The Mad Genius Reconsidered: Mad Cave Studios’ Sharp, Unexpected New Look At Nikola Tesla
by Brendan M. Allen
Tesla has become cultural shorthand for ‘genius,’ but the short version rarely tells the whole story.
This summer, Mad Cave Studios’ Comixology Originals line presents Nikola Tesla. The witty and unexpectedly human graphic novel comes from writer Sergio Rossi, artist Giovanni Scarduelli, letterer Giulia Gabrielli, and translator Lucy Lenzi. This stacked creative team looks past the mythology surrounding one of history’s most iconic inventors in a smart, emotionally grounded examination of invention, ambition, and the uneasy mythology of genius..
Who was Nikola Tesla? A brilliant inventor or a visionary uncoupled from his time? In this fictionalized exploration of his life, two filmmakers set out to settle the debate. Growing up in poverty in the mid-19th century under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Tesla studied and became an engineer on his own strength. He emigrated to America, where he was employed in the laboratory of the famous Thomas Edison, the inventor of the phonograph and the light bulb. But corruption and competition among Tesla’s colleagues–chief among them Edison himself–led to the “War of Currents,” a heated race for control of the world electricity market.
Tesla came out on top of that race, but a strange and tragic confluence of events and prejudices led to his public downfall. With more than two hundred different patents and inventions over his lifetime, including the remote control and fluorescent lighting, Tesla is remembered today as one of the most important innovators in modern history. Sergio Rossi and Giovanni Scarduelli’s funny, heartfelt retelling speaks not only to the inventor’s legacy, but to our relationship with technology and the very concept of “genius.”
Rossi, whose background spans physics, science communication, publishing, and comics history, brings both technical insight and narrative nuance to the story, while Scarduelli – known for his visually rich biographical work – renders a dynamic portrait of a figure whose life was as volatile as the inventions that helped reshape the modern world.
Nikola Tesla goes on sale August 11, 2026, in paperback (ISBN: 9781545827659 | $19.99) format. Preorders are open from your favorite LCS, book shop, or from Mad Cave directly.
