Maximus (The Maxx)

The Maxx is an American comic book series created by Sam Kieth and published originally monthly by Image Comics, then was collected in trade paperback collections from DC Comic's Wildstorm imprint. Starting from November 2013 it has been republished by IDW with new colors and improved scans of the original artwork by Sam Kieth and Jim Sinclair. The comic book, which stars a character of the same name, spawned an animated series that aired on MTV. The first appearance of The Maxx was in Primer #5, published by Comico Comics.

The series follows the adventures of the titular hero in the real world and in an alternate reality, referred to as the Outback. In the real world the Maxx is a vagrant, a "homeless man living in a box", while in the Outback he is the powerful protector of the Jungle Queen. The Jungle Queen exists in the real world as Julie Winters, a freelance social worker who often bails the Maxx out of jail. While the Maxx is aware of the Outback, Julie is not, though it is integral to both of their stories.

Brenton Bostwick was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where he currently lives and works.  He has studied sculpture and painting at New York University and the San Francisco Art Institute.  Having spent his life drawing and painting, it was during his time in college at NYU, he began to seriously study art .   During this time, he was deeply attached to the idea of being a painter.  From a young age he was drawn to the human form, studying portraiture as well as human and animal anatomy as sources of inspiration for his paintings.

     After finishing college he worked as a carpenter and landscaper in San Francisco, and fell in love with working outside and building with his hands.  This type of work felt far more real, and resonated with him more than any subject studied in the classroom.  At the time his primary focus was still painting.  Constantly searching for a more effective way of portraying his visual experience of the world, it was a natural progression to move outside the frustrating constraints of the two dimensional canvas, and in to the world of sculpture.

     In 2008, he moved to the north bay of San Francisco and began to experiment with natural found objects as the material for his creative playground.  The coastlines and mountains became the source of much of the artistic materials as well as the creative inspiration itself.   Using the human form, as well as years of anatomy study as a template, he set out to use the cast off refuse of the natural world to show the beauty of life and emotionality held in both human and abstract forms.  Through the process of learning the materials, the enjoyment of abstraction and play with the amazing texture and organic form held within the material itself, became one of the driving forces behind his creative endeavors.  With every experiment, a new range of possibilities was exposed.  Using nature and the our society as a backdrop, each piece shows the play between our human effort to control the natural world, and the effortless and powerful movement of nature around us.