Steven Ross Purcell (born October 1, 1961) is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer and voice actor. He is the creator of the media franchise '' Sam & Max'', for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first ''Sam & Max'' comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by

LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...

as an artist and animator in 1988 and worked on several

LucasArts adventure games From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often ir ...

, including the first three ''

Monkey Island ''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games in the series were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth installment of the franchise was developed by Telltale Games in collabor ...

'' games, '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' and '' Sam & Max Hit the Road.'' Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a ''Sam & Max'' television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

Career

Early career

Purcell entered into a career with comic books while an undergraduate at the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in Sa ...

in 1980; he produced comic strips for the weekly newsletter. These strips featured Sam and Max, an anthropomorphic dog and rabbit duo who work as vigilantes and private investigators; Purcell drew the first strip the night before the deadline. Following his graduation in 1982, Purcell became involved in freelance illustration, working briefly for

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include '' Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', RuneQuest Glorantha'', ''Pendragon ...

, and on Steven Moncuse's '' Fish Police'' series. Moncuse approached Purcell about the possibility of another comic book series to accompany his well-performing ''Fish Police'' series in 1987. Purcell agreed, and wrote his first feature-length comic using the characters of Sam and Max. The 32-page comic was published by Fishwrap Productions in 1987. The comic contained two ''Sam & Max'' stories: "Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple", a name that Purcell found on a

firework Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices in ...

and thought was appropriate; and "Night of the Gilded Heron-Shark". Purcell published a further story in a 1987 issue of '' Critters'' titled "Night of the Cringing Wildebeest". These three stories established the basics for Purcell's future work with the characters.

LucasArts

Purcell was hired by

, then known as Lucasfilm Games, as an animator in 1988, but was subsequently

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...

when the project he was working on was canceled. He was rehired to produce art for the

graphic adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders ''Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders'' is a 1988 graphic adventure game by Lucasfilm Games. It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after '' Maniac Mansion''. The project was led by David Fox, with Matthew Alan Kane as the co-desi ...

''. Purcell was later commissioned to create the cover artwork for ''

Maniac Mansion ''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been ensla ...

'' and the first two ''

'' games and researched into whips for the adventure game version of '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade''. He worked with animation in several LucasArts adventure games, published three more ''Sam & Max'' comic books during this time, and began creating brief comic strips for LucasArts' quarterly newsletter, ''The Adventurer''. The characters eventually became involved as training material for LucasArts programmers working with SCUMM, the core game engine used by LucasArts adventure games; Purcell created versions of Sam and Max in their office for new programmers under Ron Gilbert to practice on. References to the characters were occasionally made in unrelated LucasArts adventure games as a clandestine appearance in backgrounds. Purcell wrote the six-issue comic book series ''

Defenders of Dynatron City ''Defenders of Dynatron City'' is a video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System by JVCKenwood Victor Entertainment#Video games, JVC Musical Industries and Lucasfilm Games (later, LucasArts) in August 1992. The designer of the game w ...

'' for Marvel Comics in 1992. After a positive reaction to the ''Sam & Max'' strips in ''The Adventurer'' and wanting to expand into other franchises following ''Maniac Mansion'' and ''Monkey Island'', LucasArts offered to create a graphic adventure game on the characters in 1992. '' Sam & Max Hit the Road'' was conceived and developed by a small team headed by Purcell, Sean Clark, Michael Stemmle and Collette Michaud. Purcell decided to base the game on one of his earlier ''Sam & Max'' stories, the 1988 story "On The Road". In 1995, Purcell combined all published ''Sam & Max'' printed media into a 154-page paperback compilation titled ''Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway''. After producing the cover art for '' Herc's Adventures'' and concept art for ''

The Curse of Monkey Island ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1997. A sequel to 1991's ''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge,'' it is the third game in the Monkey Island (series), ''Monkey Island'' series. It follows ...

'', Purcell left LucasArts.

