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Anthony Comito4th Period
AVID II
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway
Author: Steve Purcell
2/8/13
197 pages
Fiction
Sam & Max are two well known video game characters, but they didn't actually originate from a game. They came from a short-lived, independent comic book series, titled "Sam & Max: Freelance Police". These comics were collected into a graphic novel, called "Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway". Not too many people had a chance to read Sam & Max during it's original run, and this book provides a great solution to reading a very valuable part of the Freelance Police's history.
Sam & Max live in a twisted, bizarre, grotesque, sideshow version of New York City. The environments that Sam & Max appear in are all incredibly detailed, and every time I've read this book, I've noticed several new things. Surfin' the Highway is a great book to just look at, but that's not all. It's also incredibly intelligently written.
The premise of Sam & Max is that two detectives, known as the "Freelance Police" go solve cases, but really recklessly. They usually cause more chaos than the criminals themselves. There are several stories in Sam & Max, all varying in length, and none of them are connected. The high point of the humor in Sam & Max is absurdity. Sam & Max is a masterpiece of a parody of the Detective Noir genre of film and comics. The Freelance Police speak in long, intelligent words and vocabulary. It's very clear that Steve Purcell put an extremely long time writing the comics in this excellent collection. Literally, my vocabulary expanded after reading Sam & Max.
The main characters are an anthromorphic dog and rabbit. Sam being the dog, Max being the rabbit. Sam is the more responsible one of this dynamic duo, Max, however is a loose cannon. Max is known as a "lagomorph", which is never actually defined in the book. He's crazy, violent, immature, reckless, and most of all, unique, and that's another strong point of this graphic novel. It's incredibly unique. This is a one-of-a-kind book, there is no book that is like Sam & Max. I'd like to see somebody try and find a book that is similar to Sam & Max, it's just not possible.
If I had to choose a favorite part, I really couldn't. This whole book is filled with moments that are just incredibly memorable, and funny. Though, I do have a favorite story in Sam & Max. "Bad Day on The Moon". This book is a great example of the absurdity in Sam & Max. It's about a dog and a rabbit driving a car into outer space to solve a case on the Moon. It makes no sense when I put it in words like that, but when reading Sam & Max, it makes complete sense. The Freelance Police have this child-like quality to them, where it seems that anything is possible. Whether it be going to the moon, gaining telepathic powers, or saving a bunch of manatees, also known as mermaids, from a bunch of lonely men dressed as pirates, anything is possible with characters like Sam & Max.
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway is the only Sam & Max book, sadly. Though, Sam & Max live on through different forms of media. Sam & Max have had their own TV show, called "The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police". There are also the great adventure games, "Sam & Max Hit the Road", "Sam & Max Save the World", "Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space", and "Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse". Every game is available on www.telltalegames.com. (except Hit the Road, since it was made in the early 1990's.) So, if you are interested in the hilarious escapades of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, be sure to check out that website, since pretty much every Sam & Max story is readily available on there. I cannot suggest this book enough, out of every form of Sam & Max media, Surfin' the Highway is my favorite. It's a definite must-have for any fan of comic books, or fans of Sam & Max.
Steve PurcellSam & Max: Surfin' the Highway Anniversary Edition
