Created by Steve Purcell, Sam, a six-foot-tall talking dog with a callous disregard for injustice and people who call him McGruff, and Max, a buck naked hyperkinetic lagomorph ("LOOK IT UP!"), make up the Freelance Police, the DeSoto driving, crime fighting wackiness squad.

The media progression goes like this, kids: Comic book --> Computer game --> TV Cartoon. All three are highly recommended.
Holy jumping mother o'God in a side-car with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib! It's a node about our lovable crime fighting pals, Sam and Max!

This place reeks of adventure and excitement, Sam!

Sam and Max comic books, the brainchild of an evil-robot-sideshow-freak-gone-bad named Steve Purcell, are actually satanic hymnals disguised as comics. That said, if at any time you feel the need to worship the appalling visage of Lucifer, blame the faceless corporations that send subliminal messages to you in your sleep.

That's okay, Max. I've come to realize that one of the perks of a free society is the inalienable right to debase ourselves in a wide variety of ways...

However, once you get past your impulse to spread the blood of the innocents and build a special place in your heart made of shattered childhood dreams for the Lord of Darkness, Sam and Max is actually fairly entertaining; it's absurdist humor with a message. One could say that it is even a satire of American culture: overcommercialization, lack of compassion, desensitization, and bizarre beauty; but saying so would force me to bludgeon you to death with Max's large, rubbery head.

Kids, try imagining how far the universe extends! Keep thinking about it until you go insane.

Here is a summary of all the chronicles of Sam and Max's adventures:

  • "Monkeys Violating the Heaven Temple" (based on the novella: Sam and Max meet some bad guys) - in which our heroes travel to the Philippines to stop the evil cultist Franz Nunkie and his hordes of unwashed followers only to run into plane hijackers on the way back (the highjackers are disposed of in a suitably ridiculous manner)


  • "New York New York It's a hell of a town
    The Bronx is up
    And the Bowery's down
    The mimes are food
    For the Bums underground
    New Yawk New Yaawwwk"

    Max: That's a cute song, Sam. I don't recognize it.
    Sam: It's from one of my favorite musicals, Max. It's about a quaint French circus that comes to town and is immediately cannibalized by the local mole men.


  • "Night of the Gilded Heron Shark" (based on the short story: Sam and Max Meet Some More Bad Guys) - in which our heroes are waylayed by the hideous Mack Salmon, but are saved at the last minute by the Rubber Pants Commandoes - a pack of babies and a chimp all armed to the teeth

    Even seen a chimp's rear end? Gruesome.

  • "Night of the Cringing Wilderbeast" (based on the Broadway musical: Sam and Max go to the Carnival) - in which our heroes beat up some carnies for no good reason!

    Max: It was horrible!

  • "Fair Wind to Java" (based on the ancient hieratic manuscript: Sam and Max kick some alien butt) - in which our heroes pervert time and space by pantsing superior alien beings from the past!

    Sam: Hey everybody, look at the pantsed alien! Yok, Yok.

  • "The Damned Don't Dance" (based on a beloved holidy cooking recipe) - in which our heroes host a christmas party for their gruesome relatives!

    A stocking full of ammo! He's a santa for the nineties!

  • "On The Road"

  • Chapter 1:"Prisoners of the Casbah" (based on the famed beat generation novel "Sam and Max drive around in a car" by Bucky Keruouac) - in which our heroes leave town to hit the vast asphalt ribbon of adventure!

    Max: I'm kind of exhausted. Let's stop at a cheesy motel and make fun of the filthy movies on cable.

  • Chapter 2: "I Love a Band Leader" - in which our heroes defend a helpless family from poorly groomed hooligans, run over a seven foot spectre of evil, and defeat a gang of rapacious pirates with the help of their slimy cephalopod friends

    Max: Look at all the cheerful hydrocephalic citizens!
    Sam: They're wearing Mardi Gras masks, bonehead, as all New Orleans citizens do year round.


  • Chapter 3: "Curse of the Faceless Man" - in which our heroes rip off a hapless gas station mechanic

    Sam: How was it?
    Max: It was dark, like a cave, and there were no toilets - just black smoking holes in the walls and floor! Giant roaches howled like damned souls as they skittered along the moldering grout-work!


  • "Bad Day on the Moon" (based on the completely obscure French farce: "Garcon, une omelette et deux bifteks") - in which our heroes travel to the dark side of the moon, and save the giant rats dwelling therein from 50 foot cockroaches by giving them the earth's refuse

    Don't anybody move! It's a stickup! All we want is the dough and maybe one of those elvis-shaped whisker dacanters. We wanna drink from the neck hole of the king.

  • "Beast from the Cereal Aisle" (based on Maclraith's Guide to Silly A** Paranormal Phenomena, volume II) - In which our heroes vanquish a malevolent spirit haunting the cereal aisle of their favorite heartless corporate megamart!

    Max: Look Sam, these instant Matzo balls come with a free launcher!

    Steve Purcell's evil robot brain also made a number of short strips for the Lucasarts gaming division - after he created the mind-numbingly evil Sam and Max computer game -which were printed in the Lucasarts Adventurer. I'm far too lazy to chronicle these, so here's a few quotes from those strips instead (make that quote):

    Max: Excuse me, miss, I'm a terrifying, hairy biker looking for just the right tattoo to express my renegade spirit of adventure and poor grooming.
    Tattoo Artist: What about a snake eating a rat with the caption 'Born to watch my snake eat a rat?'
    Max: Sold!

    These days Steve Purcell employs his evil robot intelligence at Pixar, where he animates creature guys, and unfortunately (perhaps fortunately) no longer makes Sam and Max comic strips. Sam and Max is out of print for this reason - or perhaps the parent watchdog groups finally caught on. If you are still interested in dedicating your absurd, meaningless life to Satan; your best bet is to check out E-bay - that's where I got mine - for the collection: Sam and Max Surfin' the Highway. You may also want to wait for the double plus good Sam and Max computer game sequel that Lucasarts will be publishing; I'm not sure if Purcell's evil robot claws will be allowed to interfere.

    Fun facts:
  • Steve Purcell is evil
  • Steve Purcell is a robot
  • Steve Purcell created the comics Rusty Razorclam - only a single issue as far as I know - and Toybox, and has written episodes of Gumby and Hellboy - he is friends with the creator.
  • There is also a Sam and Max animated series, which a Canadian company called Nelvana prints; not all of the episodes have been released by them yet. The animated series is all right - it still has the trademark Sam and Max absurdity to it - but a lot of the humor has been sucked out by the straw that is marketing.
  • Steve Purcell infiltrated Lucasarts for a while, working inside the belly of the beast. As such, numerous easter eggs that reference Sam and Max can be found. These include, but are not limited to: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: at the very beginning of the game, in Indy's office, is a totem pole with comic genius written all over it; Dark Forces: On the ice level, if Kyle tries to squeeze through the top of a certain waterfall, the map will look like our favorite lagomorph's head (Max, ya dummy!); there are also nuggets of goodness in all four Monkey Island games, Fate of Atlantis, Afterlife, Shadows of the Empire, Jedi Knight, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine and Day of the Tentacle and in Full Throttle

    Sam: That was a great node, but I can't help feeling we've perverted Everything2 somehow.
    Max: Who cares?


    Some parting advice from Max: Leave a bag on top of the refrigerator for a long time. It will eventually turn grey and taste bad. Now throw it into the street.
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