Later work

Purcell joined with story editor Dan Smith from Canadian studio Nelvana to create an animated television series of ''Sam & Max'' in 1996. The result was the 1997 series '' The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police'', broadcast on Fox Kids in the United States, YTV in Canada and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

in the United Kingdom. Purcell wrote the jokes for each installment of the 24-episode series, and wrote the scripts for four episodes. Despite the violence and profanity common in the ''Sam & Max'' franchise having been toned down due to the target audience of children, Purcell was content that the characters maintained their moral ambiguity. Some parent groups in the United States attempted to have the series pulled from networks due to content issues; Purcell was pleased that they "had managed to ruffle some feathers along the way". Two ''Sam & Max'' comic strips appeared in Fox's ''Totally Fox Kids Magazine'' in 1998 to accompany the series; other ''Sam & Max'' strips appeared in '' Wizard'' and ''

Oni Double Feature An is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Notwithstanding their evil reputation, oni possess ...

''. During the development of the television series in 1997, Purcell co-authored and illustrated the ''

Hellboy Christmas Special ''Hellboy Christmas Special'' is a Dark Horse Comics one-shot (comics), one-shot comic book horror anthology edited by Scott Allie and featuring the work of Mike Mignola, Gary Gianni and Steve Purcell. Creation Mignola has stated that when he and ...

'' with

Mike Mignola Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...

and

Gary Gianni Gary Gianni (born 1954) is an American comics artist best known for his eight years illustrating the syndicated newspaper comic ''Prince Valiant''. After Gianni graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1976, he worked for the ''Chicag ...

. After the conclusion of the ''Sam & Max'' animated series, Purcell was briefly employed by Industrial Light & Magic to work on digital effects for a film version of ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

''. Despite his work, the project was canceled; Purcell believes that some of the development work morphed into ILM's contributions to ''

Van Helsing A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across ...

''. While at ILM, Purcell was involved in a project to create an animated film based on ''Monkey Island''; while the project did not reach fruition, Purcell began posting concept art he had produced for the film on his personal blog several years after.

Pixar and Telltale Games

After the brief stint at ILM, Purcell moved to

. Despite being employed by Pixar, Purcell acted as an advisor in the development of '' Sam & Max: Freelance Police'', a sequel to ''Sam & Max Hit the Road'' that began development in 2002 under LucasArts. Purcell provided Michael Stemmle's development team with concept art and assisted in the creation of the game's plot. Despite its smoothly proceeding development, LucasArts abruptly canceled the project in March 2004. Purcell was unable to understand why development halted; he described himself as "frustrated and disappointed" at the decision. In 2005, LucasArt's license with Purcell that gave them the right to produce games based on the ''Sam & Max'' franchise expired; this allowed Purcell to take the franchise to

Telltale Games Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...

, a new company formed by members of Stemmle's development team. A new episodic series of ''Sam & Max'' games, '' Sam & Max Save the World'', was announced. Purcell's work on the new game series encompassed design and writing, as well as the design of the game's cover art; despite his work, Purcell described it as "minimal" due to the effectiveness of the team. At the same time, Purcell began a ''Sam & Max''

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be c ...

hosted on the Telltale Games website. The webcomic ran for twelve issues, and it earned Purcell an Eisner Award for "Best Digital Comic" when the comic finished its run in 2007. Purcell assisted with design and writing when ''

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space ''Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space'', originally released as ''Sam & Max: Season Two'', is an episodic graphic adventure video game by Telltale Games based on the '' Sam & Max'' comic book series created by Steve Purcell. It is a sequel to Tell ...

'' began development in 2007. Through Telltale Games, he released two sketchbooks of his ''Sam & Max'' work and a 20th anniversary edition of ''Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway'' in 2008. Purcell later painted the cover art for Telltale's ''

Tales of Monkey Island ''Tales of Monkey Island'' is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games under license from LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the ''Monkey Island'' series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, '' Escape ...

''. At Pixar's story development department, Purcell contributed screenplay material and voice work for the 2006 film ''

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, people in ...

