Found it at the CADL!

The Maxx is The Maxx again, the world is ending, and Sarah is now an Isz. Sort of. Not quite. But, yeah. The strangeness dial keeps getting turned up, and it makes me sad that there's only one more compilation left. It ends with a possible ending, but... it's not done. Smooth read, despite the trademark disjointedness. Art is great once again. ( )

I don't suppose there's any way to satisfactorily wrap up a series like this. I still think this was off by a couple of beats. Too much happens too close to the end, and everything still feels very...vague. But then again, almost everything about The Maxx feels very vague to me, so. ( )

The Maxx: Volume 5 is the end of the storyline, it turns out, since Volume 6 is just a bunch of side stories. Which could be fun and all, but I was a bit surprised when I got to the end of this one and it was very, well, end-y. Less incredibly dark than volume 4, but still not as goofy as the early few. The story picks up right where volume 4 left off and follows Sarah's quest to save Julie. There's a nice side-story about a girl named Megan that actually takes up a lot of room, and another, shorter, side story about a bickering married couple, as well as a chapter detailing the exploits of the characters in a television show called Fred Flower and Uncle Italian Moose. You get the idea- lots of side stories. This volume did do a nice job of pulling it all together though, and tied up more of the loose ends than I had anticipated, given that it is the Maxx. ( )

If I had to pick one favorite comic it would be the Maxx. This series started out as Sam Kieth and William Messer-Loebs contribution to the newly created Image Comics line started by a bunch of disgruntled comics all stars (mainly disgruntled from Marvel Comics), the Maxx was pretty much your basic superhero fair. Sometimes Amnesiac Maxx is the purple clad, yellow claw waving, sharp-toothed mask-wearing protector of Julie Winters, a freelance social worker with a chip on her shoulder and a love for Camille Paglia posters. Pretty soon Julie's Friends daughter Sarah becomes part of the mix as the three encounter an existential evil villain Mr. Gone and his legion of iz, little black blobs that are all feet and teeth. Like I said, superhero vs. villain to protect helpless woman, yada yada yada. But as the series picks up steam Kieth and Loebs take the comic in a completely different direction, as it becomes apparent that most of the characters are either acting out other character's dream worlds or man not exist at all.

My only complaint with the series is that it begins to fall apart towards issue 28 or so as Kieth struggles with the direction and meaning of the story. He is also obviously tired of the same characters as he continuously leaves the story completely behind to tell unrelated side stories, which are all just as good, but beside the point. Because of this the comic sort of abruptly comes to an end at issue 35.

Keith's art style, though hard for some to warm to immediately, is intricate and varied as he mixes brushed ink work, watercolor and paints to create a very visually appealing comic. ( )