Originally published as Planet Magazine No. 26 (June 2000) on the classic Planet Magazine site.
Planet Magazine
June-Quarter 2000 * Issue No. 26 (Vol. 7, No. 2)
Wild Science Fiction & Fantasy on the Web — absolutely FREE across all multiphasic dimensions!
Table of Contents
Editorial & Letters · About the Authors · About the Artists · About this Magazine
S T O R I E S
- The Golden Globe by Richard Behrens
- The Orange Hills of Eron by Frank W. Clark
- Terminal Illness by D.F. Huettner
- Xantar by Sean Melican
- The Death Club by Neil Smith
P O E T R Y
- Recycled Blood-Sucking Aliens by Hathno Paige
- Two Poems by Dan Lukiv
- Labyrinth of Gold by Andy Miller
Editorial & Letters
Bad Web sites aren’t bad, it’s the people who make bad Web sites that are bad.
GO, GO PLANET READERS!
I am Editron, a multi-being trapped in a uni-being universe! Or perhaps it’s the other way around! Nonetheless I am here to tell you it is no accident that you are reading this editorial! Or perhaps it is! But whether it was Fate or Chaos that brought you here, you have been effectively chosen as a Planet Reader!
So just who is a Planet Reader? Planet Readers are an elite group of mostly teens, old folks, and all other ages, as well as some Immortals, not to mention some non-time-related/otherdimensional creatures, and perhaps some technically living things that are simply uncategorizable, numbering in the tens upon tens, who, despite the unbearable pressure of Planet Magazine’s erratic publishing schedule, have banded together to read this very zine you are cyber-holding! To put it simply, Planet Readers are Planet readers! In other circular words, a Planet Reader by any other name is still a Planet reader.
Of course, there is a non-monetary price to pay for being such a brave, strong and handsome or pretty Planet Reader! And that price is this: All Planet Readers MUST obey Three Rules, or forever lose the illusory protection of their Planet Readerness. These Rules are:
1. Never use the power of Planet Magazine for personal gain! (We’ve never managed to.)
2. Never escalate a battle in the Letters to the Editors column — unless forced to do so!
3. Never, EVER reveal your secret identity of being a Planet Reader to anyone! (Not to your mom, not to Media Metrix, not even to yourself!).
That’s it, Planet Readers! Now get out there and read! And… Good Luck!
In Next Week’s Issue: Read all about the dozens of slightly different PlanetMon creatures and their amazing niche powers!
Sincerely,
Editron,
Some Sort of Being Apparently Trapped Somewhere for Some Reason
(as told to Andrew G. McCann, editor
Planet Magazine June 2000)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor: I am a long-standing Romanian SF fan and I have discovered and enjoyed your magazine on the Net. I would like, if possible, to receive the early issues of the Planet magazines in PDF format.
Sincerely yours,
D.S.
[Editor’s Note: Thanks. There is no direct link on our Web site, since we felt that the PDF version wasn’t quite as good as we wanted. However, you can FTP directly to these hidden PDF versions (which were done for issues 1 through 9/10 only). Using an FTP program or your Web browser, go to: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/Planet/pdf/ ]
Dear Editor: Allies of independent publishing on the internet will gather in San Francisco for an exhibition, forum, and party to celebrate those who create and want to create for the new medium. “We have waited too long to face the evil, and there is no more waiting,” declared Webzine 2000 organizer Ryan Junell. “We won’t allow dot-com strip malls and passive entertainment the opportunity to come to power.” Grassroots organizers created the Webzine event in 1998 to unite creators from the web and other media in an informal environment to discuss the meaning of independent publishing in relation to an ever-growing commercialized Internet. Audience members at Webzine 99 and Webzine 98 included activists, designers, journalists, DJs, Web workers, educators, artists, culture jammers, subversive anarchists, slackers, assholes, academics, and cool kids. Speakers at past Webzine events included Burning Man founder Larry Harvey (“Radical Expression on New Frontiers”), REsearch Publications founder V. Vale (“If the Web Were Punk”), Factsheet Five Publisher Seth Friedman, Andi Zeisler from Bitch Magazine, Amy Francescini of Future Farmers, Mark Pauline from Survival Research Laboratories, Srini Kumar of Unamerican Activities, and 45 other independent media creators. In spite of two previous Webzine events, e-commerce and consumer brainwashing has shown no signs of slowing down. “Webzine 2000 will establish that the Web is a democratic medium for personal, creative and alternative expression.” said event organizer Scott Beale. Webzine 2000 stands out as the foremost global event for independent publishing on the Internet. The event will be held on July 22nd from 4 p.m. until 2 a.m. at 2050 Bryant Street in San Francisco, California. Experimental digital music works will be performed in the evening by Kid606, Lesser, Terbo Ted, Wobbly, Crispus, D-84 (from Blechtum from Blechdom), and Kill the Robots. The audience is expected to exceed 700 people throughout the course of the day. People 18 and up will be charged $5-10 sliding scale. People under the age of 18 will be admitted free of charge. For more information, contact:
Ryan Junell
http://www.webzine2000.com
Dear Editor: I’m pandering for reviews of my Spungifeel Web site. Or any comments you might have. This is your chance to rub shoulders with me…. a nobody original. Spungifeel Comics is NOT about superheroes or pretty much anything you would see in the Sunday papers. Spungifeel Comics is about unique (okay…WEIRD) works that, hopefully, excite the reader’s mind and fizz their humor juice. I have two daily comics, Salamander Bits and Somedaze, with a third, Soggy Toast, currently in production.
