EX.Mag, Vol. 01

EX.Mag #1

by Peow Studio, Freddy Carrasco (cover), Wren McDonald (artist)

FULL METAL DREAMLAND

In the forward of William Gibson's Burning Chrome, Bruce Sterling describes the collection of shorts as a "combination of lowlife and high tech".

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Art, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Julie]

My personal favorites were the pieces (in order of appearance) by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Freddy Carrasco, Giannis Milonogiannis, Tonci Zonjic, and Wren McDonald.

[izzy_my]

By far, the story that I liked the most in this anthology was Connor Willumsen's.

[Tommy Fritz]

Peow Studio is the greatest comics publisher on earth

[Eliot_vibes]

I picked up a physical copy of this in Austin Texas with my roommate back in January. Prior to going into that book store, I hadn't heard of this publishing house. I'd seen one of their works, the official translation of Stop!! Hibari-kun!, but now I need to invest more in keeping up with their work. The art work in this zine was phenomenal and the binding for this book adds to that ten fold. The stories inside are strange and surreal in various ways, but they each have a unique look into a cyberpunk dystopia. It is a really interesting read. I'll def pass it around with my friends from here on out.

[Conrad]

Some really cool stuff here both story-wise and from an illustration perspective. Each artist engages with the contemporary and the futuristic in interesting ways. I did get some tonal whiplash in between all the different comics but I think you can argue that gives more spotlight to the spectrum of perspectives and approaches to the subject matter.

[Nicole]

My favorites were On Show Now and My Grandma Was My Bounty

[Rusteen Honardoost]

A cyberpunk anthology that goes beyond the typical ideas of the genre and finds something new to share

[Bug]

SO COOL and interesting to read !! i love all the different art styles. pringle’s iced coffee is my favourite by far :)

[lauren]

o i LOOOVED this. absolutely gorgeous art style and really fun comics. this was my first anthology and i did kinda get the sensing that i would like it based on the rave reviews that peow studios generally has online but WOW did i enjoy this.

this comic magazine/anthology contains some of the most well thought-out scifi worldbuilding and i would have loved to read books of some of these comics. my favourite ones were foster-dimino’s “on show now”, both mushbuh comics, kelly k’s “assembled by you” and willumsen’s “my grandma was my bounty”, but honestly all were really fantastic. a++++ art too it was really incredible. everything about this reeks with creativity and love for scifi and cyberpunk!!!! which makes me feel something because it has the kind of love for the game that le guin has for scifi and idk this was a really really fun read. i really enjoyed this highly recommend!!!

[André Habet]

An anthology of comics based around cyberpunk as the connecting theme. As with every anthology, this one is hit or miss. Sophia Foster Domino's comic about a funky dating application that uses virtual art galleries in place of alphabetic profiles and fish photos is easily my favorite piece. I love how she uses space in ways that don't mirror our world's physics in a story that's really about the difficulty in finding connections, romantic or otherwise. Connor Willumsen's 'My Grandma Was My Bounty' was also a standout. The last piece, it follows two people in a dystopian world following the 'terrapocalypse' and various robot wars as they attempt to find a refuge one of them sees in a dream. And all the while, they're being hunted by one of their grandchildren, an unseen person who's used gene-hacking to mutate into a human-dolphin hybrid. The story gets even wilder once they arrive at their destination. There aren't any true duds here, just a few entries that seem to simply rehash well-worn cyberpunk narratives, and I think I'd like Tonci Zonjic's comic more had Ines Estrada's wonderful 'Alienation' didn't feature a similar narrative thread. I'm definitely excited to continue on with reading Ex. Mag's future volumes and I really hope that Peow can manage to sort out their shipping troubles (no fault of their own, and this is so down on the list of priorities within a global pandemic) so I can read this again when the print issue arrives.

[wolfie]

Connor Willumsen's story was a clear and incredibly rich stand out, I wanted so badly to stay in that world. The locations were phenomenal, the twist which should have read as cynical really just made me marvel a bit at humanity, and the end had me kind of laughing in shock! really really good! I liked several of the other stories, every participant had something interesting to say about cyber punk whether it be about online spaces, reality tv, or dating sites. My other favorites were "Between the Sun and Tides" for its simple but well realized sci location and "Cyber Story 3049 by Micheal C." which made me laugh really hard.

Last thing! The printing on this book is wonderful, newsprint! a perfect size, weight, and smell! I'm really happy to have a physical copy, I will cherish it for as long as it lasts.

[Titus]

I bought this anthology for the 18-page Connor Willumsen comic it contains, "My Grandma Was My Bounty". I'm a big Willumsen fan and this didn't disappoint at all, even if it's very different from his other comics I've read. It's much more straightforward and conventional than the enigmatic "Anti-Gone" and "Bradley of Him" – essentially a straight exercise in science fiction – but it excels at what it does. It’s as compelling an examination of virtual realities as I’ve come across, unsettling and thought-provoking in a way that has stayed with me in the months since I first read it. Willumsen’s artwork is great too: less experimental than his other comics, but just as expressive, making masterful use of unusual panel grids and contrasts between light and dark to control the pace and mood.

Apart from that clear highlight, my favourite comic in the collection is probably the 25-page "Polygon Bird” by Giannis Milonogiannis. All the comics in the anthology are supposed to be "cyberpunk", but this is the only one that matches my associations with that word – an action-packed, tech-centred adventure in a dystopian futuristic megapolis. The art is cool, the storytelling is strong, the action is exciting and there's a really interesting sci-fi premise at its heart. It works on its own, but it also feels like it could be the beginning of a longer work, and if it is, I'd be down to read the rest.

