Bad Max

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Bad Max is a fictional character in a comic strip in the UK comic The Dandy. He first appeared in 2003.

Like Dennis the Menace, Bad Max is the typical boisterous young lad who goes around making and looking for trouble, but deep down is just on the lookout for fun. With a strange orange perm and a retro purple jumper with a big green 'M' on it, he quickly became popular. In a mildly American way, the strip explores Max's personal tastes instead of the usual slapstick/consequence strip that often characterizes British comics. He has a pet Hamster called Hermy who has a bushy coat that resembles Max's ginger afro. The main characters of the strip include the Vicar and Max's parents, with occasional appearances from girls such as Cynthia and Sally.

Artist Steve Bright draws the strip in the style of David Law, who drew Dennis the Menace for The Beano and Corporal Clott for The Dandy in the 1950s and 1960s. He was given a wardrobe change for the October 2004 Dandy relaunch and now resembles a modern youth, with baggy green trousers and a loud yellow and black t-shirt, as opposed to his old 'retro' look of a purple Jumper emblazoned with a green 'M', black trousers and pink sneakers. Because of Bright's work on Bananaman, Max does not appear as much as characters like Desperate Dan or Blinky, however the high quality of scripts and rebellious artwork have ensured his popularity no matter how long he is absent from the weekly comic.

Strangely, in the early days of the strips he often took a strange resemblance of a monkey (the features on his face especially). He is often said to adore bananas (playing on the fact that people say that apes like bananas). His monkey like appearances were probably enphasizing the fact that his behaviour is like that of an animals.