'', and designed the character of the Screaming Banshee in the short '' Mater and the Ghostlight''. Providing scripts and voice work for three games based on ''Cars'', Purcell became involved with THQ's video game adaptations of Pixar films. Purcell was credited for involvement with Pixar's 2007 film ''

Ratatouille Ratatouille ( , ), oc, ratatolha , is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables which originated in Nice, and is sometimes referred to as ''ratatouille niçoise'' (). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include ...

''; he provided the voice for the character of Carl in '' George & A.J.''—a 2009 short based on the film '' Up''. Purcell was key for Pixar's 2012 film '' Brave'', co-directing the film alongside

Brenda Chapman Brenda Chapman (born November 1, 1962) is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and director. In 1998, she became the first woman to direct an animated feature from a major studio, DreamWorks Animation's ''The Prince of Egypt' ...

and Mark Andrews in addition to providing work for the screenplay; ''Brave'' constituted Purcell's biggest role in a Pixar project to date. In 2014, Purcell wrote and directed the

Christmas special '' Toy Story That Time Forgot'' which aired on ABC on December 2, 2014. Purcell is not considering the possibility of Pixar adapting ''Sam & Max'' into a film, as the characters' moral ambiguity is inconsistent with traditional Pixar stories.

Personal life

Purcell grew up in California, where he still resides. In a 2000 interview, Purcell said that he had been drawing all his life, and that he still possesses drawings from when he was three years old. Noting that his line of creative work depends entirely on things one learns, Purcell describes himself as an "average" student at school, but wishing that he had tried harder at some classes. After studying film-making courses at junior college, Purcell enrolled in the

to read fine art; he now holds a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

there. Purcell befriended

, and later

Art Adams Arthur Adams (born April 5, 1963) is an American comics artist, comic book artist and writer. He first broke into the American comic book industry with the 1985 Marvel Comics miniseries ''Longshot (Marvel Comics), Longshot''. His subsequent inte ...

while at the college. Citing the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

and Monty Python as among his interests, he says that he is inspired by "creative people who have made their seemingly most self-indulgent artistic whims into a career". During the development of ''Sam & Max Hit the Road'' in 1993, Purcell married fellow lead designer Collette Michaud; the wedding cake was topped with figurines of Sam and Max as a bride and groom. Purcell has two sons. The characters of Sam and Max were created in Purcell's youth; Purcell's younger brother Dave originally came up with several comics around the idea of a dog and rabbit detective duo. Dave would often leave unfinished comics around the house. Deliberately making the characters mix up each other's names, shoot at each other and mock the way in which they had been drawn, Steve, in a case of

sibling rivalry Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among siblings, whether blood-related or not. Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced ...

, would sometimes finish the stories in parodies of their original form. This developed from Steve mocking his brother's to the creation of his own stories with the characters. In the late 1970s, Dave Purcell gave Steve the rights to the characters; he signed them over in a contract on Steve's birthday and allowed him to develop the characters in his own way. Purcell believes that his younger brother has recovered and forgiven him from their earlier years. Having kept one as a pet in his youth, Purcell has an interest in

rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

, which are commonly featured in his artistic work.

Credited works

Films

Shorts

Television

* ''

The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley ''The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and featuring Martin Short's fictional character Ed Grimley (with Short reprising his role as Grimley). The sh ...

'' (1988) – production crew * '' The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' (1997–1998) – writing and design

Bibliography

* '' Amazing High Adventure'' (1984) – cover artwork * ''Different Worlds'' #33, #35, #36 and #37 (1984) – cover artwork * ''New Mutants'' #43 (1986) –

pencils A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a trail ...

* ''Fish Police'' #6 (1987) – pencils * ''Fish Police'' #7 (1987) – pencils,

inks Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thicke ...

and

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

* ''Fish Police'' #9 (1987) – pencils and inks * ''Alpha Flight'' #47 (1987) – pencils * ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' special edition (1987) * ''Critters'' #19: ''Sam & Max'' in "Night of the Cringing Wildebeest" (1987) * '' Tournament of Dreams'' (1987) – cover artwork * ''

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first publis ...

