The Maxx #4

History

The Maxx was conceived and plotted entirely by Sam Kieth, who left Marvel Comics in 1993 to launch the series at Image with the creative freedom Jim Lee specifically offered him — 'come do whatever you want, total creative freedom, own it all,' as Lee later recalled. William Messner-Loebs handled dialogue and scripting for the first fifteen issues, including #4, with additional inks by Jim Sinclair finishing Kieth's pencils throughout the early run. The original Image issues were colored by Steve Oliff's studio, though Kieth later expressed reservations about the rushed coloring, a concern that ultimately drove IDW's full Maxximized reprint program beginning in 2013, which recolored the entire 35-issue run under Kieth's oversight with new colors by Ronda Pattison.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Sarah James (listed in the Image Comics Database as 'Sarah James, First Appearance'), the depressed teenage character who will eventually carry the series' second major story arc after Julie Winters.
• First appearance of Sarah's mother (later identified as Tilly James in fan references, described in All The Tropes as a 'New Age Retro Hippie'), and of Jimmy, Sarah's equally unpopular school friend.
• First appearance of the Isz in the context of a real-world urban confrontation: the Grand Comics Database and MyComicShop both confirm the Isz appear here as Mr. Gone's agents, disguised as carjackers whom Maxx recognizes and defeats while protecting Julie and Sarah.
• Story title is 'The Land Bites'; plot credited to Sam Kieth (also pencils and inks), dialogue scripted by William Messner-Loebs, with additional inks by Jim Sinclair and lettering by Mike Heisler — the standard creative team for the series' early issues.
• Published August 1993 (Direct Edition) by Image Comics; a Newsstand Edition was published the following month, September 1993, per MyComicShop indicia data.
• The issue's narrative structure — fight action framed entirely around introducing and psychologically profiling Sarah — is characteristic of the series' broader method, described by critics as using superheroics as 'window-dressing for a tale of secret worlds and retreating into fiction in order to deal with trauma.'
• The Isz are established across the series as small, eyeless, egg-bodied Outback creatures that turn carnivorous and black when brought into the real world by Mr. Gone, who uses their camouflage ability — appearing as whatever they're dressed in — to deploy them as covert agents.
• Issue #4 was included in the IDW Maxximized Vol. 1 oversize hardcover (2014), which collected issues #1–4 with new coloring by Ronda Pattison overseen by Kieth, and also in The Maxx Vol. 1 trade paperback from DC's WildStorm imprint covering issues #1–6.

Cast · 6 characters

Full credits

Key issues in The Maxx

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#1 1st appearance — Mr. Gone

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#21 1st appearance — Gaynor

Variants (1)