Sam Kieth, Alan Moore and... The Maxx

From The Maxx minicomics included as exclusive supplement to Wizard magazine n. 51, 1995.

When I called Alan Moore to help kick off this new story line in Maxx, to say I was nervous is putting it mildly. But I wanted the chance to work with him even more than I was intimidated. I asked him if he'd gotten the comics I sent, and he politely assured me he'd gotten through all 16 issues, and that he really enjoyed them. I was trying to think of what I could possibly do to get him to consent to do this one issue – beg/plead/manipulate – but he said, “Sure”. He said that a lot of issues of The Maxx are paralleling things he's interested in his own life right now. We talked about our interest in Aleister Crowley and the English tradition of ceremonial magick, Carlos Castaneda, spirit animals and Jung.

I told him my concern about being too specific in The Maxx, about how I wanted to let people read what they wanted to into it, instead of getting caught up in dogma. It's eerie to meet somebody who has so completely and thoroughly studied the same subjects and interests I have.

So, I said, trying to sound casual but curious as hell, “What happens? Who is Sara ten years from now?” There was a pause and I felt my blood run cold. In his deep voice, Alan said “Something has happened; something's gone wrong on the Outback. It's building, and may or may not be bad, sort of like the REM song, “It's the end ofthe world as we know it, and I fell fine.”

Then he mentioned a dream he had in which tiny dolls were eating the landscape, and I flashed on the exploding fairies I had envisioned in Sara's Outback. As the conversation came to a close, we both agreed that the future was gonna be a lot worse and uglier, both in the book and in the real world, but leaving me with an odd sense that, somehow, that's OK. [Sam Kieth]

The Maxx is a series created by Sam Kieth and originally published in the 90ies by Image Comics.

Moore is credited for the dialogues in The Maxx n.21.