T. wEieR
Spungifeel Comics**Salamander Bits**Somedaze Daily
http://www.somedaze.com
Dear Editor: I am looking for places that might print my work (http://www.microserve.net/~gfenton/). When I work in papier-mache I treat it like clay. The armatures for the sculpture begin with paper and tape. The armature is built with the idea of what the creature is going to look like. The rule for papier-mache is that one layer at a time is to be applied. I like to use several layers of thick papier-mache; that makes the material easier to mold with my hands. Sometimes certain parts of the piece have to be reworked either by sanding or trimming the papier-mache with a knife. The dinosaurs with protruding horns and body armor intrigue me the most, because they give me the greatest opportunity to experiment with texture and color. My influences often come from black and white films of monsters and dinosaurs. These old cinematic images are less than “accurate,” but they are dramatic and expressive. The details are left to be filled in by my imagination, combined with the imagination of the viewer. For my next several projects, I am planning to combine dinosaurs and insects into unique life forms. I want the appearance of these creatures to express a sense of humor.
Gene Fenton
Dear Editor: I don’t know if you or your readers might be interested, but I have a free, online space-operatic game at http://www.interstellar-forever.co.uk/ which you can play in a ‘4’ browser (IE or Netscape). Thanks for your time.
Regards,
Philip Jones
Dear Editor: Though I’d love to further pontificate — as in last issue’s letters column — on the lack of merit of boy bands (or spawn of Satan, as I call them), I’d rather invite your readers to check out Electronic Tales at http://www.electronictales.com. Electronic Tales serializes action, sci-fi, fantasy, western, and weird adventure tales, and ships them out via e-mail five times a week, two pages a day. Subscriptions are available for free by e-mailing
Thanks,
Joel Jenkins
Dear Editor: I have recently produced three electronic (PDF format) anthologies of classic cryptofiction (short stories and books concerning mystery animals or cryptozoology), which are available for free downloading from my Web site: http://www.herper.com/ebooks/members.html or: http://www.herper.com/NABR.html Cryptofiction is a fairly narrow category of science fiction, concerning itself with zoological mysteries, but it is gaining some recognition and I hope to continue producing such anthologies.
Thanks.
Chad Arment
Dear Editor: [The fake link to the March issue of Planet Magazine was a] cruel, cruel joke… Don’t you know that you’re a month early for April Fools?
Tara
[Editor’s Note: April is not in March?!]
Dear Editor: Hey, I was just checking out your site, and I have a similar site that you might be interested in checking out (and perhaps linking to). It’s a humour site, and I’m pretty sure that it’ll be different from anything you’ve seen before. The online magazine is entertaining, original, and thought-provoking, and anyone who is onto the whole satire/irony thing will enjoy it. The magazine represents creativity, individualism, and education, and it’s intended to be a positive experience for those who check it out. Visit the site: The Neo-Comintern electronic magazine (http://members.home.net/comintern). My hope is that you will enjoy the site. If you do, please help support us by adding a link to us in your links section. Thank you very much for your time and support. And please let me know what you think of the site!
Joel Katelnikoff
The Neo-Comintern
LETTERS TO THE POWER RANGERS
Dear Red Ranger (Jason Version): I believe it’s important to know who you are, and not to pretend to be somebody else. Unless, of course, you ARE somebody else! Then you wouldn’t be pretending at all! I, for example, am, in fact, not who I am, but am, in fact, someone else entirely!
