I Am Sam

YouTubers don't like me, or rather they don't like my work. And my frail health has left me with very little strength to deal with the unruly masses. I have a peculiar style of humor that is not well received. And although I know full well I should totally ignore what the public has to say, I still find it disheartening to receive downvotes on every single animated video I've ever published, and some pretty mean-spirited insults hurled at my work.

So I pulled everything off YouTube, and decided to quit animation.

That lasted about a half-hour. Then came I Am Sam, something very different from the material that's come before. I picked one of my first episodes ("Interesting") and posted it publicly. So far, the reception has been good. That does not mean, however, I will release the entire series publicly; everything will remain as "unlisted," available for viewing exclusively on my websites, where I can filter out the noise pollution on YouTube. (Along with their advertising comments, and massively distracting clutter of visual noise.

Meanwhile, I radically changed the premise of the show. It was originally about a tiny, run-down neighborhood in a Hoboken-ish town. But, while I was in character development, I decided to do their animation tests as if they were actors doing screen tests. That move inspired me to undo the old story and change it to a show about making a show. I felt the opportunities for humor were much better in this situation.

At any rate, please enjoy I Am Sam in order on clean, ad-free, uncluttered pages.

EPISODES

CONSOLIDATION

For some time now I'd been thinking about starting yet another animated series, Scratch and Dent. Recently I took a good hard look at it, and came to the conclusion that, even if I devoted every waking hour of the rest of my life, I likely wouldn't make it through the pilot episode. One of the principal reasons for this was my choice of style: the look I sought was an Edward Hopper painting come to life. That's a seriously demanding style; it could take a week or more for me to do just one simple background; as it was, it took the better part of a day just to do the sign (below right).

Then, while scrolling through the entertainment news headlines, an idea came to me: with all of this talk about the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the DC equivalent, wherein multiple cartoon franchises are blended together, I was struck by the idea of rolling Scratch and Dent into I am Sam. It meant that the cast and sets were nearly doubled, but since everything would be done in the monochromatic line art style of I Am Sam, the added load would be minimal. And so it has come to pass; I've begun the job of character and set development. I did the voice auditioning already, and now have two episodes in the works simultaneously.

Rolling these shows together provided an added benefit: one of the reasons I created Scratch and Dent was to feature some of my music in quasi-music videos: story-wise, the characters were drawn together by their love of music, and their business (the Scratch and Dent Bar) was outfitted with a killer sound system, so that the characters could kick back and immerse themselves in the music—all very much "me." As originally conceived, the bar had a small group of regular patrons; I may or may not "import" some of these for the new version of the show. After all, I have the cast of I Am Sam who could serve this purpose.

I have no idea if any of this type of humor works, because I never watched any episodes with more than just a couple of close friends. That said, the kind of feedback I received on YouTube was disheartening, to say the least. I really did get at least one downvote for every single animated episode, and also received some pretty harsh feedback. And my very poor health was not helped by such negativity, so I de-listed every single animated video.

That's when I decided to go down a new road with my work, and out of that brainstorming came I Am Sam as well as Scratch and Dent. The notion of combining them came about after having already produced seven episodes of Sam.

I have no idea if any of this type of humor works, because I never watched the episodes with more than just a couple of close friends. That said, the kind of feedback I received on YouTube was disheartening, to say the least. I really did get at least one downvote for every single animated episode, and also received some pretty harsh feedback. And my very poor health was not helped by such negativity, so I de-listed every single animated video. That's when I decided to go down a new road with my work, and out of that navel-gazing came I Am Sam, as well as Scratch and Dent, which were combined in episode 8.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Characters marked * are always off-screen (although this could change, as it did for Emma). Incidentally, with only a few exceptions, the names were those of the voices used in Voicemaker. In the instances where I had to change it, the original Voicemaker name is in [brackets].

I Am Sam Cast

  • David — Producer
  • Edith — Actor, car mechanic
  • Emma — Makeup artist
  • George — Actor, co-owner of the deli
  • Maximillian — Voice talent/Actor, Veronica's husband
  • Mercer — Assistant Director*
  • Mona — Actor, employee at the florist
  • Ritesh — Actor, co-owner of the deli
  • Sam Retired railroad employee
  • Veronica — Florist shop owner
  • Wesley — Director of Photography*

Scratch & Dent Cast

  • Dent — [Jack Steel] Co-owner of the bar
  • Evie — [Evelyn] Bartender
  • Hugo — Lawyer
  • Scratch — [The Jack] Co-owner of the bar
  • Tots — [HashCode 55] Bar chef
  • Vincent — Digital DJ for the bar
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