The Maxx has been reprinted enough times that collectors now run into a real question before buying anything: which edition am I actually looking at. This guide is not a reading-order walkthrough across every spinoff appearance; that ground is already well covered elsewhere.
Instead, this is specifically about what separates the three main printed versions of Sam Kieth's original 35-issue run on a physical and visual level: coloring, page presentation, and format. That distinction matters more for The Maxx than for most comics, because the recoloring job between editions was substantial, not cosmetic.
By the end of this guide you should be able to tell, from a listing alone, which edition you are looking at and what you are actually getting for the price.
Sam Kieth's original 35-issue run plus the Darker Image #1 and mail-away #1/2 material was published by Image Comics from March 1993 to August 1998, written by Kieth with William Messner-Loebs and colored by Steve Oliff. Starting in late 2013, IDW republished the entire run as The Maxx: Maxximized, a line of seven oversized hardcovers using rescanned art and entirely new coloring.
IDW then repackaged the Maxximized artwork a third time as three standard-sized Maxxed Out softcover compilations, giving budget-conscious readers access to the recolored version without the oversized hardcover price tag.
The 1993-1998 single issues carry Steve Oliff's original color work, produced under the technical limitations and house palette conventions typical of early-1990s Image Comics. These issues are the only place to see Kieth's art exactly as colored at the time of original publication.
They are also, by nature of being over three decades old now, the hardest and most expensive way to read the complete series, since assembling all 35 issues individually means tracking down back issues of varying condition and cost.
Starting with issue #1's twentieth anniversary in November 2013, IDW's Maxximized line rescanned the original art directly from Kieth's pages rather than reusing the decades-old film separations, producing noticeably sharper line work. The seven hardcovers in the line run #1-4, #5-8, #9-12, #13-18, #19-24, #25-30, and #31-35, concluding in September 2016.
This was not a simple remaster. Every page was recolored from scratch by Ronda Pattison, working under Kieth's direct supervision, which makes Maxximized a genuinely different visual object from the original issues rather than just a cleaner scan of the same book.
Pattison's palette moves toward darker, cooler tones in place of Oliff's warmer original coloring, with more emphasis on the contrast between highlights and shadow. Blacks read richer and more saturated in the Maxximized pages, and the overall mood shifts toward something closer to how the book is remembered tonally rather than how it technically looked on newsprint in 1993.
Readers who grew up with the original issues sometimes find the new palette jarring at first, since it changes scenes they know well. Readers coming to the series for the first time generally find the Maxximized coloring easier to read and more consistent with modern comic production.
The three Maxxed Out trade paperbacks, published by IDW between 2016 and 2017, use the same rescanned art and Pattison recoloring as the Maxximized hardcovers, just presented in a smaller, standard softcover format. Volume 1 collects #1-12, Volume 2 collects #13-24, and Volume 3 collects #25-35.
This is the cheapest way to own the complete 35-issue run with the updated coloring, trading the Maxximized line's oversized presentation for a lower price and smaller shelf footprint.
If budget and shelf space matter most, the three Maxxed Out softcovers get you the complete recolored run most affordably. If you want the full oversized presentation IDW built around Kieth's art, the seven-volume Maxximized hardcover line is the better experience, at a higher price.
If historical accuracy to the original publication matters more than either convenience factor, the only way to see Oliff's original coloring is through the 1993-1998 single issues themselves, since neither IDW line reprints the original color files.
Readers chasing the original 1993-1998 issues are collecting modern-size comics, since the standard American comic trim size has been stable since the 1970s and The Maxx #1 falls well within that era. A Current Age comic bag and Current Age backer board are correctly sized for these issues.
Ronda Pattison recolored the entire run under Sam Kieth's direct supervision.
No, it collects the complete 35-issue run using the same recolored Maxximized art in a smaller softcover format.
Only in the original 1993-1998 single issues; neither IDW reprint line uses Steve Oliff's original color files.
Seven volumes, covering the complete 35-issue run with uneven issue ranges per book.
The three-volume Maxxed Out softcover line is the most affordable way to own the full recolored run.
The Maxx is one of the clearer cases where edition choice genuinely changes the reading experience rather than just the price tag. Decide whether Pattison's cooler Maxximized palette or Oliff's original 1993 coloring is the version you actually want, then pick the format that fits your budget from there.
If you track down any of the original single issues along the way, our Comic Bags and Boards Guide covers how to size and protect them correctly.
!