'' (1987–88) – cover artwork * '' Gumby's Winter Fun Special'' (1988) – writing * ''GrimJack'' #52: ''Sam & Max'' in "Fair Wind to Java" (1988) * ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' special (1989) * ''Critters'' #50: ''Sam & Max'' in "The Damned Don't Dance" (1990) * ''Marvel Comics Presents'' #41: "

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

" (1990) – pencils and inks * ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'': "Bad Day on the Moon" (1992) * ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' special color edition (1992) * ''Fast Forward'' #3 (1992) – pencils, inks and

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

* ''

'' (1992) * ''The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin' The Highway'' (1995) * ''Dark Horse Presents'' #107: "Rusty Razorclam, President of Neptune" (1996) – writing * ''

'' (1997) – writing, pencils, ink and color * '' Wizard'': ''Sam & Max'' in "Belly of the Beast" (1997) * ''Oni Double Feature'' #10: ''Sam & Max'' in "Skeptical Investigators" (1998) * ''Totally Fox Kids Magazine'' #10: ''Sam & Max'' in "Something's Not Right Here" (1998) * ''Totally Fox Kids Magazine'' #31: ''Sam & Max'' in "Action Figure Surgery" (1998) * '' Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1'': "If A Man Be Clay!" (2005) * ''Sam & Max: The Big Sleep'' (2005–2007) * ''The Age of S&M'' (2006) * ''The Effigy Mound'' (2007) * ''Sam & Max: Surfin' The Highway'' anniversary edition (2008) * ''Brave: One Perfect Day'' (2012)

Video games

* ''

'' (1988) – artwork * '' Their Finest Hour'' (1989) – testing * ''

Pipe Dream Pipe dream may refer to: Music * ''Pipe Dream'' (John Williamson album), 1997, or the titular song * ''Pipedream'' (Alan Hull album), 1973 * ''Pipe Dreams'' (Murray Head album), 1995 * "Pipe Dreams" (Nelly Furtado song), 2016 * ''Pipe Dream ...

'' (1989) – artwork * '' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure'' (1989) – animation, artwork and whip research * ''

'' (1987) – artwork * '' Loom'' (1990) – animation, graphics and artwork * '' The Secret of Monkey Island'' (1990) – graphics and artwork * '' Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' (1991) – animation, graphics and artwork * '' ToeJam & Earl'' (1991) – Original concept art Character Designs * ''

Zombies Ate My Neighbors ''Zombies Ate My Neighbors'' is a run and gun video game developed by LucasArts and published by Konami for the Super NES and Sega Mega Drive/Genesis consoles in 1993. One or two players take control of protagonists, Zeke and Julie, in order t ...

'' (1993) – artwork * ''

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron ''ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron'' is a platform video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. The game is the sequel to cult video game ''ToeJam & Earl'', released in 1991. The gam ...

'' (1993) – Original concept art Character Designs * '' Sam & Max Hit the Road'' (1993) – design, graphics and artwork * '' The Horde'' (1994) – artwork * ''Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion'' (1996) – artwork * '' Herc's Adventures'' (1997) – artwork * ''

'' (1997) – artwork * ''

'' (2006) – writing and additional voices * '' Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures'' (2006) – writing and additional voices * '' Cars Mater-National Championship'' (2007) – writing and additional voices * '' Sam & Max Save the World'' (2006–2007) – writing and design * ''

'' (2007–2008) – writing and design * ''

'' (2009) – artwork * '' Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse'' (2010) – artwork * '' Sam & Max: This Time It's Virtual'' (2020) – writing and design and the voice of Duncan Dills

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Purcell, Steve 1961 births 21st-century American screenwriters American comics artists American comics writers American film directors American male voice actors American male screenwriters American video game designers American webcomic creators Place of birth missing (living people) Animators from California California College of the Arts alumni Living people Lucasfilm people Role-playing game artists Pixar people Screenwriters from California 21st-century American male writers