N. Fackt
[What in blazes was THAT letter all about? — Editor]
[It says precisely what it seems to say. — N. Fackt]
[Wait a minute, pal! You can’t respond to an editor’s note! That’s MY prerogative, as is my ALL-CAPS style of emphasis. — Editor]
[Well in fact I CAN respond to an editorial note, because the “someone else” that I actually AM, is, in fact, actually YOU, my “dear” editor! — N. Fackt]
[Wha-? Oh, OK. I guess that makes sense. But then, who is the someone that you ARE — as opposed to ACTUALLY are? — Editor]
[The person who I am, but not ACTUALLY am, would be, in fact, this “N. Fackt” person — who is the fictional someone who originally wrote in to say they were someone else. In other words, they wrote the letter above. — N. Fackt]
[Ah. OK. We probably should cut this conversation short. I have to go to lunch. So, I guess, I’ll talk to you, I mean, me, later. — Editor]
[OK, talk to me later! — N. Fackt]
Dear Red Ranger (Rocky Version): The many Ultimate Frisbee readers among your fans might like to know that the best Frisbee-type disc ever made was the legendary, some say mythological, 180-gram Roswell Widowmaker! Only two were ever made — both by a rogue CIA chemist who was later found drifting, quite mysteriously dead, in a kayak in the middle of Chesapeake Bay — and one of these discs, rumor has it, is in a nonpublic basement room of the Smithsonian, right next to the Ark of the Covenant. The other one, they say, belongs to an Ultimate Frisbee drifter called Gort, who shows up mysteriously at tournaments around the country, enters as a ringer, wins the game, then disappears in a flash of light. Some say he actually works for an investment bank, but I don’t believe it.
Never Stop Rockin’,
“Torque”
Dear Green Ranger (Tommy Version): Have you ever noticed that almost all women are gay? They all like men!
Regards,
Klaus E. Tedd
Dear White Ranger (Tommy Version): I am a vampire, and just wanted to register my complaints about the usability of computers today. I’m writing to you because I know that the major high-tech companies closely read Planet Magazine. Anyway, what I want to say is that even we Undead need modern processing power — we’ve got to keep track of Daylight Savings Time, Victims Killed within a certain geography, Aliases Used, ex-Wives, etc. But what really burns me up (other than direct sunlight) is the reflective screens used on most PDAs, laptops, et al. Since we vampires can’t see ourselves in mirrors, we have a hell of a time reading these screens indoors (especially under fluorescent lighting) as well as in moonlight. You Mortals have no problem, since your delicious, blood-filled heads cast shadows that block any annoying reflections on these screens. But for us Garlic-Fearers, forget it! The screens reflect everything from candlelight to streetlights, right through where our heads’ shadows should be! So the screens are usually unreadable, except in a pitch-black night, when we can use the built-in backlight. But those are the times when I’m busy a-huntin’! Can’t something be done? Hello, 3Com, are you listening?
Ivan Tusukyerblutt
Dear Yellow Ranger: When I was a kid, I was never super-fantastic enough for my parents. Sure, I was always “wonderful”, or “great”, or “much loved” — whatever. But I was never once called “unbelievably fantastic”, “super-duper-pooper special”, “best-est boy in the whole darn universe”, or the like. No wonder I’m still unhappy, even though I’m an Internet millionaire at age 23!
N. Ternett Starr
Dear Pink Ranger: Like that vampire who wrote in to you, I’ve also got a beef, and I don’t think it’s rare! My HMO refuses to pay for a motorized wheelchair for me — I’ve even offered to go for a walker, crutches, even a cane! But they won’t give me a dime. Granted, there is supposedly nothing wrong me, according to my so-called “doctors”. But I do have a very serious case of Laziness, that I just can’t seem to get over, and I really could use some help. By the way, could you send this letter on to the appropriate person in the government? I can’t be bothered with finding out who that is.
Regards,
Noah Naim-Given
Dear Blue Ranger: Now what’s all this fuss I hear about the mapping of the Human Genome? For Pete’s sake, me ‘n’ Betty Hollowell mapped out the entire human DNA sequence on one of our specially patterned quilts we made for the Lawrence County Quilting Bee Fest, back in 1967, or thereabouts. Took us weeks! Anyway, it was a lovely blue quilt. Very soft. I remember it was hit by lightning during the second day of the Fair. Why, bless me if that quilt didn’t just get up and walk off by itself! Well, I hope it’s happy wherever it is.
