Let’s consider where we all were the last time I had written about Ex.Mag and try not to wallow too hard. But at the very least we can be excited about something consistent in our lives: really good comic anthologies. Peow2 has ensured that we’re going to have something to look forward to whenever one of their Kickstarters drops and we’re left waiting for the inevitable publishing. Luckily, the time has come and we can lay in the comfort of the sixth Ex.Mag volume, 100 Billion Stars.

Like every volume, there’s a thematic thread tying together the thirteen stories across three hundred pages. This time around, it’s relatively simple: space exploration. From this point, we have a springboard from which nearly any kind of story can jump. We can have crews operating mining vessels for cash. Or we can have tiny explorers looking at the remains of a human outpost for any sign of life they can bring home. Or a meditation on what would happen if a tree grew in space. Or even two friends who map the stars together, one lamenting that this is their last assignment together before they have to part ways. It shows the breadth of stories capable of being told with a fairly straightforward prompt. And while there are a couple stories that deal with similar subjects—exploring space for resources—the ways this idea is approached is so completely different that they don’t look like they’re from the same anthology. 

More than anything, this idea of interpretation is what makes a series like Ex.Mag the kind of anthology that I come back to whenever that Kickstarter launches. As much as I read comics, follow artists and illustrators online, and try to stay relatively active in different comic spaces online, I’m always going to miss someone good. Anthologies like this provide that essential spotlight to rare corners of comics. And with the theme of space exploration for this volume, we really get to see how that phrase can light up an imagination in a dozen different ways. Looking at something like “Aeon Orbit” by Linnea Sterte and Gareth Damien Martin, the exploration of space has already happened as we follow a pilot crash-landed on a continually evolving planet. She’s crashed with a woman asleep in a cryogenic chamber and has no idea when she’ll emerge. But the pilot cultivates her small spot on the planet for this sleeping woman, leaving only a journal behind when she finally emerges.

I can never speak highly enough of any good anthology. Short stories told well are what comics need to evolve and providing space for them in a way that is easily accessible keeps readers coming to see what different creators can do. The more we work within the limits of a themed anthology, the more ideas we can sprout from simple prompts and the better the comics will be. 

Get excited. Get lost.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, 510, 651, & 674) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.