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CHRIS ROBERSON • DENNIS CULVER



CHRIS ROBERSON & DENNIS CULVER story

CHRIS ROBERSON writer

DENNIS CULVER artist

STEPHEN DOWNER colorist

JOHN J. HILL letterer

ALLISON BAKER editorEdison Rex logo designed by DYLAN TODD

Translation Assist by BRIAN CLARK



I N T R O

D U C T I O N

So, does anyone remember when comics used to be…fun?

Obviously, Chris Roberson and Dennis Culver do.

Their bad-guy-made-good ongoing series EDISON REX is a

nostalgic joyride through the days when super-hero comics

delivered smiles along with thrills, juggled absurd characters

and world-shaking events with a deadpan earnestness, and

delved into serious philosophical issues with a light-hearted

panache. Y’know…that sort of stuff that used to be comic

books’ stock-in-trade.

As an author, Roberson has made no secret of his love for the

throwaway culture of his youth (and the generations preceding

his) wherein he experienced full license to unleash a churning

and unbridled sense of imagination. His earliest prose effortsembraced the ideal that all pop culture owes a debt to science

fiction and it was by turning his writer’s eye to the world of comics

that he finally found the venue to let this creative libido run wild.

Chris realizes the weighty issues of identity, destiny, responsibility

and redemption are often best explored in a world where blasting

ray-guns, contemplative cyborgs, love-struck alien hybrids and

pulsating wormholes are the bucolic norm.

At its heart EDISON REX is a story of personal redemption coupled

with headstrong determination. Having set up in the series’ firststory arc how his Luthor/Magneto-inspired main character comes

to a startling life change and finds that he must now step up to the

plate and bat for the other team, Roberson herein delves deeper

into the repercussions of that transformation. Finally, we learn the

origin of Edison and Valiant’s legendary rivalry and how the all-

too familiar pains of youthful arrogance and resentment spurred

our title “hero” down a path that he never intended nor imagined

for himself. In time, his more mature self manages to shrug off the

repercussions of that folly and forge ahead with what he knows

to be right, regardless of public perception. His white hair and

solid build are visual reminders of a hard won wisdom that his

opponents can never hope to match.

Part of what makes REX so enjoyable is how Roberson and Culver

conjure up a world full of tongue-in-cheek situations and giggle-

worthy name puns while never once sacrificing the gravitas of his

narrative. The outlandish characters who bound, dash, slither

and fly through their panels are never blithe or ironic but rather

are fully invested in the outcome of their larger-than-life schemes

and situations. Edison himself stands as the most engaged of the

bunch, treating every hyperbolic conundrum that he must tacklewith an urgent tenacity that leaves little doubt that he is, in fact, the

hero he spent so much of his life trying to eradicate.



Chris and Dennis also manage to squeeze more story and structure

into 14 tidy pages than most authors manage in two or three

times that length. Their aim seems not only to recapture the joyful

energy of comics’ bygone days but also to occasionally examine

how the path of those heady narratives has been sidetracked in

the intervening years. Whether it’s the hyper-kinetic aspects of

Japanese Manga or the overly ornate stylings of the early Image

era, Roberson and Culver toss paint bombs of many different

comic book motifs at their Rexian world. Inevitably, they all ooze

down the drain in favor of his simpler, purer reality.

That purity is amply served and portrayed by Dennis Culver’s

bold and unfussy visual punch. His solid designs and back-to-

basics storytelling are as much a testimony of his love for comics’

golden days as his co-creator’s classic Who’s Who write-ups that

accompany nearly every issue.

EDISON REX transports me to blissful afternoons spent perched

on my bed and surrounded by a swath of the latest four-color

adventures of my favorite crusaders, a bag of salty snacks and

ice-cold soda at hand. Its creators obviously remember and

relish those days as well. But, thankfully, these guys aren’t content

to merely recreate those golden stories of yore. Instead, they

somehow manage to bring them full circle into a contemporary

and provocative narrative universe that I feel certain they’ll be able

to explore for years and years to come.

Lucky us. Comics are fun again.

MATT WAGNER Portland, OR

2013



EDISON REX, VOL. 2: HEIR APPARENT. MARCH 2014.

FIRST PRINTING. Edison Rex © 2014 Monkeybrain, Inc.

and Dennis Culver. © 2014 Idea and Design Works, LLC.

IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC.

Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109.

The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely

coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review

purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be

reprinted without the permission of Idea and Design Works,

LLC. Printed in Korea.

IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited

submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher • Greg Goldstein, President &

COO • Robbie Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist • Chris Ryall,

Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief • Matthew Ruzicka, CPA,

Chief Financial Officer • Alan Payne, VP of Sales • Dirk Wood,

VP of Marketing • Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Digital Services

ISBN: 978-1-61377-916-317 16 15 14 1 2 3 4

IDW founded by Ted Adams, Alex Garner, Kris Oprisko, and Robbie Robbins



“To Julius Schwartz, who presided overmy childhood imagination.” –CHRIS

“To Batman, Parker and ScroogeMcDuck. And to my wife, Wendy.Always Wendy.” –DENNIS

“For Hergé, whose work on Tintin mademe fall in love with comics for the firsttime.” –STEVE

“To Ryane, who puts up with middle of thenight keyboard and mouse clicks, days offat conventions, and non stop horror moviesand COPS on the TV.” – JOHN

“To all the girls I’ve loved before.” – ALLISON

edison rex, vol. 2 preview

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