According to lead character Max McLaughlin (Taylor Kitsch), both he and his brother Moritz McLaughlin (Logan Marshall-Green) were named after the characters in the book "Max and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks" by German author/illustrator Wilhelm Busch published in 1865. The dark humorous story of the terrible duo was told entirely in rhyming couplets and Busch's illustrative work is considered a forerunner to the comic strip.