| The Maxx | |
|---|---|
 Sam Kieth,The Maxx #1 (March 1993) | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Image Comics IDW Publishing |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | March 1993 – August 1998 |
| No. of issues | 35 |
| Main character(s) | The Maxx Julie Winters Mr. Gone |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Sam Kieth |
| Written by | Sam Kieth (1–35) Alan Moore (21) Bill Messner-Loebs (1–15, 17–20, 22–23) |
| Artist(s) | Sam Kieth Chance Wolf Tony Kelly Kell-O-Graphics |
| Penciller | Sam Kieth |
| Inker | Jim Sinclair |
| Letterer(s) | Mike Heisler Ken Bruzenak |
| Colorist(s) | Steve Oliff Olyoptics |
| Collected editions | |
| Volume 1 | ISBN 1-4012-0124-5 |
The Maxx is anAmerican comic book series created bySam Kieth in 1993 and originally published monthly until 1998 byImage Comics for 35 issues, before being collected intrade paperback byDC Comics'Wildstorm imprint. The first appearance of the character was inDarker Image #1 by Image Comics in March 1993.[1] Thecomic book, starring an eponymous purple-clad hero, spawned a 13-episodeanimated series onMTV that originally aired April–June 1995. Starting in November 2013 and ending in September 2016, the original series has been republished byIDW asThe Maxx: Maxximized with new colors and improved scans of the original artwork bySam Kieth and Jim Sinclair. In 2018, the Maxx featured in a five-issue crossover series withBatman, published by IDW.
The series follows the adventures of the titular hero in two worlds: the real world and an alternate reality referred to as the Outback. In the real world, Maxx is avagrant, a "homeless man living in a box", while in the Outback, he is the powerful protector of the Leopard Queen, who exists in the real world as Julie Winters, a freelancesocial worker who often bails Maxx out of jail. While Maxx is aware of the Outback, Julie is not, though it is integral to both of their stories.
Mr. Gone, aserial rapist with atelepathic link to Julie, has extensive knowledge of and access to other people's Outbacks. He starts phoning Julie, but she thinks he is merely an obscene phone caller and ignores him. Eventually, the Maxx gets in Gone's way by "protecting" Julie. Gone tries to kill him with assistance from the Outback's main predators, the Isz. The Maxx fights him in both the Outback and the real world.
Eventually, Mr. Gone makes Julie see the truth about her past and reveals to her how the Maxx came to be. Gone first met Julie when she was a child as "Uncle Artie", a friend of her father; histall tales about a visit to Australia helped shape Julie's Outback. As Julie begins healing herself and the Outback, the series starts following Sara, adepressed teenager whose mother sends her to Julie forcounseling. Sara is often in conflict with her mother, who disciplines her so she will not grow up to be like her father—Mr. Gone.
The backstories of several characters are revealed midway through the series. While in college, Julie picks up a hitch-hiker who beats andrapes her, leaving her to die. To cope, she hides in what is referred to as her "Outback" (a primeval landscape situated entirely in her subconscious, where she has control). In the Outback, she becomes "The Jungle Queen", an all-powerful goddess. She spends so much time dwelling in her Outback that the real world and the Outback gradually become unstable.
One night, she accidentally hits a homeless man with her car. Remembering what happened the last time she stopped to help someone, she covers the unconscious body with trash, but in doing so unintentionally creates a link between it and the Outback. After Julie leaves a lampshade in the trash, which had previously brushed the Outback, it expands over the man's body and becomes a mask that consumes and links him to Julie, transforming him into the Maxx.
After the conclusion of the first storyline, the comic skips in time from 1995 (the then-present) to the year 2005. Julie and Dave (the former Maxx) having vanished, the action focuses on Sara (as she now spells her name) and "Iago", a giant, murderousbanana slug from her Outback. Iago has a list of people to kill, and it turns out that Julie and Sara are both on it. Sara is hounded by a homeless man named Norbert whom she soon realizes is her Maxx. Sara has constant confrontations with Mr. Gone, who is repentant of his past crimes. He is visited by three special agents intent on arresting him, but he turns them into insects. Later, after reading a diary he leaves for her that reveals his tragic origin story, Sara eventually feels sympathy for and a connection to her father. She also begins developing a strange power that she may be inheriting from Gone.
Julie and Dave return to the story after Julie is attacked by Iago and loses a few fingers. It turns out that Julie abandoned her son, Mark, to keep him safe from Iago. She tries to have Dave tell Mark that she's dead so he'll stop seeking her out, but Mark does not believe him. Sara, Dave, Mark, Mr. Gone and Norbert band together to rescue Julie from Iago, who kidnaps and takes her into Sara's outback. Norbert cuts Iago open, apparently defeating him, but Julie has already escaped.
Mr. Gone soon reveals that time is unraveling for the group, which now includes Glorie, one of Gone's past victims who now has a friendly relationship with him. Gone returns Dave's Maxx power to him. Sara returns as a being whom different people perceive as a giant Isz, pink fairy, or football. Mark has an odd dream about eccentric kidnappers. Each member of the group begins to disappear from reality to be reborn in another. Before Gone can disappear, the three agents who previously tried to arrest him, now appearing as humanoid beings with insect bug heads, return and kill him, as he expected. Mark is the last to disappear.
In Julie's outback, Gone is reunited with Sara, who is now a child again. The Maxx considers attacking him, but the Jungle Queen says to leave him be, because even evil deserves a place to rest.
