LEGS
'Maxx' creator Sam Kieth struts back to comics after years of film work with an Image one-shot
BY JIM McLAUCHLIN
He didn't need the money. He didn't need the creative control. So why did former Maxx creator Sam Kieth come home to comics after a self-imposed two-year exile?
"I just missed them," says the writer/artist, who returns to comics in December with his new Image Comics one-shot Legs, a book about a boy and his living machine creature. "He's part animal, part machine, and just so cool to draw."
Feeling "burned out" with The Maxx and MTV's successful "Maxx" cartoon, Kieth left comics to pursue a film career in Europe. But the idea of Legs kept strutting through his mind. It tells the story ofa teenage boy who putts around on a motorized skateboard. One day, the boy--who Kieth says will remain unnamed to help the reader imagine themselves in the story--uncovers a box in an old garage. In the box: Legs, a giant, living engine-creature capable of great speeds. "Legs is last in the line of his race," Kieth explains. "It's amazing how much an engine runs like the human body. If an engine were alive, what would it look like? This is my answer."
The boy treats Legs "like a cross between pet and project," according to Kieth. "He loves it like a dog, but he's also a kind of grease-monkey kid, so he wants to take it apart and tinker with it."
Trouble hits when a group of older teenagers steal Legs. After the boy fights to get Legs back, he has to decide if he should keep Legs. "The kid has always dreamed of speed," Kieth notes. "but this may be too much power."
Since announcing his return, Kieth has already been approached by DC to do a Batman project. "I feel like I should do my own characters," Kieth says. "But I may try it. Why shouldn't I do Batman if I have a good idea?"
Either way, he's proven he has the legs to make things happen
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