Oni Press will debut Xino this week, an anthology of “subversive, psych-surrealist science fiction to cure your awful awareness of our meager reality.” Over the course of three issues, they’ve assembled a talented roster of creators, with the first issue featuring stories by Phil Hester, Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane, Melissa Flores and Daniel Irizarri, and Christopher Condon and Nick Cagnetti.
Cagnetti, best known for his work on Pink Lemonade, worked with Condon on a story titled “the Chip,” which is about the world’s first intravenous video game system and the impact it has on one of its users. Cagnetti was kind enough to answer a few questions about the story, as well as the upcoming collection of the entire Pink Lemonade series.
How did you and Chris Condon end up working together on “The Chip”?
Oni approached me about doing a story for their Xino anthology and as soon as I heard Chris wanted to work with me I jumped at the opportunity! I knew he would have something really different, which was what I wanted!
The story comes at an opportune time, given that Apple just announced their own $3500 injectible game unit. Well, not really — but when working on “The Chip,” did it sometimes feel like maybe it wouldn’t be a “science fiction” story for long?
Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s a lot of observation that goes into making stories like this where you’re looking at the world around you and just sort of imagining where things could go or where they are going. It’s an interesting texture especially now. I like video games so it was fun getting to pull from some deep corners for this and even do that sequence in the opening which was pretty Splinter Cell inspired, those games much like XINO in general, pull from near-future or current fears.
The story’s a departure from your own work on Pink Lemonade, with a much darker tone. Was that part of the appeal of working on it? And how did that different tone change your approach to the art?
It was nice for me to get to do something that was the total opposite of my work on Pink Lemonade, hopefully to prove to myself that I could pull something off with the harder edged dread and dark violence. The other thing is I’d just like to keep things fresh by trying to do different types of stories for my own growth. The story felt really anxiety-ridden and I wanted to capture that with the art, keeping it unpredictable with how things like the layouts evolve and get pretty often askew.
I’m also curious about your experience with collaborating with another writer; how big of a change is it for you to try and bring another writer’s vision to the page?
The script by Chris was very descriptive and visual so it painted a vivid picture immediately for me to go off of. Overall it’s not a new thing for me as I started in comics drawing scripts my friends would write for various books and this was sort of just a nice little return to that after such a long and intensive project like Pink Lemonade.
Speaking of which, Pink Lemonade is being collected in July. It’s had a long and interesting publication journey, but how does it feel to see it collected now, in one volume?
So great! I’ll have a big sigh of relief when it’s all officially out for people to discover from there on in one nice complete book with some fun bonus materials as well. Let me tell you, it’s a spiffy looking package, too! That was the goal for me from the start with the series- to do something that was satisfying to follow in the single issue format and maybe even more so for when it would be collected. There’s a certain kind of flow I wanted it all to have where you could go back and re-read certain moments again with new understanding and get some extra satisfaction.
I’m a big fan of the comic’s vibrant art style and unique character designs, so I was hoping you could talk about your vision for the comic and how you brought it to life?
I wanted to make something that was really accessible and got across why I love the medium of comics so much. Pink Lemonade was the perfect vehicle for that because she has this infectious childlike wonder, and it was about trying to wrestle with all the bad sides of the entertainment world you just can’t help but notice after being so immersed in it all. How do you hold on to that joy for these things? The whole investigation is Pink Lemonade’s journey and hopefully the answer’s are the ones the reader can take with them as well. Visually though, the thing I try to bring is mixing the old with the new – trying to find a nice middle ground forward.
What else have you been working on lately?
There’s been lots of promotional work for getting the word out on the Pink Lemonade trade, traveling, conventions – things like that are taking up most of my summer. But I have been working with a friend of mine towards breaking lots of foundation on what my next major project will be. It’s bubbling to the surface and I’m very excited about getting to drawing it all. It’ll be something completely new and unrelated to Pink Lemonade, but similarly to how that project excited me I’m feeling like it will be the kind of book that I just don’t see out there at the moment!