MASTHEAD
Planet Magazine Asks: "Shouldn't a 'carrot-top' have green hair?"
Planet Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 4; December 1995 (this is the 8th issue)
Web page: <http://www.planetmag.com>
Editor & Publisher
Andrew G. McCann <editor@planetmag.com>
Cover Artist
Romeo Esparrago <public@romedome.com>
Cover Title:
"Encounter between Friedberg &
Bad Nauheim" -- On leave (during World War I), the Dread Baron meets
the legendary Snow Giant of Germany, whilst flying above the wintry
forest between the towns of Bad Nauheim & Friedberg. Neither the
Dread Baron nor the Giant could foresee that many, many decades
later, the two towns would be embroiled in a bitter dispute over the
title of being the "Second Home of Elvis" .... Inspired by a photo of
the Foker DR.1 triplane taken by David T. Okamura (DTO@eworld.com).
Tools: Mac Performa 578,Painter, Wacom ArtZ tablet, and lotsa
cranberry juice.
WHAT IS PLANET MAGAZINE?
Planet Magazine is a free electronic quarterly of short science fiction, fantasy, horror, poetry, and humor written by beginning or little-known writers (mostly), whom we hope to encourage in their pursuit of the perfect tale. There could be other reasons we're doing this, of course, motivations that are obscure and uncomfortable; instincts linked perhaps to primal, nonreasoning urges regarding power and procreation -- the very same forces, no doubt, that sank the Atlanteans and their alabaster-towered oceanic empire. And the Dark Gods laffed.
Anyway, Planet is internationally distributed in electronic form (text and full-color versions) via the Worldwide Web, America Online, CompuServe, eWorld (eWho?), New York Mac Users Group (NYMUG) BBS, and Tentacled Cthulhu knows where else. We guess, based on nothing, that total circulation is something like 500-1,000 per issue worldwide. No one really knows. Feel free to pass this magazine along electronically or as a single printout, as long as you don't charge for it or alter it in any way. We welcome submissions (details below). Planet does not carry any advertising or offer an official subscription service (but it can always be found every third month in certain locations; see below). Letters to the editor are welcome and are likely to be printed. Send questions or comments to editor@planetmag.com.
SUBMISSIONS POLICY
Planet Magazine accepts original short stories, poems, one-act plays, and odds-and-ends (use the lengths in this issue as guidelines), as well as original accompanying illustrations. We prefer unpublished SF, fantasy, horror, poetry, humor, etc., by beginning or little-known writers (we eschew stories published in other e-zines, as well as porno, gore, and mainframe software manuals). Because this e-mag is free and operates on a budget of $1.07 per annum, we can't afford to pay anything except the currency of free publicity and life-enhancing good vibes (that and $2.80 will get you a sesame bagel with cream cheese, a small coffee, and a copy of the "Times," but it's still a wake-up call to the Muse to see your name in print).
Story submissions: Send stories, poems, etc., as StuffIt- or ZipIt-compressed ASCII text files to editor@planetmag.com. Two submissions max at a time, please.
Illustration submissions: Send only one or two illustrations per story as separate, stuffed and binhexed 16-color, 16-gray, or B&W pict files to editor@planetmag.com. We're open to cover ideas (holiday, seasonal, topical themes are best); query first.
DISTRIBUTION SITES
Planet is distributed in four electronic versions -- HTML Web version (what you're looking at now), text-only (readable by Windows or Macintosh or other, using a word-processing program), Acrobat PDF (full-color version readable by Windows or Mac or other, using the free, downloadable Acrobat Reader), and DOCmaker (full-color version with sounds, readable by Mac only; needs no other software). Some of these files may be compressed with StuffIt (a .sit file), as well as binhexed (.hqx); you'll need StuffIt Expander, or similar, to decompress them. This zine can be downloaded from the following sources, among others: