This page uses content from the Steve Purcell biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Steve Purcell is an American illustrator and writer best known as the creator of comic book characters Sam & Max, of the Freelance Police - a dog and rabbit crime-fighting duo.

At the California College of Arts and Crafts where Purcell attended and graduated, Sam & Max appeared in print for the first time in 1980. In 1987, the first full-fledged Sam & Max 32-page comic appeared. In between illustration assignments and animation work for LucasArts, three other Sam & Max books were produced. During this time he also did freelance work for Marvel Comics, as well as writing the comic book series, Defenders of Dynatron City.

Steve contributed to the background work and animation for several LucasArts adventure games in the early 1990s. The most popular of the games he worked on were the first two Monkey Island games. Steve also provided the box artwork for these two games, as well as the covers to Zak McKracken and Pipe Dream. Purcell also painted several Sam & Max comic strips for the LucasArts company newsletter, The Adventurer.

During this period, many of the games made at LucasArts featured cameos or glimpses of Steve's characters, Sam and Max. In 1993 Purcell created an adventure game based on the characters and comic book, called Sam & Max Hit the Road. It was developed by LucasArts, and saw Sam and Max traveling America in search of two missing carnival freakshow attractions - Bruno the Bigfoot and Trixie the Giraffe-necked Girl. Purcell co-designed the game with Sean Clark, Michael Stemmle and Collette Michaud.

After leaving LucasArts, Purcell worked for a time at Industrial Light and Magic working on an eventually-canceled Frankenstein animated film.

In 1997, Sam and Max had their own Fox Kids-produced animated TV series, which ran for one season. Some changes were made to the world of the comics and the game, principally the addition of a pre-teen girl genius character "The Geek", but much of the humor remained intact.

Purcell later joined Pixar Animation Studios to work in their Story Development division, where he works to this day.

LucasArts's sequel to Sam & Max Hit the Road, Sam & Max Freelance Police, was suddenly canceled very late in its production in March 2004. Sometime following this cancellation, the game rights reverted back to Purcell's ownership. In September 2005, it was announced that Telltale Games, a small company started by ex-LucasArts employees who had been working on Freelance Police, was working on creating a new episodic Sam & Max game series with the help of Purcell. The first game of the series, Sam & Max Culture Shock was released on October 17 2006 by GameTap.

See also

• Comics
• List of webcomics

External links

• Official Steve Purcell Website
• Steve Purcell on MobyGames
• Unofficial Sam and Max Website
• Interview at World of Monkey Island. March 29, 2006.
• Playing Catch-Up: Steve Purcell - Interview on Gamasutra dated July 25, 2005.

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