Using certain maximal analytic functions, we obtain new characterizations of the continuity and compactness of the weighted composition operators when acts between Korenblum spaces, α-Bloch spaces and when acts from certain weighted Banach spaces of analytic functions with a logarithmic weight into α-Bloch spaces. As consequence of our results, we obtain a new characterization of the continuity and compactness of composition operators acting between α-Zygmund spaces.