Rex Ogle Talks About The Success Of ‘Free Lunch’ And His Childhood-Rooted Love For X-Men

We all have our list of favorite authors and no matter what niche of writing you enjoy, there’s one author who is consistently on that list and that is Rex Ogle. From heartwarming middle-grade books to entertaining comics, the range he has is insane. We had the pleasure of speaking with him about his career, Marvel, and more.

Everyone had those far-fetched ideas of what they wanted to be when they grew up and for Rex, there was no exception. “The first thing I wanted to be was an astronaut. Of course, I was five and hadn’t yet watched horror movies about dying in outer space. So in first grade, I wrote and illustrated a 12-page comic about traveling to the moon with a monkey on a stolen spaceship. That’s when I realized I could create and control my own adventures in my head and on my paper…. I was hooked. I’ve spent my entire life writing and trying to get published, but my career only really took off in the last few years, and I’m stoked.”

While getting hooked on writing, he also spent his upbringing with his nose peeking into a book, but not just any kind of book: comics. “I grew up on X-Men. I mean, sure, I started with Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak and the Hard Boys, but it was Marvel Comics that captured my heart and my imagination. And the beauty of the X-Men is that it was a diverse cast that protected a world that feared and hated them. I was too young to realize, but it’s very much a metaphor for the queer and diverse communities. That only fueled my resolve to write for Marvel one day…”

He did eventually work for Marvel, and afterward, released one iconic book after another, especially the award-winning favorite ‘Free Lunch’. It was obvious to everyone who’d ever read it that it was a clear success, but for this author, he had no idea. “No. Not in the slightest. In my 20s and 30s, I was writing a lot of fantasy and sci-fi in the middle grade and young adult space and was getting rejected right and left. In fact, I wrote Free Lunch as an exercise to write something different from my escapist narratives, and when my agent sent it out? Rejected across the board. Five years later, I wrote a post for the Huffington Post, and a publisher read it. He told his girlfriend about it, and she was like, “I work with him. I can introduce you.” That publisher (Simon of Norton Young Readers) took a chance on me, and then everything took off, thanks to librarians and educators.”

He quickly became a household name in the writing industry…well multiple names actually. He’s worked under several pseudonyms throughout his career thus far and he’s got quite the inventive reasoning behind it. “After college, I still wanted to be a writer but didn’t want to be a starving artist. So I took a duffle bag and a few hundred bucks and moved to NYC to work in book publishing. While working as an editor at certain places, it’s considered a conflict of interest to write for other companies. So I came up with pen names to hide my identity.  It’s also nice because each pen name has its own lane. For instance, under Rey Terciero, I take classics I loved as a teen, and turn them into modern-day graphic novels, often with a queer element.”

With all of these pen names taking on different genres, there’s still one book category that has Rex’s heart. “I write prose, verse, and graphic novels, as well as memoir, fiction, and fantasy, all for either a middle-grade or young adult audience. Some are really heavy and dark, and others much lighter fare, but I love every project I work on—mostly because everything I write is for 12-year-old me who was hungry for unique stories. I would love to return to sci-fi one day soon, and of course, one day, I plan on writing X-Men.”

Speaking of X-Men, as the former staff member for both Marvel and DC, both of which have exciting lineups for live-action work, Rex is excited to see how both companies continue their legacies, but don’t spoil it for him! “Truthfully, I avoid every spoiler I can. I don’t even watch trailers anymore, because they give away the whole movie these days, and it drives me crazy. I want to be surprised in the movies! But I’m super stoked to see what Marvel has in store—especially if they bring in Rogue to suck the life and powers out of Carol Danvers and toss her off a bridge. LOL. As for Deadpool & Wolverine? I absolutely adored it. It was made for fanboys like me, who grew up reading X-Men and New Mutants and X-Force. There were actual covers and interior panels from the 80’s and 90’s comics that were recreated on screen and as set pieces. It was beautiful.”

An exceptional and proud LGBTQIA+ author with a diverse career background, Rex is truly an inspiration to anyone holding a pencil and luckily, he’s got some advice on how people can follow in his footsteps. “There’s so much advice I could offer up, not just to the queer community but to anyone who wants to be a writer. But I think the first is that if you want to enter this field, grow a thick skin. I have literally been rejected over a thousand times. But I wear those rejections as badges of honor, because every “no” means I put myself out there. And for every 99 “no’s” there is bound to be just one “yes.” The advice I would write for my LGBTQIA+ community would be to put yourself into your stories. For a long time, I wrote only white, straight, male characters. But in recent years, I realized that was fear and internal homophobia—that a queer, Latinx man like myself couldn’t be the main hero. But that’s not the case at all. Readers like us, especially those in the younger generation, need stories about us, written by us. Lean into your diversity and uniqueness. Your story is just as valid and important as any other.”

“You can learn more about my books at www.rexogle.com and check out sneak peeks of my books (and copious pics of my dog and plaid shirt collection) on Instagram @thirdrex . Finally, if you want to join me happy, fun, zenn, and totally free newsletter, hit me up at https://substack.com/@thirdrex.”

Je’Kayla Crawford– Founder and Director– Je’Kayla has been a journalist for years and decided to start a publication of her own, New Scene. When not helping her team and working on the monthly issues, you can find her watching a movie on Netflix or baking using a viral Tasty recipe.