly had huge influence on the games). Sam and Max became something much larger than it's humble origins but I think it still has a place in the comics. I'd love to see them come back in any form, it's been about 10 years since even the last of the Telltale games, and Telltale themselves aren't even around anymore, so who knows what could come next.
The artwork is absolutely fantastic. Every panel is dense with detail and little background jokes, and Purcell's linework is extremely clean and expressive, making for a book that's as gorgeous as it is funny. The small handful of full color stories near the end bring things to another level with a beautiful watercolor look and it's stunning to look at.
The one critique I could really level at this collection is that while the stories are hilarious, they don't always come to a satisfying conclusion. A large number of the earlier ones end with some kind of non-sequitur or Deus Ex Machina, and while it is done in the name of comedy, it's not always the best storytelling, especially when it comes at the tail end of one of the longer stories and I don't think you can just use "it's comedy" to excuse a cheap way out. Throughout the series Sam and Max are both shown to be legitimately competent at fighting and problem solving, they aren't just "haha loser comedy protagonist who can't do anything right", so having the climax of the stories be out of their hands kind of keeps them from being the heroes of their own stories, and it's really only the final two of the longer form stories that they actually fix things themselves and then the series kind of ends.
It's a shame Purcell didn't continue making more Sam and Max comics, because I feel like near the end they got very close to hitting their full potential, and while I think the long-standing video game series finally used that potential to the fullest, we still haven't quite had the definitive long-form Sam & Max comic story (though the Road Trip and Moon stories are pretty close and clearly had huge influence on the games). Sam and Max became something much larger than it's humble origins but I think it still has a place in the comics. I'd love to see them come back in any form, it's been about 10 years since even the last of the Telltale games, and Telltale themselves aren't even around anymore, so who knows what could come next.
May 5, 2018
A very entertaining and intellectual collection of comics (especially by comparison to other comics), Steve Purcell captures a fun mix of actually funny absurdist humor, some excellent nuanced artwork, and fun and likable characters.
The collection is not organized other than a march from first to last in publication. The best stuff comes early, as black and white comics feature subversively built but clever long narratives with weird sight gags and non-sequitir one liners (things like Sam the dog cop being fixated on sugary foods or Max the Rabbit not understanding basic english or wanting to kill things).
There are several of these types of stories in the beginning, all worth checking out. The latter stories aren't different per se, still focused on pseudo-genre narrative mixed with wry/nutty commentary.
But Purcell's stories get shorter, and the jokes get more direct and less clever and varied. Feels more rushed.
That being said, even the simpler stories at the end still have blips of clever humor and ideas.
And for anyone who is familiar with Sam and Max (either in video game or in comics) knows how endearing and funny they can be.
Also a lot of fun pin-ups that are funny and actually beautiful to look at . A must for people who like newspaper style comics/art.
An ecstatic five out of five.
The collection is not organized other than a march from first to last in publication. The best stuff comes early, as black and white comics feature subversively built but clever long narratives with weird sight gags and non-sequitir one liners (things like Sam the dog cop being fixated on sugary foods or Max the Rabbit not understanding basic english or wanting to kill things).
There are several of these types of stories in the beginning, all worth checking out. The latter stories aren't different per se, still focused on pseudo-genre narrative mixed with wry/nutty commentary.
But Purcell's stories get shorter, and the jokes get more direct and less clever and varied. Feels more rushed.
That being said, even the simpler stories at the end still have blips of clever humor and ideas.
And for anyone who is familiar with Sam and Max (either in video game or in comics) knows how endearing and funny they can be.
Also a lot of fun pin-ups that are funny and actually beautiful to look at . A must for people who like newspaper style comics/art.
An ecstatic five out of five.
March 18, 2019
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway is a thoroughly entertaining collection of comics and artwork following the adventures of the eponymous Freelance Police. For the uninitiated Sam is a anthropomorphic dog in the old gumshoe detective mould (fedora and all) while Max is, well, a psychotic rabbit thing and the pair solve crime using unconventional means...
The art style is fantastic with a ton of little details in every frame and real variety of characters and locations to enjoy. The stories themselves are short, sweet and random as hell but all the more entertaining for it. However, the best thing about the book is Sam and Max themselves. Fantastically fun, witty and the perfect foil for one another their banter alone is worth the price of admission.
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway is a brilliantly funny collection of comics that is a must read for fans that is also welcoming for people new to the madcap adventures of the worlds first Freelance Police dog and rabbit duo.
The art style is fantastic with a ton of little details in every frame and real variety of characters and locations to enjoy. The stories themselves are short, sweet and random as hell but all the more entertaining for it. However, the best thing about the book is Sam and Max themselves. Fantastically fun, witty and the perfect foil for one another their banter alone is worth the price of admission.
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway is a brilliantly funny collection of comics that is a must read for fans that is also welcoming for people new to the madcap adventures of the worlds first Freelance Police dog and rabbit duo.
January 30, 2021
I came to read this after completing Hit the Road and all three seasons of the telltale games, and having been a fan of Steve's artwork since chindhood with the posters of the Monkey Island games, I decided to give it a read. The humour is witty, well placed and extremely creative, if not moreso! Steve Purcell has a great talent in art and comedy, consider me a fan for life!
July 19, 2021
juxtaposes cartoon and real world violence with the innocence of a child and the depravity of a practiced sadist, yet still stays light and comical. it's the comic equivalent a high wire act in where every panel is a joke and nearly every one lands. it's concentrated dense and wacky. genuinely love it
January 8, 2022
hilarante
February 20, 2024
My all-time favorite comic series.
Let me set the scene, you're a 15-16-whatever-year-old girl with undiagnosed autism and a fuck ton of compulsory heterosexuality. One day, you're scrolling on Twitter er- I'm sorry, X.com, and you see fanart of a silly dog and lagomorph dressed like Jessica and Roger Rabbit respectively.
That's how I was introduced to these little shits.
A parody of film noir and buddy cop movies, "Sam & Max" is essentially a series about 2 anthropomorphic animals (who may, or may not be married) snarkily "solving" the most nonsensical crimes known to man, in the most nonsensical ways known to man.
Our protagonists are the titular Sam and Max, the "freelance police," which just means they're P.I.'s but with even less training. Sam is a 6ft tall (alleged) irish wolfhound, who dresses like Humphrey Bogart circa. 1942. While Max is a "hyperkinetic" member of the taxonomic family Leporidae, made solely of id.
On the surface, it may seem like Sam is the more level-headed of the two, but make no mistake, level-headedness does not exist in this universe.
This series is not going to be for everyone, hell, it's probably not for most people. If I'd compare it to anything, it'd be either "The Tick" or "The Muppets," but even that's a stretch.
If I were to recommend anything for newcomers, watch a playthrough of "Hit the Road." If you are not utterly delighted by every single line, these comics have nothing to offer you.
Let me set the scene, you're a 15-16-whatever-year-old girl with undiagnosed autism and a fuck ton of compulsory heterosexuality. One day, you're scrolling on Twitter er- I'm sorry, X.com, and you see fanart of a silly dog and lagomorph dressed like Jessica and Roger Rabbit respectively.
That's how I was introduced to these little shits.
A parody of film noir and buddy cop movies, "Sam & Max" is essentially a series about 2 anthropomorphic animals (who may, or may not be married) snarkily "solving" the most nonsensical crimes known to man, in the most nonsensical ways known to man.
Our protagonists are the titular Sam and Max, the "freelance police," which just means they're P.I.'s but with even less training. Sam is a 6ft tall (alleged) irish wolfhound, who dresses like Humphrey Bogart circa. 1942. While Max is a "hyperkinetic" member of the taxonomic family Leporidae, made solely of id.
On the surface, it may seem like Sam is the more level-headed of the two, but make no mistake, level-headedness does not exist in this universe.
This series is not going to be for everyone, hell, it's probably not for most people. If I'd compare it to anything, it'd be either "The Tick" or "The Muppets," but even that's a stretch.
If I were to recommend anything for newcomers, watch a playthrough of "Hit the Road." If you are not utterly delighted by every single line, these comics have nothing to offer you.
June 19, 2023
Tempted to tag "villain-protagonist" since... they're kind of jerks.
I realise I rated Kirby Manga Mania poorly for the same reason I rate Sam & Max highly, but there are a few reasons for this:
1. Sam & Max isn't (or wasn't, in the case of the cartoon) aimed at young kids.
2. Their victims are all throwaway characters who exist solely to be the recipients of slapstick/violence a la Looney Tunes, rather than a single character whose feelings (and body) we very vividly see hurt.
3. Frankly, I just like Sam & Max better. They're actually funny (absurd) vs. the "joke" is Kirby just being a jerk.
3a. Also I like their games better than Kirby's games. Unfair, I guess, but them's the facts.
This is a great collection of *many* of the comics. The re-release adds more content, although at a smaller size. This one's a pretty good collection, though, and has a good section with colour comics and covers from other books, plus a fold out board game and a fold out flipbook animation/paper doll sheet. (Not that you would want to tear these pages out to use them!)
