About

Sam & Max is a multimedia franchise that follows the adventures of vigilante private investigators, a phlegmatic anthropomorphic dog named Sam and a hyperactive anthropomorphic "rabbity thing" named Max. The franchise is best known for its point-and-click adventure video game series that started with Sam & Max Hit the Road in 1993.

History

Comics

In 1980, American cartoonist Steve Purcell began producing Sam & Max comic strips for the weekly newsletter of the California College of Arts and Crafts where he studied at the time.^[1] The strips followed the adventures of a detective team consisting of a dog and a rabbit, with the concept originally created by Steve's younger brother Dave when both were children (original Dave Purcell's drawing shown below, left, Steve Purcell's interpretation shown below, center, first published comic strip shown below, right).^[2]

In 1987, comic book author Steve Moncluse approached Purcell with an offer to get his works published as a comic book series. That year, "Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple," the first Sam & Max comic book and the first full story featuring the characters, was published by Fishwrap Productions (cover art shown below). In the following years, several other Sam & Max comic books were published by different publishers.

In 1988, Purcell joined video game developer and publisher LucasArts as an artist and game designer, where he, among other duties, created Sam & Max comic strips for LucasArt's quarterly newspaper The Adventurer. In 1995, all Sam & Max comics and strips were released in a compilation titled Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway.

In December 2005, Purcell started a Sam & Max webcomic hosted on the website of Telltale Games.

Video Games

In 1992, LucasArts offered Purcell to create an adventure video game featuring the characters. In November 1993, the point-and-click adventure video game Sam & Max Hit the Road, co-designed by Purcell, was released for MS-DOS (gameplay video shown below). The characters were voiced by professional voice actors Bill Framer and Nick Jameson.

Between 1993 and 2002, two planned Sam & Max video games, one to have been developed on LucasArt's SCUMM engine and another an Xbox exclusive titled Sam & Max Plunge Through Space were abandoned. In 2002, LucasArts announced the production of a sequel titled Sam & Max: Freelance Police, with Purcell writing the story and producing concept art. In March 2004, the project was canceled by Lucas Arts.

In 2005, after LucasArts' license with Steve Purcell expired, the franchise was acquired by Telltale Games, a video game developer formed by former LucasArts employees in 2004. On October 17th, 2006, the first episode "Culture Shock" of six-episode Sam & Max Save the World adventure game, originally released as Sam & Max: Season One, was released, with Purcell co-designing and co-writing the game (trailer shown below, left). The installation concluded with episode six Bright Side of the Moon, released on April 26th, 2007.

In May 2008 and April 2010, the first episodes of episodic adventure games Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space (originally Sam & Max: Season Two) and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse (trailer shown below, right) were released. The trilogy used a new Telltale Tool engine and featured the voices of David Nowlin as Sam and William Kasten as Max.

Max appears as one of the opponents in the 2010 poker video game Poker Night at the Inventory, with Sam, assisted by Max, appearing as an opponent in its 2013 sequel Poker Night 2.

On December 2nd, 2020, Skunkape Games, a studio founded by Telltale co-founder Dan Connor, released a remastered version of 2006 Sam & Max Save the World for Nintendo Switch and Windows, with plans for future remasters of Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse.

In August 2020, HappyGiant announced Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual a virtual reality adventure game set for a Summer 2021 release (trailer shown below).

TV Series

On October 4th, 1997, The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police animated series based on characters premiered on Fox Kids. The series, produced by Nelvana, ran for 13 episodes split into 24 segments and were canceled in 1998.

Reception

The original 1993 game and its 2000s sequels received positive reviews both from critics and audiences.

Sam & Max Hit the Road was met with near-universal acclaim and has since grown to be regarded as a classic graphic adventure game, being regularly featured in lists of top games both for the adventure genre and in general.

Sam & Max Save the World, Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse all received positive responses, maintaining 8.4, 8.5 and 7.5 user score on Metacritic and 90 percent, 91 percent and 92 percent user score on Steam.

Fandom

In the 1990s, following the release of Sam & Max Hit the Road, Sam & Max franchise accumulated a large fan following, reflected in 32,000 signatures gathered from fans wishing to express their disappointment over the cancelation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police in 2004.^[3] In 2007, Steve Purcell wrote that he was surprised at the success of his creation which managed to acquire a significant fandom despite the small size of the franchise.

The Sam & Max fandom reignited following the release of the 2000s games and again saw a massive surge in popularity in late 2020 and 2021 following the release of the remastered version of Sam & Max Save the World.

In 2021, Max achieved a status of a recognized Tumblr Sexyman, with a large number of fan labor dedicated to the character on the site.^[4]

Sam and Max has been a popular ship as reflected in multiple fan art and other fan labor posted on Tumblr and other websites. The interest in the ship is assisted by the intentional ambiguity surrounding Max's sexuality: for example, in video games, a number of jokes are made about Max's lack of interest in girls. In the first episode of the 1997 animated series, a flashback to a wedding between Sam and Max is shown.

On December 29th, 2020, YouTube user Pompidou posted a video titled "Sam and Max being gay for 4 minutes" that received over 705,000 views in seven months (shown below, left). January 10th, 2021, YouTube user annoying posted a 25-minute video titled "Sam and Max Gay Moments" that received over 621,000 views in six months (shown below, right).

Cut it out max, you don't even like girls.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References