I'll also give a special mention to the 29-page “On Show Now” by Sophia Foster-Dimino, which is a well-executed exploration of loneliness and dating woes through the lens of futuristic technology. It's not groundbreaking, but it's very good.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are two comics in the collection that I really disliked, both by someone who goes by the pseudonym Mushbuh: the 7-page “Pringle's Iced Coffee” and the 3-page "Toilet". It's rare that I read a comic and get absolutely nothing out of it whatsoever, but these are two such cases. They're unfunny nonsense composed out of what look like autoshapes, and I can't fathom why they're included.

The other five comics here are quite middling, ranging from "OK" to "quite good" in my assessment. There’s also a four-page prose piece, which again is fine but not especially memorable. Overall, then, I enjoyed this anthology but I can’t say it’s a must-read, other than for people like me who are dying to read more by Connor Willumsen.

[Rick Ray]

Peow Studios' in-house anthology starts of with stories centered around a "cyberpunk" theme. A nice range of cartoonists round out this collection - "Sophia Foster-Dimino, Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Mushbuh, Freddy Carrasco, Giannis Milonogiannis, Tonci Zonjic, Jane Mai, Wren McDonald, Kelly K, and Connor Willumsen. It's Willumsen's contribution to this anthology that excited me the most, and his piece - "My Grandma Was My Bounty" - did not disappoint in the slightest. Though it's pretty standard sci-fi fare involving artificial realities, Willumsen's masterfully detailed panels and compositions make this well worth checking out. Other compelling pieces included "Between the Sun and Tides" by Nkondo and "Polygon Bird" by Milonogiannis.

Though "cyberpunk" was the ascribed theme to the series, it was interesting to see how the various contributors stretch the definition to meet their own understanding. The variety of stories and aesthetics employed here were pretty riveting, even if the actual content of many of the stories weren't necessarily all that memorable. I had a mostly great time with this one.

[Israel Vento]

peow seems like a strange place but whatever theyre smoking on is fine by me.

The blending and use of technology has always felt ahead of the curve from this studio and the artists they put on . Freddy Carrasco's short is insane, he does so much with so little. Giannis Milonogiannis (insane name from that guy) blends 3d renderings & 2d drawings perfectly and Sophia Foster-Dimino really makes the cyber-punk concept work on a more intimate level. there's a lot more in there and it's all really next level stuff.

as i draw more on my ipad i realize how much i prefer pen and paper over all these "brushes". maybe I'm achieving washed unc status with that take but idc. peow lets me live vicariously through their pages for all the things i can't figure out on my ipad.

[Peter Hollo]

I supported the original Kickstarter, so I've had this since it was published.
The Connor Willumsen story, "My grandma was my bounty", as many of the other reviews mentioned, is the clear standout and a masterpiece. An incredibly weird world with a portal into something sinisterly familiar, it stuck in my head and a year or two later I had all these images but couldn't work out what it was, for weeks!
The rest of the anthology is patchy but there's good stuff throughout. Just overshadowed by Willumsen!

[Natalie]

its kind of crazy but i liked basically every story in this anthology?? which is very rare, especially because there is so much variety in the stories and art styles (which i also really appreciated.) the ones that stood out to me were: on show now (sophia foster-dimino), personal companion (freddy carrasco), polygon bird (giannis milonogiannis), suncrest (wren mcdonald), my grandma was my bounty (connor willumsen). but as i said i enjoyed all of them !

[Bill]

BAM! Exciting. Surprising. Charming and weird. Ex.Mag is exactly what I was hoping for from editor/creator Wren McDonald and more. Beautiful art and design. Intriguing stories full of cyberpunk goodness of all stripes. Peow puts out beautiful books. This is one of them. Great job Wren McDonald! I hope you get a chance to keep making more. I backed issue five so at least I have that to look forward to. Till then, I’ll flip through issues one - four again.

[Lemon Ginger]

Lovely collection of sci fi that feels closer to me. Exploration of topics like how we can decorate our online space literally and robots that get away from copyright by procreating with humans. Love the discovery of different cool artists who have enough space to play with the theme as they see fit.

[Carly]

More miss than hit for me in this volume. Still like to read anthologies though. My favourite stories are 1) Between the Sun and Tides by Jonathan Djob Nkondo, 2) Suncrest by Wren McDonald and 3) Polygon Bird by Giannis Milonogiannis.

[TxD]

Another fantastic piece from Peow. Some lovely short comics and stories. Looking forward to working through the remaining EX.Mag entries. Super rad to have a comic by Jonathan Djob Nkondo, and recognizing his style from Scavengers Reign. Bravo.

[Keith Kavanagh]

so cool that something like this came to fruition, willumsen's and nkondo's obviously coming out on top

[frankie]

it's an epic anthology ! wooo buddy! for the most part i liked it - just with a couple stories i skipped over cause i wasn't really interested but i really enjoyed wren mcdonald's story the most.

[Joshua Williams]

3.5 rounded up. Some amazing stories and some junk

[✥ Simy]

Really cool collection of short comics.

[Rosie]

so cool!!!! definitely inspired me to do more cyberpunk-y art

[Greg Steele]

I wanted to like it more than I did. Cool concept and packaging. Some good artists, especially Wren Macdonald.

[Daniel]

As always an extremely well-curated group of comics here. Gonna re-read all the Freddy Carrasco I've got.

[Marcus Skog]

Decent collection of series, short and sweet. Some good some less.

[Sudais]

Amazing collection of stories. Some of these honestly feel like the cutting-edge of visual storytelling.

[Dairian H.]

Some cool art.