Comic Books

Chris Condon, Nick Cagnetti talk ‘Xino #1’ and brain-melting sci-fi

The pair’s story, “The Chip,” should alter the way you see video games.

June 13, 2023

Sci-fi and anthologies are as prolific and essential to comics as variant covers and Batman titles. But even still, there’s something that feels decidedly special about Xino.

The brainchild of Oni Press, Xino the series is described as “40-page intra-ocular lozenges of subversive, psych-surrealist science fiction to cure your awful awareness of our meager reality.” Issue #1 features four stories total: Melissa Flores and Daniel Irizarri “surgically activate the hidden dimensions of the human senses”; Chris Condon and Nick Cagnetti debut “the world’s first intravenous video game system”; we “surveil the suburbs for signs of covert infiltration” with Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane; and Phil Hester “returns to the fold to leave his deepest mark yet.” (The other two issues will feature, among other contributors, Dan McDaid, Justin Jordan, David and Maria Lapham, Alissa Sallah, and Alex Segura.) Wacky gimmicks aside, the whole Xino project scratches that endless itch for weird and wild sci-fi from a suite of thoughtful and inventive comics talent.

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Xino #1 is due out this week (June 14). To commemorate its debut, we got the chance to speak with Condon and Cagnetti about their story, “The Chip,” including their collaborative process and what it all really means. Meanwhile, Xino #2 and 3 are scheduled to drop on July 19 and August 23, respectively.

Cover #1 from Matt Lesniewski. Courtesy of Oni Press.

AIPT: Chris, what can you tell us about the story you have in Xino #1? How did it develop? What are the inspirations?

Chris Condon: “The Chip” focuses on a gaming fanatic who is given the unique chance to test a new unconventional gaming system that has, let’s say, unfortunate side effects.

Oni had asked for a sci-fi short story and I did what I typically do when approaching a short comic – I ask myself: how did EC [Comics] do it? I came up with a few different concepts, some wilder than others, and this was the one that clicked for everyone.

As I mentioned, EC Comics is always a big inspiration when I’m doing a short piece because they knew how to do this type of thing so damn well. In terms of the story itself, I came up with the concept around videogames on its own, realized its proximity to [David] Cronenberg’s Videodrome while scripting (one of my all-time favorite films) and laid into that.

Page 1 from “The Chip” by Chris Condon and Nick Cagnetti.

AIPT: Nick, how would you describe this book visually? How did it develop and did you have any specific inspirations?

Nick Cagnetti: The script had a real sense of foreboding and claustrophobia so I wanted my art to reflect that giving it urgency like it was all barreling towards catastrophe by the end. The concept of The Chip feels a bit impending to say the least and I like video games so it was pretty fun having the story be about this dude who’s a famous streamer; it gave me some opportunities to stick in a lot of gaming related set dressing to build the mood of somebody who’s immersed in that space with lots of deep-cut memorabilia. For the opening “gaming” sequence I took a lot of Splinter Cell inspiration — Chaos Theory specifically! That and a little bit of Hitman!

AIPT: Chris, why does a book like Xino matter? And how do you think your story facilitates that process or adds to it?

CC: Why does any work of fiction matter? I think Xino matters simply because it exists. It’s provided a bunch of brilliant artists and writers a platform through which they can tell stories about our world that are not bound to our world. Science fiction has always mattered because it has a prescient quality to it. Xino is no different.

Page 2 from “The Chip” by Chris Condon and Nick Cagnetti.

Our story is a wild piece of fiction, of course, but it definitely pertains to our world and us humans who inhabit it. It’s about excess and greed, really. Those two things are inherent human qualities that are also deeply poisonous.

AIPT: Nick, what was it like working with Chris? Did you learn anything from this entire process?

NC: It was really neat working with Chris, his scripts are so descriptive and really paint a picture in your head — very vivid. As a result it was pretty clear what needed to be conveyed, I especially had fun with that opening where you’re setting the whole thing up and it’s like a conversational montage intercut with the “gaming” scenes.

Page 3 from “The Chip” by Chris Condon and Nick Cagnetti.

Just a cool way of setting the stage that I’m proud of how the script and art flow together nicely for it. I was able to turn the chase into a double-page spread which I think worked well for conveying the sprawling crazy nature of it. Actually before Pink Lemonade, I’ve worked on a fair amount of books with friends and other things like that where I just did the art so it was refreshing stepping back into that type of role for this.

AIPT: Chris, you’re maybe best known for more grounded efforts a la That Texas Blood. What was it like to bust out some sci-fi?

It was a joy. I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and have a backlog of sci-fi tales that I hope to tell one day. But it was even more of a joy because of my collaborator on this story, Nick Cagnetti, whose style is so unique and different from any of the other artists I’ve worked with previously. To see the script I wrote translated through his pencil is nothing short of a miracle.

Page 4 from “The Chip” by Chris Condon and Nick Cagnetti.

AIPT: Nick, your own noteworthy book, Pink Lemonade, is also pretty out there. Do you see a connection between Xino/your story here and that excellent title?

NC: Yeah, I mean for one, both things have evil corporate machinations at the forefront! It was cool getting to do something that took an idea like that into another entertainment sphere that’s close to a lot of our lives and have it get gnarlier than I ever got on Pink Lemonade.