It’s always a bittersweet day when you have to lament the ones you held close to your creative soul, and while the extraordinarily talented creator Sam Kieth may be gone beyond our reach, his influence is still well within our grasp. His style was instantly recognizable, which led to him becoming one of the most noteworthy comic book contributors of the nineties. Soon after the burst of popularity surrounding his book The Maxx, MTV greenlit a short run animated television adaptation of the same story. This was where my interest became obsession, and sent me down an unabashed rabbit hole filled with alternate realities, bizarre creatures, and storylines so bold you’d think they came straight out of a crime scene.
The animated show was one of those rare instances where what you saw on screen was just as good as what you read on the page. It also elevated the story by incorporating sound, something the pages lacked, and its sonic influence would soon take hold of me some years later. Once I started recording the album Please Deceive Me back in 2010, I toyed with the idea of doing a song inspired by The Maxx, but I had no desire to sing about such oddities, so I kept it all instrumental. The track, appropriately titled in jest, Pangea, mirrored the story with its song structure. Starting out with tribal rhythms that reflected the outback setting of the story, and flashing abruptly into the dank, dark, depressing sludge of the city realm. A stark contrast that made The Maxx so relatable to those of us who loved to let our minds wander into the unknown.
Pangea was never a major hit with fans, many of whom questioned how a track like that fit on a record centered around Halloween and other spooky themes. In truth, it was less about cohesion and more about satisfying my own fascination with such a brilliantly influential story. While Sam Kieth created many other tremendously imaginative works, his contributions to The Maxx left the deepest impact on my life, and on the lives of many others. It offered a glimpse into a strange, singular world where heroes don’t resemble the big, strong, square jawed archetypes we’re taught to admire. A world where terrible things happen, yet are presented through a lens that allows even evil a place to rest, something rarely seen in comic book storytelling at the time.
Death never feels like an appropriate time to resurrect your admiration for someone you haven’t talked about in so long, but that doesn’t mean their memory needs to be buried with equal silence. While I never knew Sam Kieth personally, I connected to his work on a personal level that left an immeasurable impact on my creativity. Few moments pass where I don’t reach for nostalgia to ease the weight of an uncertain future, and part of that nostalgia lies within The Maxx, and the stories that Sam helped create. For that, I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in his twisted little tales. Thank you Sam, and rest peacefully in whatever realm you ventured on to from here.
The post Sam Kieth and the Song He Inspired appeared first on Autumns Eyes.
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