Recommended for fans of horrible shenanigans with seemingly no consequence (as terrible as that sounds, but "freelance police" should be enough of a warning about that, I think).
I realise I rated Kirby Manga Mania poorly for the same reason I rate Sam & Max highly, but there are a few reasons for this:
1. Sam & Max isn't (or wasn't, in the case of the cartoon) aimed at young kids.
2. Their victims are all throwaway characters who exist solely to be the recipients of slapstick/violence a la Looney Tunes, rather than a single character whose feelings (and body) we very vividly see hurt.
3. Frankly, I just like Sam & Max better. They're actually funny (absurd) vs. the "joke" is Kirby just being a jerk.
3a. Also I like their games better than Kirby's games. Unfair, I guess, but them's the facts.
This is a great collection of *many* of the comics. The re-release adds more content, although at a smaller size. This one's a pretty good collection, though, and has a good section with colour comics and covers from other books, plus a fold out board game and a fold out flipbook animation/paper doll sheet. (Not that you would want to tear these pages out to use them!)
Recommended for fans of horrible shenanigans with seemingly no consequence (as terrible as that sounds, but "freelance police" should be enough of a warning about that, I think).
December 17, 2019
De chico, por mucho tiempo ambicioné el juego Sam & Max Hit the Road. Eran todavía los tiempos de gloria de las aventuras gráficas, género que por aquel entonces era también mi preferido. Creo que una vez vi una especie de demo del juego (qué noventoso todo), o que algún amigo me lo comentó, a lo mejor las dos cosas, y durante mucho tiempo le tuve ganas. Pero en esa época conseguir un juego no era tan fácil como ahora, y al final nunca logré poner mis manos sobre los ansiados diskettes. Ya de grande, lo bajé para probarlo y ver de qué nostalgia me había perdido. En su estética, en su humor, en sus mecánicas, en casi todo, me pareció un juego anacrónico, pero al mismo tiempo tuve la percepción de que podría haberlo disfrutado mucho, e incluso recordado con afecto, de jugarlo en aquella época. Esa misma sensación me produce este cómic. Ya no me da gracia, pero querría poder viajar en el tiempo y dárselo a ese chico de 7 u 8 años que fui. Esto también es una especie de nostalgia refractada.
November 6, 2023
What great little guys, a very lovable duo. The sense of humor is similar to The Tick, but without the confines of superhero comics. I wish there had been more comics featuring Sam and Max outside of the main features in the collection, but I guess that’s what the computer games are for. You can’t go wrong with the setup of an irreverent straight man and his crazed gremlin sidekick!
May 7, 2020
Fun comic to read.
I gave 3 stars because there is no point reading it if you aren't a Sam and Max fan, there are better comics out there.
Still a really good quality comic that doesn't take itself too seriously and is entertaining.
I gave 3 stars because there is no point reading it if you aren't a Sam and Max fan, there are better comics out there.
Still a really good quality comic that doesn't take itself too seriously and is entertaining.
June 15, 2021
The classic collected comics from the crazed cartoon sorta-cops. God bless my boyfriend for keying me into a new hyperfixation with some of my favorite things in life: underground comix, a canon gay couple and weirdly-verbose cartoon hijinks. Fantastic.
August 4, 2022
Shame you can't really find this compilation anymore.
The comic is more "grounded" than the show, and is more in the style of the games as far as pacing. Slow, but a lot is still going on. This comic takes the duty of being a noir parody more seriously than other iterations.
The comic is more "grounded" than the show, and is more in the style of the games as far as pacing. Slow, but a lot is still going on. This comic takes the duty of being a noir parody more seriously than other iterations.
September 30, 2025
Recommended by a friend. This is not what I expected from this comic series lmao. I don’t think a single one of these stories was anything short of absolutely chaotic. The art is incredible and you can tell a lot of love and talent went into it.
December 20, 2017
Humor comics at its best, Steve Purcell makes this comic with wit and art to packing these comics with in-jokes, running gags, and art that has jokes within jokes. Awesome collection.
August 12, 2019
The great forgotten masterpiece of ‘80s and ‘90s comics. It’s a shame that there’s so little Sam & Max, and that the Sam & Max stories that do exist are so hard to find.
November 28, 2020
It was great to reread this It has aged well.
April 30, 2021
Fantastic wacky adventures starring a six-foot talking dog and his three-foot little rabbit buddy as the lovable freelance police
November 20, 2022
A fun turn of nostalgia, though more crass than I had held in my memory.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews