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IDW

The Maxx by Sam Kieth – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

The definitive issue-by-issue comic book collecting guide and reading order for The Maxx by Sam Kieth in comic books and omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections.Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics Guide to Collecting Indie & Licensed Comics. Last updated March 2023 with titles scheduled for release through July 2023.

Sam Kieth’s The Maxx was one of the earliest independent Image series, not tied to any of the six founding imprints. It was also one of Image’s most widely-known comics alongside Spawn thanks to its own 13-episode animated series on MTV in 1995. The Maxx 100-Page Giant (2019) #1

The Maxx was a surreal, challenging, and shockingly mature comic that feels like a direct progeny of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (for which Kieth was the launch artist!).

The title centers on a hulking, purple-clad, buck-toothed superhero who splits his time between alleyways and the fantastical mental landscape called The Outback. In each location, he considers himself a defender of Julie, a woman with whom he seems to have no other connection. However, sometimes it is Julie who defends him.

The question of what demands them being so defensive drives the plot of the series. Julie is a hippy social worker, but also a survivor of trauma. Maxx may really just be a man confused about reality and his place in it. Both of them are threatened by Mr. Gone, who may either be a serial rapist or a wizard – possibly both. And then there is the unassuming Sara, a bespeckled teenaged nerd who befriends Maxx and gets embroiled in his adventures (or, is he embroiled in hers?).

Kieth and scripter William Messner-Loebs explored themes of sexual assault, feminism, PTSD, mental health, and generational trauma in a comic that could feel both fast and dense, and which often didn’t make sense on an issue-by-issue level even as it stayed lodged in your brain for weeks afterward. However, as the series pressed on, its mysterious plot began to reveal itself and resolve – leading eventually to a second generation of the story in the back half of the series.

Between its surreal qualities and its MTV exposure, The Maxx became a cornerstone of teenager counterculture media in the mid-90s at the peak of grunge alongside the likes of Beavis and Butthead – though the vibe of the typical Maxx fan was closer to that of Daria (which would debut two years later).

Much like Sandman before it, Maxx drew in readers from outside of the typical sphere of comics – and, certainly from outside of Image’s typical demographics of superhero enthusiasts. Each issue ended with several pages letters and artwork from impassioned fans, which eventually spawned a pen pal exchange.

The Maxx was not a typical superhero, or really a superhero at all, so Kieth allowed him to make only limited canonical appearances across Image’s loosely-bound shared universe. He made just three meaningful appearances elsewhere in Image outside of his own title during its run, and each kept up the guessing game of whether he was truly a superhero or just a confused man. He was also the cover star of the underground Gay Comics at the end of 1996, though the featured story focused on Sara.

Shortly after Maxx’s series concluded, Jim Valentino used The Maxx as a stand-in for the since-excommunicated sixth Image flagship imprint of Extreme Comics in his Altered Image mash-up comic. In 2013, IDW revived the original series with modern recoloring by Ronda Pattison (and overseen by Kieth). They remastered and reprinted the full 35-issue run (but not the 1/2 issue or supporting Friends of series), collecting all of them in a handsome line of oversize hardcovers and a trio of paperbacks.

Kieth returned to his creation in narrative form only twice after the end of the original series – once for a brief Hero Initiative fundraiser in 2014, and again for a long-demanded team-up with Batman in 2018 that felt perfectly aligned with the unique tone of the original series.

[Read more…] about The Maxx by Sam Kieth – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

New for Patrons: Guide to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW Continuity

March 22, 2023 by krisis

My Indie Comics Month of March marches onward with another new guide for Pledgeonaut Patron supporters of CK! On Monday I debuted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Guide to Mirage Studios Continuity, which ended with the sale of the TMNT intellectual property to Viacom. However, that wasn’t the end of TMNT – really, it was more like the beginning! That’s because Viacom licensed the Turtles to IDW, who has maintained one of the best shared universes of continuity in all of comics. Read it all in my new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Guide to IDW Continuity!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Guide to IDW Continuity

Guide to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW Continuity

Before I get into any background on this guide, one VERY IMPORTANT note: you can read the entire first decade of IDW continuity for free if you subscribe to Amazon’s Comixology Unlimited. Every digital purchase link in this guide leads to a Comixology page on Amazon where, if you subscribe, you can “borrow” the book for free with one click on desktop, mobile, or your Kindle.

I highly recommend subscribing for a month and binging a ton of Turtles, because that’s just how I fell in love with IDW’s absolutely incredible TMNT continuity.

I had never read a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics before 2019. I mostly knew the Turtles from their classic cartoons, videogames, and toys. As a comics fan, I was dimly aware of them having a lengthy history as a black-and-white indie comic in the 1980s (as covered in my Mirage Studios guide), but I had never read a single panel of their comic.

That changed in November 2019, when I stayed home from a weekend camping trip and spent a fully day dedicated to checking out comics I had never read before. At 10:04 AM I opened my first issue of IDW’s TMNT continuity and immediately fell in love.

[Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IDW Continuity

Filed Under: comic books Tagged With: IDW, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – IDW Continuity (2011 – Present Day) – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order

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The Pull List: Batman, Brave and The Bold, Damnation, Maestros, Mighty Thor, Punks Not Dead, and more!

February 25, 2018 by krisis

Doctor Strange: Damnation #1, art by Rod Reis

I know it seems impossible, but The Pull List has grown even bigger this week for the third week in a row! That’s because I finished catching up to present on a number of DC and Marvel books, plus I picked up five smaller press books.

  • DC Comics
    • Batman #41
    • Batman & the Signal #2
    • The Brave and The Bold #1
    • Damage #2
    • Deathbed #1 (Vertigo)
    • Justice League #39
    • Milk Wars – DC Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye / Swamp Thing Special
    • Super Sons #13
    • Superman #41
    • Trinity #18
  • Image Comics
    • The Further Adventures of Nick Wilson #2
    • Ice Cream Man #2
    • Maestros #5
    • Redlands #6
    • Twisted Romance #3
  • Marvel Comics
    • Astonishing X-Men #8
    • Avengers #681
    • Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan #5
    • Doctor Strange – Damnation #1
    • Generation X #87
    • Infinity Countdown Prime
    • Mighty Thor #704
    • Tales of Suspense #102
    • The Incredible Hulk #713
    • Venom #162
    • X-Men Gold #22
  • Smaller Publishers: Dark Horse, Dynamite, IDW, Vault Comics, Zenescope
    • Belle Beast Hunter #2, Zenescope
    • Heathen #6, Vault Comics
    • James Bond: The Body #1, Dynamite Comics
    • Mata Hari #1, Dark Horse / Berger Books
    • Musketeers #1, Zenescope
    • Punks Not Dead #1, IDW Publishing / Black Crown

Pick of the Pull

Big Two (Marvel/DC) Issue of the Week:
Mighty Thor (2016) #704

A bloody, thrilling, heart-rending comic. Aaron has somehow amped up the drama in each of the last three issues as we hasten towards a potential Ragnarok at the hands of the Mangog and Jane Foster’s death at her own hands if she takes up the mantle of Thor just one more time.

Yet, beyond those looming disasters there is still Makelith’s war on the Ten Realms. Mangog is just one facet of that. Even in the dimness and tragedy, Aaron finds shining moments – Jane with her friend in the cancer ward, a father and son joined in battle, and a mother casting aside a snake that has wounded her before.

All the while, Dauterman and Wilson are turning in a quality of artwork never seen before at Marvel comics – truly, one of the pinnacles of art at Marvel in over 75 years of publishing.

This story has officially become the best Thor story in my eyes, and it just might be Marvel’s best longform story of all time. I’d place it alongside Mark Gruenwald Captain America and Chris Claremont X-Men at this point.

Best Small-Pub Issue of the Week:
Punks Not Dead (2018) #1, IDW Publishing / Black Crown

An utterly madcap introduction to Punks Not Dead (and, for me, to Black Crown comics, which are edited by Shelly Bond distributed by IDW). This book is part Injection, part Sid and Nancy, and a little dash of the more lighthearted issues of Sandman.

It follows a teenage boy and his scam artist mom as the kid picks up some kind of supernatural echo of the deceased Sid Vicious in a dingy airport bathroom. Meanwhile, the beleaguered Department for Extra-Usual Affairs is busy putting minor demons out of the closet at 10 Downing Street with a staff of one.

This book is funny, unique, and looks freaking brilliant. Artist Martin Simmonds is simply incredible, drawing a real-seeming Britain with amped up color and clever use of cut-and-pasted patterns to ground it in real, textured reality. I am in love with this book, and will not only be keeping up with it, but also checking out other titles from Black Crown. [Read more…] about The Pull List: Batman, Brave and The Bold, Damnation, Maestros, Mighty Thor, Punks Not Dead, and more!

Filed Under: comic books, reviews Tagged With: Alex de Campi, Amadeus Cho, Amilcar Pinna, Astonishing X-Men, Avengers, Batman, Batman and The Signal, Belle Beast Hunter, Berger Books, Black Crown, Cave Carson, Charles Soule, Christina Straight, Christopher Priest, Cullen Bunn, Damage, Damnation, Dark Horse, DC Comics, Deadpool vs. Old Man Logan, Deathbed, Declan Shalvey, Doctor Strange, Donny Cates, Further Adventures of Nick Wilson, Generation X, Gerry Duggan, Greg Land, Greg Pak, Heathen, Ian Churchill, Ice Cream Man, IDW, Image Comics, Incredible Hulk, Infinity Countdown, James Bond, James Robinson, Jason Aaron, Jordie Bellaire, Justice League, Maestros, Marvel Comics, Mata Hari, Mighty Thor, Mike Deodato, Mike Henderson, Milk Wars, Musketeers, Nick Spencer, Punk Not Dead, Redlands, Steve Skroce, Super Sons, Superman, Swamp Thing, Tales of Suspense, The Brave and The Bold, The Pull List, The Signal, Tom King, Trinity, Twisted Romance, Vault Comics, Venom, Vertigo, Wonder Woman, X-Men Gold, Zenescope

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