Origin
Maxx’s social worker and friend Julie was raped, beaten and left for dead while trying to help a homeless man. The physiological impact forces Julie to create a realm she calls âThe Outback’ to cope with this trauma. One evening Julie hits a man with her car on her way to work. Still suffering the effects of the last time she tried to help somebody, Julie covers the homeless man with trash to hide the evidence and unintentionally opens a portal to the Outback.
The homeless man (Dave), accidentally merges with Julie’s rabbit spirit animal as it tries to enter this realm through the portal. A purple lampshade among the trash transforms into the mask of The Maxx.
Creation
Maxx was created by Sam Kieth, first appearing in black and white as Max the Hare in Primer (1982) #5.
Character Evolution
The Maxx has no memory of his life before Julie. His mind continuously shifts between the real world and Julie’s “Outback” spirit realm of Pangaea.
He is driven by a strong urge to protect his “Leopard Queen’ Julie. Maxx has an irrational fear that, if he takes off the mask, he will have the head of a giant rabbit. This fear stems from Julies childhood incident where she found and rescued a rabbit but which it suffered and was left in a box in her family’s shed, Julie could hear the kicking of the rabbit at night, much like the character in Silence of the Lambs Julie was forever tortured by this fear.
Maxx deals with the nasty little critters named Isz that are sent after him by the cruel Mr Gone. They turn twisted and black when crossing over from the Outback to the real world.
Other Media
The Maxx was a short lived (ending June 1995–only three months after it started) television series on MTV. The animated show covered the first eleven issues of the series and then went into the origins of certain characters; such as The Maxx, Julie, Sarah and Mr. Gone.
One of the issues many fans had with the animated series was the frequent change in the art style. Sometimes during the show the style would go from very detailed and stylized to simplified as if it was a comic stripe.The show runner was Bill Messner-Loebs.
Casting list:
- Michael Haley – The Maxx
- Glynnis Talken – Julie, Glorie
- Amy Danles – Sara
- Barry Stigler – Mr. Gone