Maddrax

Maddrax is a German science fiction series. It started in 2000 and is published by Bastei-Lübbe (Romantruhe) and Zaubermond. Maddrax is an end-of-the-world-scenario and has some similarities to Planet of the Apes or the DC storylines Kamandi and Warlord.

In 2012 a comet named ‘Christopher-Floyd’ threatens the earth. The last chance to prevent an apocalyptic impact is to launch nuclear missiles from the ISS. US Air-Force Commander Matthew ‘Matt’ Drax leads a group of three jets on a reporting mission about the result of the nuclear strike. The counter measures fail and Christopher Floyd hits the earth. Luckily Commander Drax’s Jet is taken out of time before the energy of the impact can kill him. Suddenly he finds himself crash-landed in an ice landscape, attacked by human-sized two-legged rats (Taratzen) and rescued by a Stone Age tribe. Bit by bit Drax (who is called Maddrax by the natives) finds out, he has been thrown more than five centuries into the future. Christopher-Floyd was not just a comet, but also a kind of space-arc, which resulted in increased evolution and the appearance of completely new life forms on earth. On the search for other survivors from his mission Maddrax finds the last bits of humanity dumbed by the rays Christopher-Floyd has emitted. Remaining spots of civilization (former government shelters or underground hideouts) are tainted and show a perverted version of their today appearance. On his voyages on earth and later the solar system, Maddrax finds out that Christopher-Floyd is only a small part of a huge eternal interstellar conflict and because of its landing on earth, the whole planet nears complete destruction.

Maddrax is published biweekly in pulp booklet format by Bastei-Lübbe. The pulps are also available in the electronic EPUB format, without DRM (beginning issue 250).

The comic versions were dropped after only three issues and were based upon issues 1,2 and 4.

Some of the stories have been produced as audiobooks.

Zaubermond publishes hardcover books that are side stories to the main series.

Bastei-Lubbe published the first 36 issues in 7 paperback volumes.

Romantruhe continued the paperback publication of the series issues, 3 per volume, starting with volume 8 which contained issues 37-39.

...
Wikipedia