The Characters
The Maxx
A mysterious, foul smelling, cartoon loving, Pez eating, self appointed hero to his social worker, Julie.
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 ‘The 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.
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.
Julie Winters
The kind Social Worker who looks out for the Maxx
While trying to help a homeless man, Julie was beaten, raped and left for dead. The incident caused Julie to subconsciously create a realm within her mind called The Outback; a savage land filled with giants, gods and all manner of strange creatures.
In the outback Julie becomes The Leopard Queen and is in complete control, with no need to fear anyone. In the real world she continues her life as a freelance social worker. On her way to work one stormy night, Julie accidently hit a man with her car. In shock and traumatized by past incidents, rather than helping, Julie dragged him into an alley and hid his body under a pile of garbage and debris. This act caused her psche to create a schism in reality, with a portal to Julie's spirit realm opening up in the alley.
As Julie's "spirit animal" from her outback attempted to cross over into the physical world to help her, it merged with the man in the alley. A lampshade over his head became a mask, and the man emerged as Maxx. Maxx was completely unaware of his life before Julie, and had no memory of the incident that had occurred in the alley. Maxx believed himself to be a superhero of sorts and felt compelled to seek out Julie and protect her. Julie, of course, failed to recognize the giant, purple masked man as the individual she had run over that rainy night, and also felt drawn to help him in her capacity as a social worker; bailing him out of jail on numerous occassions and often giving him a place to stay for the night.
Sarah James
Sarah was a depressed teenager whose mother sent her to Julie Winters for counseling.
As Julie begins healing herself and the Outback, the series starts following Sara. She is often in conflict with her mother, who disciplines her so she won't grow up to be like her father - Mr. Gone.
After the conclusion of the first storyline, the action leaps forward from 1995 (the then-present) to the year 2005. Julie and Dave (the former Maxx) having vanished, the action focuses on Sara (as she now spells her name) and Iago, a giant, murderous banana slug from her Outback. Iago has a list of people to kill, and it turns out that Julie and Sara are both on it. Sara is hounded by a homeless man named Norbert whom she soon realizes is her Maxx. Later, after reading a diary Mr. Gone leaves for her, that reveals his tragic origin story, Sara feels sympathy for and a connection to her father. She also begins developing a strange power that she may be inheriting from Mr. Gone.
Mr. Gone
A mysterious, misogynist obsessed with his niece and her connection to a realm called “the Outback”.
Mr. Gone has issues. Raised by his sexually and verbally abusive aunt, Mr. Gone has turned his childhood trauma into a severe hatred of woman.
After his first wife (a drug addict) killed their son and herself. He married again but the abusive relationship was short. Gone had a girl named Sara who is a friend of Julie's. Sara developes the same powers he has in the series. After his second wife left him Mr. Gone went on a raping and killing spree. Mr. Gone tries to tell Julie about the Outback, Maxx and her childhood, but she cuts his head off... a few times.
While on a trip to the Australian Outback to study ancient aboriginal religions, Mr. Gone discovers a form of magic that allows him to manipulate the minds of others. Mr. Gone has admitted to being a “not very powerful magician”. Also while in the Outback Mr. Gone discovered the main predator; The Isz. With his new mind controlling skills Mr. Gone acquires an army of Iszs to serve as his dim, toothy henchmen.
Isz
Is or Isz are the small toothy henchmen to Mr. Gone.
Isz are normally found in the “Outback”. While in the Outback, Isz are white, one-and-a-half-foot tall predatory herbivores (predatory because most creatures in this outback are plant based). These eyeless, earless creatures have great numbers and use these numbers to swarm and devour their prey. They also have been known to bury themselves and attack their prey from below.
Young Isz are helpless and are protected by a massive creature called the Emwitittabway until they are old enough to fend for themselves.
While in the real world Izs become black, carnivorous henchmen of Mr. Gone. They appear as whatever they are dressed as in the real world.
