Steve Purcell

Career

Early career Purcell began creating comic books while an undergraduate at the California College of the Arts in 1980; he produced comic strips for the weekly newsletter. The 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. After graduating in 1982, he became involved in freelance illustration working briefly for Marvel Comics, Chaosium, 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 which Purcell found on a firework and thought was appropriate; and "Night of the Gilded Heron-Shark". Purcell published another story in a 1987 issue of Critters titled "Night of the Cringing Wildebeest". The three stories established the basics for Purcell's future work with the characters. He was rehired to produce art for Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, a graphic adventure game . Later he was commissioned to create the cover artwork for Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games and researched 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 that time, and created short comic strips for LucasArts' quarterly newsletter, The Adventurer. The characters eventually became training materials 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 to work on under Ron Gilbert, practicing their craft.

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 in the United Kingdom. Purcell wrote the jokes for each installment of the 24-episode series, and wrote the scripts for four episodes. Although violence and profanity common in the Sam & Max franchise had been toned down due to the target audience of children, Purcell was content that the characters maintained their moral ambiguity. Some groups of parents 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". 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. Despite his work, the project was canceled; Purcell believes that some of the development work morphed into ILM's contributions to Van Helsing. while the project did not reach fruition, Purcell began posting concept art he had produced for the film on his personal blog several years later.

Pixar and Telltale Games After a brief stint at ILM, Purcell moved to Pixar. 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, LucasArts' license with Purcell which gave them the right to produce games based on the Sam & Max franchise expired. That allowed Purcell to take the franchise to Telltale Games in San Rafael, California, 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, he began a Sam & Max webcomic hosted on the Telltale Games website. The webcomic ran for twelve issues, and it earned him 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 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. He later painted the cover art for Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island.

Purcell's work at Pixar has included character design, such as the "Screamin' Banshee" from the short Mater and the Ghostlight. alt=An anthropomorphic monster truck with a large exractor bucket and bulldozer blade glares maliciously at a quivering, rusty tow truck.

At Pixar's story development department, Purcell contributed screenplay material and voice work for the 2006 film Cars, and designed the character of the Screamin' 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; he provided the voice for the character of Carl in George & A.J.—a 2009 short based on the film Up. Purcell co-directed Pixar's 2012 film Brave alongside Brenda Chapman 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 Pixar Christmas special Toy Story That Time Forgot which aired on ABC on December 2, 2014. Purcell was not considering the possibility of Pixar adapting Sam & Max into a film, as the characters' moral ambiguity is inconsistent with traditional Pixar stories. In 2023, Purcell was among 75 Pixar employees laid off by The Walt Disney Company as part of an ongoing company-wide restructuring.

Personal life Purcell grew up in California and lives there. He has a younger brother, David. In a 2000 interview, Purcell said that he had been drawing all his life, and that he still has drawings he made 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. 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, which are commonly featured in his artistic work. Additional Screenplay Material 2007 Ratatouille Pixar Productions 2012 Brave The Crow Song Lyricist: "Song of Mor'du" 2017 Coco

2018 Incredibles 2 2019 Toy Story 4 The Dummies

Turning Red Lightyear 2023 Elemental 2024 Inside Out 2 Deep Dark Secret 2026 Hoppers Amphibian King Shorts Year Title Director Writer Story Artist Other Voice Notes 2006 Mater and the Ghostlight Screamin' Banshee Additional Character Designer 2009 George and A.J. Carl 2009-10 Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales Additional Voices Episodes 5-9 2012 The Legend of Mor'du The Crow 2013-14 Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs Additional Voices/Sandy Dunes Episodes 3-4 2015 Borrowed Time Additional Voices 2022 Cars on the Road Randy/Wraith Rod Disney+ Original short films, directed Episodes 1, 2, and 8, Pixar Senior Creative Team

Television Year Title Director Writer Other Voice Notes 1988 The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley Production crew 1997–98 The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police Writing and design 2014 Toy Story That Time Forgot The Cleric TV special 2025 Win or Lose Pixar Senior Creative Team