Max Damage Original Inspiration

On June 20th 1997, Carmageddon was officially released! Today marks the 25th Anniversary of Carmageddon, so I’ve been holding onto some info to release as a celebration of 25 years of carnage; the original inspiration for Max Damage.
This information was provided to me by Mick O’Farrell of Red Cloud (now Revolver Creative,) prior to him telling me this information, nobody else knew about it.

In 1993, Clive Barker released the graphic novel ‘The Yattering and Jack’ with illustrations by John Bolton.

Flipping through the graphic novel, on page 51 you will find this specific illustration of Jack Polo in the novel:

This piece of artwork was the direct inspiration for Max Damage, you’ll notice where that sinister look came from when comparing this artwork of Jack Polo to the final artwork of Max Damage:

If you compare the Jack Polo artwork with the earlier Max Damage illustration then you can see his expression is even closer to that of Jack Polo:

It’s worth noting that the Max Damage artwork was originally a black and white drawing submitted to SCi for approval, Mick stated this black and white artwork was later adapted for the posters that SCi slapped up all over London to promote the release of C1.

This is the last major fact from Mick that I was holding out for this specific date, so now we all know the inspiration for one of gaming’s most sadistic characters. Interestingly the cover artwork of Max Damage for TDR2000 was also drawn by John Bolton, the very same John Bolton who drew the artwork for ‘The Yattering and Jack’ all those years ago.

Happy 25th Anniversary, Max!
~R.