『 Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway 』

Finally, it arrived! It's been ages since Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway was first published and since then, it became a holy grail for Sam & Max fans all over the world. This rare gem could be obtained only through eBay, at a mindblowing price of $100+, depending on the overall book condition.


Telltale Games, the company responsible for reviving the Sam & Max game series, aswell as bringing a ton of related merchandise, had decided it was about time to give Surfin' the Highway a new run. The work on the new edition began some time ago and after some significant delays it's finally out.


There are two versions of Surfin' the Highway avalable. A regular paperback and the limited hardcover. The hardcover edition had a limited run of 2500 copies [Or 2502 to be exact - The 2501st copy went to Steve Purcell and the 2502nd went to Telltale Games office], all numbered and autographed by the Sam & Max creator himself.


When I finally picked up the package I thought it was quite heavy. The box containing the book and some packaging paper weighed a ton. Main reason for that is the hard cover and the thick high quality paper the book is printed on. This is how a good comic book should look like. The quality of this edition is just superb.


What about the material? All of you who know and love Sam & Max will get more than a few laughs out of Sufrin' the Highway, but what about those who never read the comic? Luckily, Steve Purcell's humor works just as well today, as it did in '95, when the compilation first saw the light of day.


If you're not sure whether or not to buy the book, you can always choose the cheaper paperback, but then you won't be getting an autograph! If you decide to get a hardcover though, there's a fair chance of scoring a high number on the edition, since Telltale's warehouse are a bunch of idiots and they send out books by random.


The warehouse mess resulted in me getting a book No.1225, even though I was one of the first people to order it. Warehouse nimrods also thought it would be amusing to label the package with "Software made in U.S.", even though the package contained a book. This may result in high customs fees if you live outside the U.S. Just because Telltale's warehouse people are a bunch of morons, I got slapped with a fee that equalled one third of the initial book price.


But hey, it's a numbered edition, no matter how you look at it. There's only one person in the world that owns Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway number 1225, and that person is me. 2500 books is still a pretty limited run and I'm sure that if you don't score one of these now, you're looking at eBay and really high prices.


So, are you in the mood for some crazy and uncensored Sam & Max action? Go for it! Get this book and you will be pleased with yourself. It has love, lust, girls, guns and granades. It has kidnapped manatees, pirates, plastic dinosaurs, and who knows, if you read carefully you might just find the meaning of life somewhere between the lines.


Those of you who have played Sam & Max: Hit the Road and the Telltale episodes and seen the TV series [also sold by Telltale] might find the material a bit too familiar but it was this book that started it all and if you miss out on it, you're going to regret it big time.


For me the total cost of this book came down to about $83. This includes the book, shipping and the customs tax fees. It's alot of money for a comic book, but you're getting an exceptionally entertaining compilation of all Sam & Max comics out there, you get it on a top notch quality paper with a hard cover, an autograph by Steve Purcell and guess what. It even has a red bookmark ribbon. The only thing I thought was missing was the dust jacket, but you can make your own, right?