's Cardboard
Box
The Denizens of the Outback
Many odd creatures (and some people) show up in the Outback. Here is
a list of all I've seen in the comic or cartoon, or seen mentioned --
and whose Outback they were seen in.
They're as large as blimps, and they fly.
It is possible that the blind aboriginal children from issue 26
never existed in the real world, but rather were Artie's equivalent of
Julie's Isz. Or maybe not.
Mr. Gone mentions bloodworms in #1,
but we never see one. Apparently they turn into waterworms.
The only inanimate object in the Outback.
Dicants are like tiger-striped mobile Venus flytraps, only with much
sharper teeth. They are ferocious hunters. The only way to kill them
is to turn them inside out and fling them into the sea. The Maxx fights one in #9.
Winged frogs that, until released by the volcanic eruption in #18, slept
underground.
Great creatures that push through the earth, rather than through water
or air. Since the water in Sara's Outback is breathable (when there
is any), they often emerge from the ground for a breath of water, then
dive again.
Slaves of the Seedbringers, the Emwittabway
herd and care for young Isz until they're old enough
to fend for themselves. They're also called "mountains that walk."
They're strong and loyal and only know one song.
Short, pink, and blind, these little critters float up and explode
unless they're kept wet. (This seems to be part of the
water-symbolism of Sara's Outback; the water represents tears that
Sara doesn't shed, and when the tears are unshed her internal tensions
increase.) They are very similar to Julie's Isz, which could mean
that they're Sara's equivalent. It is not clear whether their
appearance or behavior changes when they travel from Sara's Outback to
the real world, as is the case with Julie's Isz.
Festermoles are only mentioned, not shown, so all we know about them is
that they eat young Isz.
Mentioned briefly by Uncle Artie in
#10; that's all we know.
If Julie saw the giant fairy in issue 31 as an Is, and if Dave saw
it as a fairy (which it probably "really" is, since it is associated
with Sara), then the fact that it looked like a giant football with
feet to Mark probably means that these are his equivalent of Julie's
Isz. Perhaps it is a way for him to react to the messages of society
that tell him he must live up to the images of masculinity which
society holds up as ideals. Or perhaps I'm reaching. Maybe we'll see
more about this eventually.
This incredibly stupid creature can jump great distances into the air,
but landing is fatal.
Crabbits look like rabbits with crablike eyestalks and claws. They can
jump and land, but Isz eat them. However, they feed
on immature Isz as well. Isz also
like to torture them.
Easily the largest creature in the Outback, the Hooly is green and
hairy, with a long snakelike neck and huge hands and feet. Like Isz she relies on her sense of smell. She attacks by
slapping the ground with her flat head. According the the Jungle Queen, "The Hooly is the spirit of
healing and protection" in the Outback. Before Maxx wakes her up in #18, she has been
sleeping for a billion years; there is a legend that when she wakes up
it will be the end of the world.
This giant slug was created when a banana slug escaped from Sara's
Outback and was squashed near a self-help tape. Probably given power
by Sara's negative feelings, Iago has become very strong. He has a
list of names, and he goes around grabbing and killing people on that
list. Then he feeds their body parts to the exploding fairies under
the water at the pier. He appears to have died in issue 29, but that
may not be the end of him; he says as he dies that killing him will
not really help.
The Is (plural: Isz) (Julie's)
A foot and a half tall, these white, eyeless, earless creatures are all
over the Outback. They have short legs, big feet and heads, and long
skinny boneless arms. They eat just about anything -- they're
vegetarians, but almost everything in the Outback is made of vegetable
matter.
When Mr. Gone brings Isz into the real world,
they turn black, grow sharper teeth, become faster and stronger, and
turn carnivorous. He seems to be able to control them, so they make
ideal servants for him. Making them even better is the fact that to
humans (other than the Maxx) they look like whatever you dress them as,
so they're easy for Gone to disguise and send out on their missions.
They seem to multiply prolifically in the Outback. Young Isz appear to
be rather helpless; the Emwittabway must
guard them until they're big enough to fend for themselves. It appears
they also go on lemminglike mass stampedes into the sea when they get
too numerous. They also sometimes live underground, grabbing creatures
with their hands and dragging them under. I'm sure the Isz symbolize
something, but it isn't clear to me what that is.
Like Outback Maxx, the Leopard Queen seems to be Julie's primary Outback persona.
However, the Jungle Queen/Leopard Queen has never come to the real
world, and rather than being a reflection of Julie's entire personality, she has
described herself as "the part of Julie that escapes" (issue #6). She
rules the Outback, or would if it weren't for Julie's problems.
Although everything in the Outback is supposed to be a plant, clearly Maxx and the Jungle Queen
aren't plants, and the leopards probably aren't either. The Jungle Queen is initially shown with a leopard
in #1 (although when we see this we might only be seeing Maxx imagining her), but as Julie continues not dealing with her
problems the leopard dies (#5). Then, when Julie starts to heal, she finds baby
leopards in her Outback (#6). My theory is that the leopards, like the
Jungle Queen's hair color, are indicators of
Julie's internal state of
affairs.
She is the part of Julie that never
grew up. She lives in a part of the Outback where the Maxx can't exist.
He's a major character, not just an Outback dweller, but Maxx is complex. The Maxx usually has a
straw-and-feathers headdress in the Outback and not in the real world,
but the Outback Maxx has at times come to the real world, and the
real-world Maxx has gone to the
Outback. My theory is that Outback Maxx, with the headdress, is mostly
Julie's internal rabbit-Maxx, and
real-world Maxx is mostly Dave, but
the two are fused together. Maxx thinks at first that he rules the
Outback, but he's wrong.
Sara's Maxx is an equine elemental, a great gray Arabian stallion,
slightly anthropomorphized to have Maxxlike hands and claws. He
crosses over into this world as a last resort to stop Iago, although
it leaves her Outback undefended against him. Unlike Dave/Julie's
Maxx, he is not a fusion of a real person with a spirit animal; he is
pure spirit animal. He appears to have returned to Sara's Outback in
#29.
We see only one of these; he's named Ret'qark'n, of the God Clan. He
looks short, fat and ugly, except he's not short. He's quite large, and
so are the three tusks protruding from his lower jaw, and so is the
mallet he always carries with him. Legend has it that the mallet is
made from the petrified heart of an air whale, and that anyone crushed
by it goes straight to paradise. He's mean, lucky and clumsy. He
smells like sweaty leather and peppermint. If Ret'qark'n is any
example, meeting one of the Mountain People at a time is quite
enough.
The Princess seems to be Sara's analog of what the Jungle Queen is
to Julie. She is the ideal Sara, the Sara who would be if not for the
problems she's had in her life. Associated with the Princess are two
fairies, the "You Should" fairy, who looks like Sara's mother, and the
"I Want" fairy, who looks like Julie. The Princess says they are
harmless as long as she keeps them tied with her hair, but what
happens if they get loose is unclear.
We have no information about Rikkirackk, except that it's something that
Maxx swears by once.
In her story in #4, Sara says that
Maxx told her stories about fighting
saber-toothed tigers in Australia. Maybe we can take this at face
value, or maybe Sara misquoted Maxx, thinking he was nuts so the
details didn't matter.
We don't know much about them, except that the Emwittabway are their slaves. Perhaps they
plant Is seeds.
These leopard-spotted, lithe creatures have ruby-red orbs on their
heads. They are normally slightly taller than a person.
They are foolish and afraid. They will not jump down a hole if
they do not know where it leads. We never actually see one.
Page maintained by Tom Lee (flint@kiva.net).
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