In the new reality, Mr. Gone is a professor and Dave is a janitor at his school. Julie and Mark are still mother and son, but seem to live in better conditions. All the principal characters now lead completely distinct lives, yet retain a small part of their connection to the Outback and to each other.
One of the dominant concepts ofThe Maxx is that every human being has aspirit animal, which is linked to the person during a pivotal moment in their life. Julie's spirit animal is a rabbit, which she gained after rescuing a dying rabbit as a child. Julie later witnessed her mother bludgeoning the rabbit to death with a shovel to put it out of its misery, which linked the rabbit to Julie's subconscious.
Sarah's spirit animal is a horse. In the latter half of the series, this spirit animal manifests itself as Norbert, a homeless man she takes pity on.
The main inhabitants of the Outback, the Isz are small, eyeless beings with egg-shaped bodies. The white Isz of the Outback becomecannibalistic black Isz when brought into the real world. In one instance, a White Isz was able to cross over into the real world unchanged through a small hole in an alley wall that connected both realities. The Isz in Sara's Outback are pink, flying, eyelessfairies that explode if not kept in water.
The original comic series was collected into fivetrade paperbacks:
The spin-off seriesFriends of Maxx #1–3 (April 1996–March 1997) was collected as:
The IDW reissues of the comics have also been collected intohardcover collections:
IDW collected the reissues into trade paperbacks:
An earlier version of Maxx, still called Max the Hare, made his first appearance inComicoPrimer #5 (1983). Other Maxx issues include his modern version comic book debut, in an 8-page spread in the first and only issue ofDarker Image (March 1993), an incomplete anthology series fromImage Comics, as well asThe Maxx #½ (June 1993) and aGen13/The Maxxcrossover (December 1995). Recently, IDW published another crossover series of five issues,Batman/The Maxx (October 2018–February 2019).
The Maxx has made cameo appearances in the graphic novelPopbot Book 2 (which Kieth co-wrote), issue #1 of the independent comicArmature, theSonic the Hedgehog comicSonic Super Special#7 Sonic/Image Crossover, the three issuelimited seriesAltered Image,Bloodwulf #2,TheSavage Dragon #28 (collected inSavage Dragon Vol. 7: A Talk With God), andTroll Halloween Special #1.[2] He also briefly appears in the seriesMars Attacks Image. He appears on a TV screen on the Frostbite version of the cover toDV8 #1. Maxx stories have also appeared inGay Comics #24 andIDW Publishing'sHero Comics 2014.[3] In 2018, Maxx made a long-awaited comeback withBatman in theArkham Dreams series.[4]
| The Maxx | |
|---|---|
 The Maxx: The Complete Series DVD set | |
| Created by | Sam Kieth Bill Messner-Loebs |
| Based on | The Maxx by Sam Kieth |
| Directed by | Gregg Vanzo |
| Voices of | Michael Haley Glynnis Talken Amy Danles Barry Stigler |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Abby Terkuhle |
| Producer | Claudia Katz |
| Running time | 11–13 minutes |
| Production companies | MTV Animation Rough Draft Studios |
| Original release | |
| Network | MTV |
| Release | April 8 (1995-04-08) – June 19, 1995 (1995-06-19) |
The comic book series was adapted into an animated series as part of theMTV programOddities.[5] The show coveredDarker Image #1,The Maxx #1/2 and issues #1–11 of the regular series, and depicted the introduction of Julie, the original Maxx,[clarification needed] Mr. Gone and, later on in the series, Sarah. Therefore, the TV show did not go into the same depth (e.g. revealing the origins of all the characters) as the comic series.
The animation frequently changes style: in one scene, characters may be rendered in detail, but in the next, they may be simplifiedcartoons. Often, this is done to show a change in perspective.CGI and even live-action film are sometimes integrated or interspersed with thehand-drawn animation. Critics such as Richard Matthes have noted how much of the animation is based directly onpanels from the comic.[6]
In 1996, the complete series was released onVHS with a runtime of approximately 2 hours. In 2009, it became available to stream on MTV.com,[7] though only to U.S. audiences. On December 17, 2009,The Maxx became available onDVD exclusively through Amazon's CreateSpace "Manufacture-on-Demand" program;[8] it contains every episode of the TV show and also includesaudio commentary on each episode, plus interviews with creator Sam Kieth and directorGregg Vanzo.[9]
An adventure for theHeroes & Heroinesrole-playing game was released usingThe Maxx characters and setting.[10]
An audio drama comic adaptation,MAXXimum Sound: A Comic Book Soundtrack, was made from the first three issues of the comic book[11] and released on audio cassette in 1993.[12] It was created by Stephen Romano and managed by Smiles Lewis.
In 2008, Chris Vick made anAtari Jaguar (1993 console)video gamedemo based on the Maxx for theJagCode II contest. Being the winner of the contest, it is available on theJagCode II website.[13][14]
On November 22, 2019,Channing Tatum andRoy Lee announced their intent to produce a film based onThe Maxx.[15] In January 2024, Tatum confirmed on hisInstagram that production on the film was moving forward.[16]
The cartoon version of The Maxx follows the comics' art almost line-for-line. Instead of attempting to cartoon-ify the dark tone of the comic books, the producers made the decision to use animation that is nearly identical to the panels within the Image comics. In addition, the animators did as little animating as possible. They don't insert motion just to show that they can; instead, they hold on to shots, using movement only when absolutely necessary.
