What has happened to The Maxx?

[jwise]

I've been out of comics for a LONG time, but after re-discovering my collection, I'm getting back into them.

Some of my favorite titles were Image titles, and The Maxx and Pitt were definitely on my short list.

Is this character still around anywhere, and if so, does anybody read it?

(Gratuitous picture}
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/news/images/0305/maxx.jpg

[Arvandor]

Afraid not. Neither Maxx nor Pitt have books out.

[Netley]

Yeah, unfortunately Maxx hasn't been out for years now. Sam Kieth did two minisiries "_____ Gilr" or something. I have them and I read them and I can't remember the title. They were ok, but not as good as Maxx (but maybe Maxx was what it was only in the context of when it was created...uh, yeah). The Maxx also had a brief animated show on MTV in the 90s, though it didn't catch on. I know Kieth has done a Batman mini or two more recently, but I didn't read them. His Marvel Comics Presents with Wolvie and Ghost Rider from the early 90s are what first caught my attention.

His art is unique and powerful, that is definitely true. And thanks for posting the cover of issue 1!!! It's really nice to see that image again (ha IMAGE, get it!)

Oh yeah it's Zero Girl, that's what I couldn't think of haha


And yeah Dale Keown is an amazing artist! Pitt was exciting when it came out, but it's his Hulk stuff with PAD that really conveys his visual storytelling genius (imo)! Issue 377 (I think? Where Samson merges Banner with the "Hulk Smash" personality and the "Mr. Fixit" personality?) - the way in which he draws the different Hulks so distinctly (and earlier issues too). Ok, just had to edit for the Pitt rant haha!

Maxx. Pitt. Four letter names with twin consonants at the end. Coincidence? Probably.

[BrikHed21]

The Maxx was a really good title - but it just did not seem like it had enough creativity to have a long life. I do love pulling out those issues though - one of m favorite books ever.

[Generic Eric]

My understanding of the Maxx was that it finished its story. It is collected as trade paperbacks form DC Comics. Sam Kieth's other creator works include Zero Girl volume 1 & 2, $ Women, Epicurus The Sage, Ojo and My Inner Bimbo. He also did Batman/ Lobo: Deadly Serious , Scratch and Batman Secret mini series for DC comics. There was also a Venom Miniseries from Marvel.

[Weapon Ick]

My understanding of the Maxx was that it finished its story. It is collected as trade paperbacks form DC Comics. Sam Kieth's other creator works include Zero Girl volume 1 & 2, $ Women, Epicurus The Sage, Ojo and My Inner Bimbo. He also did Batman/ Lobo: Deadly Serious , Scratch and Batman Secret mini series for DC comics. There was also a Venom Miniseries from Marvel.

I've heard that Ojo, My Inner Bimbo and one other title I can't recall are actually connected to The Maxx somehow. I haven't read them so I don't know too much about it.

[Generic Eric]

I've heard that Ojo, My Inner Bimbo and one other title I can't recall are actually connected to The Maxx somehow. I haven't read them so I don't know too much about it.

I have not read either of those titles yet either. Those are his most recent books by Oni Press. They both seem to have that crazy artwork associated with The Maxx.

[jwise]

Yeah, unfortunately Maxx hasn't been out for years now. <SNIP> ...maybe Maxx was what it was only in the context of when it was created...uh, yeah.


So, you're saying not only is The Maxx gone like the wind, but I'm old?! ;)

Well, unfortunately you're right on both accounts.

Oh well, I really liked those titles, and a bunch of the other Image books I picked up back then...

[mgs]

The Maxx also had a brief animated show on MTV in the 90s, though it didn't catch on.

I don't think it was supposed to. It was just some experimental limited thing from MTV's 'Oddities' show that also had Aeon Flux and all. What sucks is that to this day, there is not an official DVD copy out there of the full show. I still consider it an amazing masterpiece. For accuracy to the original story, it rates better than any other comic movie I've seen. Another piece of info, Claudia Katz mentions on the newest Futurama dvd that that project was her company's first foray into the animation biz and the reason why it was basically the books in animated form was b/c they liked the books so much.Sam Kieth's other creator works include Zero Girl volume 1 & 2, $ Women, Epicurus The Sage, Ojo and My Inner Bimbo. He also did Batman/ Lobo: Deadly Serious , Scratch and Batman Secret mini series for DC comics. There was also a Venom Miniseries from Marvel.

more recently, it was collected by Image in a few books. Sam's also done lots more, like a Wolverine/Hulk special, etc. ;)I've heard that Ojo, My Inner Bimbo and one other title I can't recall are actually connected to The Maxx somehow. I haven't read them so I don't know too much about it.

um, I read the first few books of Ojo and I from what I remember, it was connected to the Maxx series through one of the secondary characters who, I believe was in one of the Maxx books, 'Friends of the Maxx'. I think that's the connection there. Epicurius the Sage had the same creative team of Sam and Messner-Loebs . I don't recall a Zero Girl or Four Women connection, and I don't remember anything about My Inner Bimbo.