Bye-bye,
Hugh-Manne G. Gnome
Dear Black Ranger: This is the second-to-last letter in your letters section. How did I know? All I know is that I just “knew”.
Penn L. “Tim” Ette
Dear Editor: We would like to announce that The Organization of Stupid Name (also known as Organization of Stupid Name, without the “The”) has changed its name, since its recent membership drive was completely unsuccessful. The new name is now just Organization of Stupid Name. In other words, we have eliminated the “The”. However, at the same time, we are adopting a new acronym — OAS — and will no longer be using OSN. It’s true that OAS doesn’t match up well with the actual initials of the group, but, well, so be it. The new changes are subtle, perhaps, and OAS is certainly not known for its subtlety, but we thought that eliminating one of the versions of our group’s name would also remove any confusion among potential members, who weren’t sure whether the group was called “Organization of Stupid Name” or “THE Organization of Stupid Name”. So, that’s settled, then. Except, of course, for the problem we introduced with our incorrect acronym. But to sum it all up: We’re looking for new members again! Just as a reminder, OAS believes in one thing — having the stupid name of “Organization of Stupid Name”! That’s it! To join, e-mail .
Regards,
Biedermeier X. Leeuwenhoek
About the Authors
Planet Magazine says: Now I am become Bad Breath, the destroyer of dinner parties!
Richard Behrens (“The Golden Globe“), is a native New Yorker who has been publishing fiction, poetry, and film criticism for more than ten years in various magazines and journals (both print and online), most notably Parabola, Blue Light Red Light, InterText, and several past issues of Planet Magazine. He is currently writing and directing an independent film this summer in Philadelphia called Hole Head and will be spending a few weeks at the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop in Ohio this summer trying desperately to find a direction for his closet full of novels. His personal Web site is http://www.pipeline.com/~behrens and wants it to be known that he is by no means the same Richard Behrens who is a kabalistic kung-fu spiritual guide to the military, despite the fact that he shares a life-long fascination with Kabala with the man who shares his name. He is currently writing a novel about Jack Parsons, the Thelemic magician and NASA physicist. When he does not have his writer’s mask on, he works as a Web applications developer for an incredibly large financial institution and divides his time between New York, Philadelphia, his wife Sandrea, and his son Kristopher.
Frank W. Clark (“The Orange Hills of Eron“), was born the same year as the Roswell, NM, incident in a little town on Lake Michigan called Muskegon. Growing up, he read everything he could get his hands on related to science fiction and horror. Frank’s writing career began in the mid-70s, with a string of bizarre poems written “under the influence”. He got serious about writing in the early ’80s, taking up Creative Writing at the University of South Florida and jumping into writing full time — before he finished his B.Sc. degree. Since then, Frank has written over 40 poems, 30-some short stories, a half-dozen country music song lyrics, two screenplays (“The Eleventh Hour,” and “Mobius,” a work in progress that has received some interest), a detective novel titled “Lie Down With Silk and Daggers,” as well as articles for local newspapers. He has also read his poetry aloud for audiences in local and national forums. Frank lives in St. Petersburg, FL, has traveled through Europe and Central America, is single with no kids, and still wears “thick” contact lenses.
Ray Dangel (Associate Editor/Key Grip), has been doing a huge amount of manual labor to remodel his back yard this summer. Some days he smells so bad it clears mosquitoes in a three-mile radius. Because of that, he’s been nominated for the Walnut Hills Civic Service Plaque by the newsletter editor of his subdivision. He had to do the remodeling because a space monster he created for a story in another ezine did so much damage he had to rebuild his sprinkler system and the telephone and utility companies installed new lines. Because his situation was unique in this area and because they were impressed by his Venusian blue skin, the companies did the work gratis while the local news media recorded it.
D.F. Huettner (“Terminal Illness“), had already worked a number of careers — from USDA meat inspector to radio disk jockey to running his own business — before it became fashionable to do so. Back then, it was called “not being able to hold a job”. Ever keeping his eye on future trends, he wrote science fiction. Two of his novellas, “Letting Go” and “Rumors of War”, can be found at http://www.4goodbooks.com. Mr. Huettner can be reached for comment at
Dan Lukiv (“Two Poems“), is a poet, novelist, short story writer, and article writer; his poetry has appeared in Canada, the USA, England, Wales, Ireland, and Australia. His formal apprenticeship as a writer includes intensive personal direction from masters such as Canada’s Professor Robert Harlow, the USA’s Paul Bagdon, and England’s D.M. Thomas. He and his wife have four girls; two are still at home (Quesnel, BC, Canada). His life is filled with lots of hair spray. He teaches creative writing at McNaughton Centre and edits a literary journal, CHALLENGER international, which focuses attention on young, up-and-coming Canadian poets.
