I’m always looking for weird fiction anthologies, so I was thrilled to find this speculative and weird fiction graphic novel anthology. When a book is described as “an intra-ocular lozenge of subversive, surrealist science fiction,” you better believe I’m going to be interested. XINO comes from Oni Press, a publisher I trust, so I had high hopes for this collection. Written and illustrated by many different writers and artists, this collection is diverse, colorful, loud, unapologetically weird, and staggeringly creative.
| Title: XINO, Volume 1 | Author: Multi-Author Anthology |
| Release Date: January 23, 2024 | Publisher: Oni Press |
| Page Count: 144 | Genre: Weird Fiction / Speculative |
Goodreads / Volume on Amazon / Individual Comic Issues on Amazon
Synopsis:
“If you like your sci-fi comics as weird as they are high-concept, then you’ll definitely want to be on the lookout for Xino.” —IGN
“An absolute who’s who of rising creators. Every story in this collection is a banger, and I can’t recommend it enough.” —Comics Beat
Because the future is getting weirder everyday, we give you XINO—an intra-ocular lozenge of subversive, surrealist science fiction to cure your awful awareness of it all. Try not to worry—the insertion process will be guided by the megawatt brilliance of comics’ brightest talents as they slowly tune your hopes, dreams, desires, paranoia, alienation, anxiety, and adrenaline to produce the desired results.
Join Melissa Flores (The Dead Lucky, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and Daniel Irizarri (Judge Dredd) as they surgically activate the hidden dimensions of the human senses; cult phenoms Christopher Condon (That Texas Blood) and Nick Cagnetti (Pink Lemonade) debut the world’s first intravenous video game system; underground radicals Jordan Thomas (Weird Work) and Shaky Kane (Bulletproof Coffin) surveil the suburbs for signs of covert infiltration; plus much, more from a startling cast of megawatt talents, including Phil Hester (Gotham City: Year One), David Lapham (Stray Bullets) and Maria Lapham force our collective psyche into unrecognizable new dimensions; award-winning and bestselling author Alex Segura (Secret Identity) and Zander Cannon (Kaijumax) embark on an intergalactic journey of revenge; François Vigneault (Titan) and Artyom Trakhanov (First Knife) deliver bleeding-edge technology to Paleolithic man; Dan McDaid (DEGA) takes weaponized incompetence to the next level; Connor Willumsen (Bradley Of Him) digs deep into our capacity for self-delusion—which doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
All that and much much more in this dazzling deconstruction of our past, present, and future!
Review:
This anthology blew my socks off. XINO is the most groundbreaking and far-reaching anthology of weird fiction I’ve ever read, regardless of format. The fact that this anthology is a graphic novel and has incredible art is the cherry on top. While the stories are vastly different in scope and narrative style, all of them are weird, subversive, and speculative. So many of the short stories turned out to be five-star reads for me. The following list details the stories that were my favorite, with a short description of each, limiting spoilers to a minimum.
- “Rabbit Trap,” written by Jordan Thomas and illustrated by Shaky Kane: a man in 1963 keeps a close eye on his neighbors, but maybe looks in the wrong place.
- “Visceral,” written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Molly Mendoza: four hikers get a little lost and find something not on their map.
- “Free Hugs or The Ballad of MEGaVORTEX!,” by David and Maria Lapham and colored by Francesco Segala: a man must make important life decisions about marriage, having children, and changing his username.
- “Easy Beazy,” written and illustrated by David Hahn: in which a robotics college student field-tests a robot with his friends.
- “Testimonial,” written by Hagal Palevsky and illustrated by Carson Thorn: where a man’s testimony of how he came back from the dead isn’t exactly what it seems.
- “Buster,” written and lettered by Andrew Carl and illustrated by Sophie Franz: a police department overlooks important clues in a murder investigation in a near-future world.
- “sticky tape,” by Dan McDaid: a man is special but for the worst possible reason.
- “The People,” written by Francois Vigneault and illustrated by Artyom Trakhanov: an ancient people group discovers a scientific device well beyond their time.
If it’s not obvious, it would be a whole lot easier to tell you about the stories that weren’ta hit for me. This anthology was that impressive. I enjoyed this collection cover to cover, and I hope we see more volumes in this series.
Art:
The art in this collection is varied and diverse, and I enjoyed that it was never quite the same from story to story. While some stories had clean, 60s-style art, others were purposely sketchy and rough. I appreciated these contrasts throughout the graphic novel and never felt bored stylistically. Although I liked some of the art styles more than others, the worlds were all challenging, weird, and meticulously crafted.
Final Thoughts:
This collection is a must-read for lovers of speculative and weird fiction, even if you don’t typically read graphic novels. This anthology is filled with wonderful writers and illustrators, and these stories are incredible. I can’t wait to see more from these creators in the future.
Rating: 5+/5 stars. Although not every story was 5 stars for me, most were. I’ve also added XINO to my Goodreads Infinity Stars shelf, where I collect my favorite books.
Thanks to Oni Press for an advanced review copy! All the above thoughts are my own. The art assets belong to the publisher.
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