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EX.Mag #1
EX.Mag, Vol. 01
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".
In the forward of William Gibson's Burning Chrome, Bruce Sterling describes the collection of shorts as a "combination of lowlife and high tech".
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
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287 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 1, 2021
My personal favorites were the pieces (in order of appearance) by Sophia Foster-Dimino, Freddy Carrasco, Giannis Milonogiannis, Tonci Zonjic, and Wren McDonald.
December 6, 2020
By far, the story that I liked the most in this anthology was Connor Willumsen's.
April 14, 2025
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.
December 3, 2021
My favorites were On Show Now and My Grandma Was My Bounty
December 8, 2021
A cyberpunk anthology that goes beyond the typical ideas of the genre and finds something new to share
October 9, 2022
SO COOL and interesting to read !! i love all the different art styles. pringle’s iced coffee is my favourite by far :)
January 28, 2025
Peow Studio is the greatest comics publisher on earth
Read
June 13, 2020An 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.
July 20, 2020
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.
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.
April 21, 2023
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.
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.
October 29, 2023
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.
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.
September 2, 2025
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!
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!
December 7, 2022
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 !
August 31, 2024
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.
November 16, 2022
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.
June 1, 2020
so cool that something like this came to fruition, willumsen's and nkondo's obviously coming out on top
November 30, 2020
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.
December 16, 2020
3.5 rounded up. Some amazing stories and some junk
March 29, 2022
Really cool collection of short comics.
September 3, 2022
so cool!!!! definitely inspired me to do more cyberpunk-y art
February 22, 2024
Mushbuh is wild
August 21, 2024
I wanted to like it more than I did. Cool concept and packaging. Some good artists, especially Wren Macdonald.
December 15, 2025
As always an extremely well-curated group of comics here. Gonna re-read all the Freddy Carrasco I've got.
August 28, 2020
An extremely solid collection of comics and illustration (and a satirical short story) in a wide range of styles and moods, all exploring the cyberpunk genre. Some artists here really push the boundaries of the concept, a couple stick to reverential genre exercises, others have carved out their own unique niche and work within that space, but they're all working at a level to be expected from some of the top names in indie comics. As anthologies go, it's surprisingly even in quality, with nothing I'd call a clunker slowing things down. Its an extremely fun book and found myself gasping in delight or laughing out loud many times throughout.
I especially liked the two big bookends: Sophia Foster-Dimino's imaginative take on online dating and Connor Willumsen's captivatingly surreal exploration of mortality and, uh, retail. But again, every piece is a standout in its own way and it's a thrill to see some of the brightest minds in comics working at the top of their games all in one book.
And as with seemingly every Peow release, the book itself is a jewel of print and design. A truly lovely object. Overall it's hard not to like this book. I'm eagerly looking forward to volume 2.
I especially liked the two big bookends: Sophia Foster-Dimino's imaginative take on online dating and Connor Willumsen's captivatingly surreal exploration of mortality and, uh, retail. But again, every piece is a standout in its own way and it's a thrill to see some of the brightest minds in comics working at the top of their games all in one book.
And as with seemingly every Peow release, the book itself is a jewel of print and design. A truly lovely object. Overall it's hard not to like this book. I'm eagerly looking forward to volume 2.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews