''Rex Mundi'' is an

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

series published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

(2003–2006) and

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

(2006–2009), written by

Arvid Nelson Arvid Nelson is an American comic book writer, best known for '' Rex Mundi''. Life and career Nelson started writing comics while at Dartmouth College, where he also converted to the Baháʼí Faith. After graduating in 1999 he became a productio ...

and drawn by

Argentinian Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

artist Juan Ferreyra. In all, 19 issues were published by Image before the series moved to Dark Horse, where a further 19 were published before the title ended. The series is a quest for the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracul ...

told as a murder mystery. It is set in the year 1933, in an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

Europe, where magic is real, feudalism persisted, and the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

was crushed by a still politically powerful

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. All of this is woven together as "... a meditation on the prophecies surrounding the advent of the Baháʼí era."Arvid Nelson talks ''Rex Mundi''
''

Comic Book Resources ''Comic Book Resources'', also known by the initialism CBR, is a website dedicated to the coverage of comic book–related news and discussion. History Comic Book Resources was founded by Jonah Weiland in 1995 as a development of the Kingdom Co ...

'', July 18, 2008 The book takes its name from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

term meaning ''King of the World''. It is derived from the Cathar

heresies Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, and taken up in works like '' The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail''. Within the Cathar context it seems to have been equated with the

Demiurge In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge () is an artisan-like figure responsible for fashioning and maintaining the physical universe. The Gnostics adopted the term ''demiurge''. Al ...

Publication history

''Rex Mundi'' writer and co-creator Arvid Nelson came up with ''Rex Mundi'' while in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

helping to film a documentary on ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'', a literary magazine founded by

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

ex-pats An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

in the 1950sInterview with Arvid Nelson

Internet Review of Science Fiction
', December 2004 (login required)Nelson talks ''Rex Mundi'' and religion
''

'', September 17, 2008 Surrounded by the juxtaposition of being in an ancient city in otherwise modern times, Nelson says he had the idea, although very vague at the time, about a story set in a place that looked modern but was actually medieval. When speaking of his plans for the story, Nelson said that it would remain primarily set in Europe, but the very end will involve a Muslim Spain. ''Rex Mundi'' artist, Juan Ferreyra, cites photographer

Eugène Atget Eugène Atget (; 12 February 1857 – 4 August 1927) was a French ''flâneur'' and a pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to mod ...

, artist Alphonse Mucha and Coco Chanel among the many visual references for his work in ''Rex Mundi''. Nelson described the impact his belief in the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

had on the concept: ''Rex Mundi'' was initially published by

, starting in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. In August

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

it moved to

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

. This came about after Nelson and Eric J split over creative differences. Eric J described the situation in a note to members of the Rex Mundi mailing list announcing his departure from the title: Subsequently, Nelson sent the Image collections to Dark Horse editor Scott Allie. Dark Horse then expressed interest in taking over the publication of ''Rex Mundi'', and Nelson described it as "an incredible opportunity that he wanted to take full advantage of".

Related comics

Rex Mundi devotes space in each issue to a fictitious newspaper, ''Le Journal de la Liberté'', which enables Nelson to embellish events elsewhere in the setting without writing them entirely in his storylines, thus giving readers some useful, but not always essential, background. The official website for ''Rex Mundi'' initially carried a spin-off comic series called ''Brother Matthew''. Prior to the breakdown in the creative team of Nelson and Johnson, Nelson had commented that he was considering another comic series set in the same universe as ''Rex Mundi'' with different characters. ''

The Dark Horse Book of Monsters ''The Dark Horse Book of...'' was the banner title given to a series of four Dark Horse Comics one-shot hardcover comic book horror anthologies edited by Scott Allie and featuring the work of Mike Mignola and others. In 2017 Dark Horse collected ...

'', which was the fourth book released in a series of books under ''

The Dark Horse Book of ''The Dark Horse Book of...'' was the banner title given to a series of four Dark Horse Comics one-shot hardcover comic book horror anthologies edited by Scott Allie and featuring the work of Mike Mignola and others. In 2017 Dark Horse collected ...

'' banner, included a ''Rex Mundi'' story by Nelson and Ferreyra called 'To Weave a Lover'.

Collected editions

''Rex Mundi'' has been collected in the following

trade paperbacks A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, ...

Film adaptation

There have been a number of rumours about a film version of ''Rex Mundi''. In 2006,

Jim Uhls Jim Uhls is an American screenwriter known for his screenplays for ''Fight Club'' (1999) and ''Jumper'' (2008). Uhls graduated from Drake University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and completed the Master of Fine Arts in Screenwrit ...

was hired to write a script for

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...

to star in and produce.King of the world of adaptation
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', September 20, 2006 It is not known how much further production has progressed since then. Arvid Nelson confirms the rumor of the movie, and working with Johnny Depp.My Interview with Arvid Nelson
''Housewife in Hollywood'', June 11, 2008 In December 2008, Nelson described that "the wheels of Hollywood grind slowly. ... We are at a second revision of the screenplay, so that's good. The way this works is there are periods of feverish activity, followed by lulls ... We're in one of the lulls now." An interview with

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''Splash Page'' in March 2009 confirmed the film was still progressing and searching for a director.Exclusive: ''Rex Mundi'' Studio Wants Someone 'Not Unlike Zack Snyder' To Direct Johnny Depp

''Splash Page'', March 25, 2009

References

External links

*
Juan Ferreyra's blog

Arvid Nelson's website
* {{IMDb title, id=0871441, title=Rex Mundi (in-development)

Interviews

Podcast interview
with Arvid Nelson a
comiXology

Americans in Paris: An interview with EricJ and Arvid Nelson
''Ninth Art'', November 11, 2002
Interview with Rex Mundi Creators Arvid Nelson & Eric J
''PopImage.com'', undated * Interview: Rex Mundi Collected
part 1part 2
, ''PopImage.com'', undated
Arvid Nelson on ''Rex Mundis final arc
''

'', December 18, 2008

Reviews

Review of ''Rex Mundi Book III, The Lost Kings''
''The Daily Cross Hatch'', March 8, 2007 Dark Horse Comics titles Holy Grail in fiction