History of SamSam

## 2000 - Creation of SamSam

Serge Bloch was inspired to create the series by his son, and he loved Batman very much. Once, they made him a prop Batman costume out of cardboard. One time, Serge's friends came to dinner with them, and their son was dressed in a Batman superhero costume with plastic parts. This meeting of two "mini-Batmen" amazed and touched the creator. Soon after, he began sketching in a notebook, creating his own world, which takes place in the superhero universe. Another day, the editor Marie-Agnes Godard saw this notebook, and without her participation, SamSam would never have appeared. SamSam first appeared on the pages of the children's magazine "Pomme d' Api" in January 2000. SamSam has the traits of Serge's son. His name is Samuel, but the parents call him "SamSam." When the creator ran out of ideas, it was enough to watch the children. Some kind of problem at school or a quarrel with a friend, all these situations became a source of inspiration for Serge. This suggests that some of the events mentioned in the comics could be a slightly altered reality.

## 2007-2011 - TV Series (Season 1 and 2)

After the success of SamSam comic strips, magazines, and books (created by Serge Bloch), a computer-animated TV series was developed based on the books with a total of 52 7-minute episodes. It went on from mid-2007 until early 2009. The series was immediately a success. In 2010, after the success of the first season, a second season was made for the series with a total of 39 8-minute episodes, bringing the total to 91 episodes overall. The TV series holds an average rating of 6.8/10 on IMDb to this day.

## 2009 - Merchandise

In 2009, after the success of the first season, merchandise based on SamSam was made. Such as: plush toys, figurines, condiments, board games, backpacks, T-shirts, sweaters, pajamas, shoes, activity books, books, lunchboxes, costumes, and school supplies based on the TV series. 14 licenses were sold at the time. Cutlery, DVD's, masks, and even armchairs were added to the merchandise line later on.

## 2009 - Cancelled Video Game

A video game based on the SamSam TV series for the Nintendo DS was going to be made, scheduling a release for somewhere in 2009, but it was never actually released. Only one rare booklet from 2009 states its existence.

## 2016 - SamSam the Movie Teaser

In 2016, a teaser of the 2020 SamSam film was released. It featured SamSam at a movie theater talking about how his movie would play out.

## 2019-2020 - SamSam the Movie

A film adaptation of the same name was released in France on 5 February 2020, directed by Tanguy de Kermel, and written by Valérie Magis as well as Jean Regnaud. It was produced by Folivari and distributed by StudioCanal. However, the film only received a score of 20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 4 negative reviews from critics.

## 2023 - TV Series Revival (Season 3)

A revival of the SamSam TV series (season 3) was announced in 2018, during Cartoon Forum 2018, expected to have 52 11-minute episodes. A teaser was released for the revival of the series in early July 2018. It was scheduled to be released sometime in mid-2021, then delayed to somewhere in 2022 due to COVID-19, later pushed to 2023. In 2023, the 3rd season of the SamSam TV series, titled "SamSam: Cosmic Adventures," was released on November 11th, 2023.