Sam's had Maxx pop up occasionally all over the place, in Popbot and some early Gen13 books, but without Messner it really hasn't been the same. M-L, last I heard though was not in a good situation. He was living in a nursing home with hardly any income. His family tried to rally for him a few years back and some proceeds from the Epicurius book was going to him. I just hope he's okay, as I consider him one of the main contributors to the creation of the Maxx books. I haven't heard anything since.

[Eric Tolle]

I actually gave up on Maxx, sometime after they advanced the time. The story actually didn't seem to be going anywhere, or rather Keith was so pbtruse that it didn't feel like ay progress was being made.

Which is a pity, because I liked Sam Keith's work. I just got tired of the story.

[BurningStarIV]

I love The Maxx. It was one of the first comic series I ever started collecting. And I've got all the trades that DC/Wildstorm has put out. I keep hoping that DC will decide to release an Absolute Edition of The Maxx (including the 3-D issue!), but I know that it'll never happen. Just as DVDs of the animated series will never come out.

The animated series was very good, and very accurate for a while. But towards the end of the series, they boiled a lot of the comics down into very few episodes. But other than breezing through the end of the series, it was one of the best comic adaptations I've ever seen.

[TheMaxx]

Wow, that's crazy, just as I sign up I found this thread. Yeah the Maxx is easily my favorite comic series of all time. I'll read anything with Kieth's name on it. Zero Girl, Four Women, My Inner Bimbo, Legs, and his two issues with Zeb Wells on Peter Parker: Spider-Man were all great but I don't think he's done anything near as well as the Maxx since. Wolverine/Hulk was meh, and so was the Zero Girl sequal. The Batman stuff he did was pretty dissapointing too, especially that Batman/Lobo crossover. I'd reccomend check up almost all of Sam Kieth's creator owned stuff. Don't go to his website though, it's 4 years out of date.

[alexr]

I read the first couple issues of the Maxx. Really didn't know what was going on. My favorite joke was from Sam Keith who said he made Maxx's teeth like that because it was easier to draw.

Pitt was great.... when it actually came out.

[GreatLakesAvengers]

I'm a huuuuuuuuuuuge Sam Kieth fan!

The Maxx ended with #35 (good luck trying to find that last issue!) but I believe I remember seeing Kieth talk about events coming up in #38. Unfortunately, that never came to be.

He then moved on to other creator owned titles including:
Four Women
Zero Girl vol. I & II
Ojo
My Inner Bimbo (the most recent)

Suposedly, the recent books he's publishing with ONI will all relate to the Maxx-universe in some regard.

He's also worked on Marvel and DC books since then including:
Batman: Secrets
Batman: Scratch
Batman/Lobo
Wolverine/Hulk

He takes on the mainstream jobs to fund his own indy books.

Also, as mentioned earlier www.samkeith.com (though not owned by sam) has an awesome design but hasn't been updated in FOREVER! I actually contacted the owner to see if I could buy it from him and maintain the site with up to date info and a complete Sam Kieth bibliography but I never got a response from him ... :(

[And, as a plug, I'm currently auctioning off a lot of Sam Kieth books (including a cool interview) on a certain huge online auction site.]

[MartinRedmond]

I think they should recollect it up till issue 20 on some really high quality matte paper. The gloss paper did Sam's cool brush work no justice.

The rest wasn't really good and I just couldn't find any sympathy for mr nobody. I liked Friends of Maxx though and Legs.

[Yodazone]

The Maxx appears in the upcoming "War of the Independents" series too:

http://www.comicspace.com/daveryan/

Would be cool to see a Maxx variant cover....

the Maxx trading card series from Wildstorm was also pretty good.

:cool:

[InkPunk]

Love the comic series, but only have it in trades. What I'm really waiting for at this point is the MTV series to come out on DVD. I actually really liked that show.

[jwise]

Well, I only picked up #s 1, 2 and 3 of The Maxx, before I went off to college and got VERY busy. I stopped collecting comics all together, and now I'm trying to decide if I'm going to pick back up with some of these books, sell off what I have, or keep 'em.

I was hoping some of my favorites were still around, and that would make keeping them easier. Since this book is done and gone, I have to decide if I'm going to keep 'em or not. :(

[MartinRedmond]

It's a shame the first 20 issues aren't at least easily available to new readers. Boo! Hiss! Come on, somebody do somethiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg...

[BrikHed21]

It's a shame the first 20 issues aren't at least easily available to new readers. Boo! Hiss! Come on, somebody do somethiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggg...

They are collected in trade through Wildstorm, below are the first four trades (there were a total of five books) ---->

http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/1/7/1782_180x270.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:myVoid())http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/1/3/1321_180x270.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:myVoid())http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/2/4/2437_180x270.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:myVoid())http://www.dccomics.com/media/product/2/5/2586_180x270.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:myVoid())

[PsyClone]

Nice... that's something to look forward to:eek:

[GreatLakesAvengers]

Actually, there are 6 MAXX TPBs and they're all out and available now!

[mgs]

the trade collections are great, but like people have said in the past, they need to do (what Marvel did with their dvd collections) a true scan of all the issues so that the greatness of the full issues can be enjoyed by everyone.

One of the best things about the later Maxx issues was the little 'community' it set up, pre-internet, with it's letters' pages and whatnot. A lot of various fanart and everything can be found throughout the individual issues that has never been a part of any Maxx trades.