Written and Illustrated by Danijel Zezelj
80 pages – B&W – $9.95usd
ISBN – 9780980906400
For the first time ever, acclaimed graphic novelist and artist, Danijel Zezelj’s earlier and darkest book Rex, has been released in an English edition from Optimum Wound Comics.
The original pages were retrieved in May, 2007 from Croatia. They have been rescanned, retouched and the English translation was given a fresh polish.
The man called “Rex” is imprisoned as a decorated police officer, emerging on the other side of his prison sentence as an unrecognizable monster, created by years of obsession. He searches for both closure and bloodshed as he tracks down a love from his past to say goodbye, and then feverishly turns his eye toward hunting down the men responsible for making him the brutal beast he has become.
Where to Buy Rex
You can grab it from the Optimum Wound Online Store
You can order it from your local comic store using Diamond Comics order code MAR083903
You can order it online @ Heavy Ink
You can buy it @ Amazon
Rex Reviews
Top Shelf Comix – Brett Warnock -
“Well this sucker is like a fucking roundhouse kick to the face, pumping with high energy jams. And his art here seems MUCH more nuanced… a better use of grey tones that what i’ve seen before.”
AICN Comics
“This book is a Pantera song fueled by Red Bull, steroids, and amphetamines. It’s a manly read with pictures that look more chiseled than drawn by writer/artist Danijel Zezelj… There’s not much by way of heady conversation in this book. It simply exists to kick ass, and a lot of it… Highly recommended for those of you needing a good hard dose of tough.”
“thank goodness for the team at Optimum Wound Comics, a boutique online publisher that is now pushing hard to showcase more of Zezelj’s groundbreaking work in print. The opening page boldly tells us much of what we need to know about the REX world, with its urban poet graffiti tag style, filled with lyrical rhyme and raw power. It’s an interesting mix of in your face violence and quiet contemplation about man’s existential angst.”
ABORT Magazine
“Dark, violent and smart, with Rex author Zezelj creates tension by shifting from longer shots to extreme close-ups and back again, all with stylish aplomb and exceptional detail. Combining amazing visual style with superlative storytelling, his detailed and emotionally charged black and white images make each ferocious frame a truly unique work of art.”
Alan David Doane – Comic Book Galaxy
“reminds me of nothing so much as it does the sort of testosterone-fueled, ultra-violent comics for grownups that Richard Corben used to create for what were then called “ground level” comics, in the 1970s and ’80s…Danijel Zezelj’s Rex has swearing and boobies to spare, as well as a level of brutality that might not even fit in today at DC’s Vertigo imprint, although it might fly with Marvel’s MAX or Icon lines.”
“When a piece of comic book fiction stands out from the rest of the pack and from most of what plague the shelves each and every week I feel of course it is my duty to share it with you. When I read something that pulls me in and delivers on multiple levels it makes reading 90% of soul-sucking comics that make me want to stab my own eyes out worth it…REX is one of these Marvels that makes wading through the horror of bad comics bearable.”
Indie Pulp
“It’s interesting to compare this early work to Zezelj’s current output; you can definitely see how he has refined his heavily-shadowed style over the years. At this point, he seemed a bit more frenetic, filling pages with splatters of ink to create pools of shadow (and lots of blood). Or maybe he was just amping up the grotesquerie to fit the ultra-noir trappings of his tale…He renders characters in a baroquely high-contrast style, showing every rippling muscle, wrinkle, wound, and scar in a criss-cross of black lines that cover their bodies and faces…Action scenes are full of visceral intensity, with bodies crashing into each other violently in a jumble of brush strokes.”
More love for Rex…
“Zezelj’s glorious, hardcore black and white style grabs you by the throat and crushes your wind pipe with it’s Ink-chiseled-graphic-brilliance and sheer power of imagery. “REX” is a triumph of this extraordinary artist’s unique and compelling vision.”- Tim Bradstreet, illustrator (The Punisher, Hellblazer, Criminal Macabre) and co-founder of Raw Studios.
“Quite simply, the work of a major creator. Zezelj combines a taut story of revenge with visuals that tickle the eye and astonish the senses. Rex is must reading, not only for genre fans but all fans of great art.” – Ho Che Anderson, writer & artist of King: A Comics Biography of Martin Luther King
“Revenge stories are timeless, and REX is one of the better ones. Zezelj’s art, no matter how beautiful and stylized it gets, retains a strong sense of realism that’s like a punch in the gut. Hard landscapes, tough characters, and shocking violence… REX is pure pulp comics, drawn by a master of black and white art.”- Brian Wood, writer of DMZ, Northlanders & Demo
“A work that’s raw and invasively visceral. Art as muscular and cut as the main character of the story. Angry and roaring, with a chip on it’s shoulder that threatens to crush it. It’s creator, Danijel Zezelj, is one of the most unique cartoonists of his generation. It almost seems like he’s sculpting– not drawing– on paper. There is such a forceful physicality to his work that you can’t deny the reality of it. Or the mood– I mean, the guy draws mood and emotion… tension…” – Brian Azzarello, writer of 100 Bullets, Joker and Filthy Rich
Images from Rex
Rex page 11
Rex page 12
Rex page 14
Rex page 15
Rex page 16
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