Origin
Max was born on Sirius IV, then emigrated to Earth as a young child. Zot’s mom and dad, one of whom is his sibling, came to Earth later.
Sarah Melpignano and Arthur Dekker, who are romantically connected, go to art school with Max. They are all great friends. Arthur sometimes uses Sarah as the muse or subject for his art, including a painting that Max keeps for many years.
Arthur finds out he has cancer and has to replace parts of his body with cybernetics. As he does, he becomes more emotionally remote and his art becomes more abstract and analytical. However, it also starts to sell for a lot of money.
Sarah breaks up with Arthur due to his emotional state and Max also stops associating with him. It is unclear what happens to Sarah after that but seemingly she dies. Dekko leaves and becomes a super-villain named Dekko.
Zot’s parents were part of an underground movement to stop the King of Sirius from starting a war with Earth. They succeeded, but the King had the assassin 9-Jack-9 kill them for it while they were away on a mission. Their son, Zot, didn’t learn what happened to them for years. Max also seems to not really know what happened to them, although it seems improbable that he didn’t know their political leanings. Despite the fact that Zot is his nephew and has no other living relatives, Max does not take him in, although he visits frequently; Zot is raised by his robot butler, Peabody, in his own house. This leads Zot to have a deep-set complex about his parents, who he thinks abandoned him. Max seems to be weirdly unaware of this; Max didn’t know Zot thought his parents abandoned him until Jenny tells him years later.
Max does, however, teach Zot about many fields, helping him become a high-achieving young man. After Zot helped save someone who was drowning, Max outfitted him with technology to make him a superhero–flying boot jets, a blaster, and more. Zot becomes a celebrity.
Creation
Uncle Max was created by Scott McCloud for the first color volume of Zot!, in issue 2.
Major Story Arcs
The Sirius IV Conspiracy
Max lives in an expansive, creatively-designed estate. The house, which he built, mixes multiple forms of architecture from classic Greek to futurist. It has a giant built-in musical organ. Birds (including a penguin) and cats live throughout the house and it is surrounded by gardens that he designed.
Max is very eccentric and highly prefers creativity to conformity, making statements like, “It’s so dull around here I’ve had to resort to adults for company!” Zot is one of his favorite companions. He is a classic “suck the marrow out of life” character, diving into all kinds of pursuits with his extensive energy. He has idiosyncratic musical tastes, including the Siriusian Flute, an important musical instrument from Sirius. He believes “there isn’t one type of music that I can’t get to like…I can try to make my world grow bigger, or I can let it get smaller–and if I don’t do the one then the other’s gonna happen in time.” He enjoys painting and wrote a book on nursery rhymes.
Max helps Zot predict the appearance of a group of rampaging robots so Zot can stop them. The robots are looking for the Golden Key, which was stolen from Sirius. Zot ends up going to the parallel universe where Jenny lives and brings her and her brother Butch back to his universe.
When the De-Evolutionists turn Butch and some others in to a monkey, Zot is able to reverse the de-evolutionary ray guy to cure almost everyone, but unfortunately the gun breaks before he can turn Butch human again. They decide to see if Max can fix the ray gun, since he is a scientific genius.
He welcomes them and tries to work on a way to help Butch. In the meantime he generally helps Zot out with his attempts to get the Golden Key, which they later learn was stolen by Zot’s friend Vic.
Butch complains about Max’s tastes in music, leading him to go on a manic exposition about how his musical tastes are “non-wimpy,” blasting away on his organ. He is happy to meet Jenny, who he thinks is good for Zot.
Some of Dekko’s robots (the same ones Zot tried to stop when he met Jenny) attack Max’s house. The friends defeat some of the ‘bots but then Dekko shows up with more.
While monologuing to the heroes, Dekko, who is not very mentally stable, sees Max’s painting of Sarah. He starts hallucinating that she is talking to him. Ever his moral compass, she tells him to stop his violence. Dekko submits to “her” plea and leaves.
The heroes go to Dekko’s base in Antarctica to get the Key back. They split into two groups. Dekko captures Max, Jenny, Butch, and some others. Dekko again begins to hallucinate, this time thinking that Jenny is Sarah. Max has Jenny further this delusion by reminding Dekko of their love, and of his love for nature. These memories frustrate Dekko and eventually break his programming. He has one last sane moment of recognition before Vic turns him off. Vic takes the Key and leaves.
Max and the others follow Vic to Sirius. They hear a crowd play the Siriusan Flute, and Max joins in.
Now that Dekko is captured, there is another reason to find the Key. A conspiracy, comprised of General Schrapp, Grand Inquisitor Luther Von Clokmann, palace advisor Weevis Swimbler, and bureaucrat Sam Twik, want to take over the leadership of the planet and to start a war with Earth.
Their goal is to use the Golden Key and the Doorway at the Edge of the Universe, which are important sacred objects to the people of Sirius. There is a prophecy that someone will use the Key to open the Doorway and then return with a Great Mission for the people of Sirius. The members of the conspiracy intend to use the Key to open the Doorway and then proclaim that the Great Mission is a Holy War on Earth, something they think will unify the populace, which they see as dumb and easy to fool.
The members of the conspiracy kill the King, his son Prince Drufus, and try to kill the Queen. The assassin, 9-Jack-9, tells Zot during their fight that he also killed Zot’s parents. This is the first time Zot or Max finds out what happened to them.
Max and some others meet to talk about what they can do to stop the conspiracy. However the conspiracy sends soldiers to capture them, and shoot Peabody. Zot and Jenny save them, and they decide to hide out at the Sacred Cathedral on Shotaro island, run by Father Kimm. It would be blasphemous to attack it, so they are safe there.
Max figures out that there are underwater tunnels that lead outside, so Zot can run sorties against the conspiracy without them knowing. Zot gets the Key and he and Jenny go through the Doorway, where they meet many heroes of Sirius whose spirits have been implanted into robots in order to honor them and allow them to live fuller lives. Zot’s parents are among them.
The conspiracy eventually decides to break into the cathedral anyway, and captures Max, Zot, and all the others. However, Butch and the De-Evolutionists counter-attack and free them. After various events, only General Schrapp is left from the conspiracy, but he declares himself the ruler of Sirius.
Max and Zot make a plan to stop him. Zot fights Schrapp and gets him to confess to his crimes while Max, who takes over the fortress’s communications center, broadcasts his confessions to the rest of the planet, using Vic’s robot remote, Floyd.
The people of Sirius want Zot to be their new leader, but he and Max recognize that they are just misplacing their religious devotion (caused by Zot fulfilling the prophecy of the Doorway). Zot says they should learn to lead themselves. Max does think it would help if Zot at least gives them some guidance now and then.
Max returns Jenny and Butch to their Earth, where Butch reverts to his human form.
Inventions
Some of Max’s inventions include:
• a translator that helps Butch-the-monkey speak English.
• alternate software to help run Peabody
• a belt for Butch that has a heat ray, force field, and danger alert button
• a magnetic grenade
• boot jets
• a ray gun
• portals to alternate Earths
• a cure for Butch from being a money (while on his own Earth)