I’ve talked at length about anthologies in the past. I always love a good anthology and all of the creativity it brings—the limited page counts, the small scales, the distillations of character and plot. Everything about them is perfect for comics, and is what made many of the pre-code anthologies so special to readers at the time. And while anthologies aren’t as ubiquitous as they were in the past, new ones still pop up occasionally to show us just why these short-form stories are some of the best in the medium.

Oni Press has for us a new anthology in the first issue of Xino. Broken up into four different pieces, we have stories by creators like Chris Condon, Nick Cagnetti, Melissa Flores, Daniel Irizarri, Phil Hester, Jordan Thomas, Shaky Kane, and Jim Campbell all leading us through some of the best short science fiction storytelling this year. From experimental technology that causes a blind man to see for the first time—including ethereal creatures no one else can see—to a classic 60s invasion story with a twist to a near-future dystopia far underground to corporate assassinations disguised as a new video game system, Xino runs the gamut of the strange science fiction that feels immediately classic. Told in ten pages or less, each story gives us a new world and a new kind of fear while it dives deeper into our paranoia.

In its brevity, Xino really shines brightest. Take the final story in this issue, “The Chip” by Condon, Cagnetti, and Campbell. Over ten pages, we have the set-up—a gaming company pitching a new dream-based gaming system to a streamer—the realization that this system has caused the streamer to kill someone while thinking it was a dream, and the pay-off of what the system is really doing to his body. From the first page splicing in moments from the murder to the slow discovery that his dream wasn’t a dream, we’re immediately drawn into the tension of the situation before the cops arrive at his door. With the proceeding chase as the system slowly starts to burst its way out of the streamer’s body, the tension maintains until the final bloody panel. Because of the brevity, we’re hooked from the beginning while the creators work to ratchet up the tension panel by panel.

While Xino isn’t the first science fiction anthology to release in the past few years, it’s one of the stronger examples of what short-form stories in the medium can do when given the opportunity. It isn’t just a showcase of stories, but a showcase of the talent that went into making them. Anthologies have always existed for this reason—to give creators a place to really explore some of these smaller topics and stories that wouldn’t work as longer series. It’s one of the reasons I always want to write about them—they’re opportunities to see just what a great creator can do with such a small bit of space. 

Get excited. Get strange. 

_______

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, & 510) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.