Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway
20th Anniversary reissue of Steve Purcell's comics nominated for an Eisner Award.
SAN RAFAEL, CA, April 7, 2009 – The Eisner Award Committee announced today that 20th Anniversary Edition of Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway has been recognized as a nominee in the Best Graphic Album—Reprint category. First published in 1995, Surfin' the Highway is the complete collection of Steve Purcell's Sam & Max comics, starring a sarcastic and sharp-witted crime-fighting team known as the Freelance Police. After nearly a decade out of print, Purcell and Telltale, the developer and publisher of the acclaimed Sam & Max game series, reissued the highly sought-after compilation in 2008.
The Eisner-nominated Surfin' the Highway is available from Telltale's website ( http://www.telltalegames.com) in trade paperback and limited edition hardcover versions. The 20th Anniversary Edition reprint includes all of the content from the original collection plus 25 new pages of rare and previously unpublished Sam & Max artwork, for a total of 197 pages.
"Working on this new edition of Surfin' the Highway with Telltale was one of those great projects where everyone wanted the same thing, the best version of the book we could make," says Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell. "Telltale put tons of care into every aspect of this project—a book made for the original fans, as well as the unwitting new recruits."
Telltale is celebrating the Eisner nomination with three specially-priced Surfin' the Highway bundles:
• Surfin' the Highway Paperback Special: For $29.95, get the Surfin' the Highway trade paperback plus a Collector's DVD containing the most recent 5-episode "season" of Sam & Max games for PC (a $25 savings)
• Surfin' the Highway Hardcover Special: For $59.95, get the limited-edition hardcover plus the Collectors' DVD versions of both Sam & Max game seasons (a $55 savings)
• Surfin' the Highway Celebration Special: For $99.95, get the Surfin' the Highway limited-edition hardcover plus the Collector's DVD and soundtrack CDs for both game seasons, the Sam & Max Freelance Police Animated Series 3-DVD set, and a Sam & Max t-shirt and hat (a $110 savings)
Sam and Max, Purcell's dog and rabbity-thing detectives, got their start in comics in 1987. They have appeared in several formats over the years, including a graphic adventure game, Sam & Max Hit the Road, in 1993; an award-winning animated series in 1998; and an online web comic in 2006, for which Purcell was awarded an Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic. Eleven episodes have been released so far in Telltale's Sam & Max game series, which has won numerous awards and has sold over 500,000 episodes to date. Telltale's Sam & Max games are available now on PC and Wii™, and are coming soon to Xbox LIVE® Arcade.
For more details about Surfin' the Highway and the special bundles, visit http://www.telltalegames.com. The Eisner Award winners will be announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2009.
About Sam & Max
Sam is a six-foot dog in a baggy suit sporting a trombone-sized .44 hand-cannon. Max is a three foot "rabbity thing" with a saw blade grin and the impulsive nature of the average piranha. Together they patrol the sticky streets of a fantastical New York City, righting wrongs, pummeling perps, and ridding the urban landscape of the shifty legions of "self-propelled gutter trash" that litter their streets. Sam & Max have appeared in comics, video games, an animated TV series recently reissued on DVD, and an Eisner award-winning webcomic.
About Steve Purcell
Steve Purcell has worked in illustration, games, TV, and movies. His first scratchy Sam & Max strips appeared in his art school newspaper. Years later he produced a handful of Sam & Max comic books followed by adaptations as an acclaimed LucasArts computer game and an animated TV series on the Fox network. Steve currently works in story development for feature animation and after hours consults on Season Two of the critically acclaimed Sam & Max game series from California developer Telltale Games.
About Telltale, Inc.
Telltale is the first and only studio to release interactive episodic content on a monthly schedule. The studio's landmark Sam & Max series, based on the independent comics by Steve Purcell, paved the way for episodic gaming with two award-winning seasons available on PC and Wii, and coming soon to Xbox LIVE® Arcade. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, based on the Homestarrunner.com web cartoons, soon followed as the first episodic series for WiiWare™. Telltale's latest series, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, is now releasing monthly on PC and will debut this spring on Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Telltale's other games include two installments in Ubisoft's CSI series, based on the most popular television franchise in the United States, and two games based on the best-selling Bone comics by Jeff Smith. Telltale's games have won numerous awards, including Adventure Game of the Year accolades from publications such as IGN, PC Gamer, GameSpy, and Adventure Gamers, and have been recognized by mainstream outlets ranging from The New York Times to Variety to Playboy. USA Today ranked Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures among five downloadable games to watch for in 2009.
Telltale currently develops and publishes episodic series on PC, Wii, and Xbox 360, with plans to expand to additional platforms and channels in the coming year. For more information, visit http://www.telltalegames.com.
Contact:
Emily Morganti
Telltale, Inc.
415.258.1638 x501
pr@telltalegames.com