Andy McCann (Editor) , just flew over you in a space-hardened bi-plane, fleeing SenojWod, the Eater of Worlds. Grab the rope ladder!editor@planetmag.com.
Sean Melican (“Xantar“), is in his late twenties, married without children. He teaches chemistry and physics in a private high school. Currently, he’s teaching himself to program C++ and Visual Basic. “Xantar” is probably one of his favorite stories, because it comes the closest to what he envisioned when he first started it, thanks largely to Andy, who told him just what was wrong with it and how to fix it. The genesis of the story came when a normally rational radio talk show host that Sean liked began the barrage of idiocy that immigrants come to the US and can’t speak a word of English. We should make English the national language, he said. We shouldn’t pour money into bilingual education, he said. The absurdity of this incensed Sean. On the one hand, we as a country promote our ideals of liberty and equality and “the American dream” across the globe. But when the huddled masses across the world suddenly say, Hey! America, that’s where I’d like to be! We seem to come out en masse and say, why are all these people, legal or not, flooding our shores? And worse, how come they don’t speak my language? This story is an answer to that question, and many more..
Andy Miller (“Labyrinth of Gold“), enjoys speculative fantasy, sitting in a rocking chair and wondering about things. He is a painter and a poet, while occasionally dabbling in color music, a form of composition that can be seen as well as heard. Science and the imagination offer many possibilities, and their mingling is inspiration.
Hathno Paige (“Recycled Blood-Sucking Aliens“) Not just another broke poet who couldn’t do anything practical to save his life, Hathno recently invented “pyro-coloscopy”, a colonic mapping technique available soon at all fine new age health centers and Mexican Restaurants.
Neil Smith (“The Death Club“), would have graduated Summa Cum Laude from Indiana University if it were not for the short-sightedness of most of his professors, who were obviously jealous of him. Consequently, he graduated with a solid C average and went on to become one of the best Seattle Times paper carriers in all of Seattle. He is interested in Western Philosophy, baseball, and Serial Murder, and is working to combine the three in an attempt to create an ethic-based dialectic for our troubled times. Mr. Smith hasn’t scored with a woman for a while and is fairly anxious about this. He also enjoys watching TV. A lot. He can be reached at . He thanks you.
Thomas Wagner (Assistant Editor/Primal Chef) Tom’s hard at work on a new book titled “The Joy of Cooking with DDT”. Apparently this much maligned pesticide tastes great on hot-dogs, pizza and pickled herring! Good luck Tom!
For Sale: One DNA replicator — actually used in the mapping of the Human Genome! Well used, but in good condition. Will trade for a Sony Playstation 2.
About the Artists
Planet puffs: MSFT = Microsoft Means Fine Tobacco
Zozzy (Featured Artist for the Cover, The Golden Globe, Xantar) is a digital artist. Website: http://www.geocities.com/~zozzy/
Romeo Esparrago (Visual Editor) is struggling to control his disruptor-ray eyeballs, which vaporized the March issue and severely damaged the June issue of Planet. His hobbies include working on model airplanes (which he keeps vaporizing accidentally) and usurping DVD flicks such as “Wing Commander”, “The Mummy”, “Lost In Space”, and “Mars Attacks” (although he has to watch them with his eyes closed). Romeo just moved agilently to a new company called… er… Agilent. His future projects include ensuring the future of humanity. Visit his yet-to-be-updated-since-New-Year’s-Day Web site: http://www.romedome.com
Gene Fenton (artist for Recycled Blood-Sucking Aliens) works with papier-mache. For details, visit his website: http://www.microserve.net/~gfenton/
Eric Seaholm (artist for The Death Club) is a digital artist.
Patrick Stacy (artist for The Orange Hills of Eron, Two Poems) hails from Germany, and like many artists before, started young. Main emphasis in childhood were comics and soon, Patrick became an excellent tracer. Never content, the challenge was then to illustrate freehand, now that would be talent! Early influences are still inspirational today, such as the legendary Frazetta, Vallejo, and Parrish. Classical influences were Ruben and Caravaggio. The goal of course is, with any luck, to break into the book cover and magazine fields. As mentioned earlier about never being content, Patrick’s currently in the process of learning to create webpages through HTML and Photoshop. Currently in the process of updating website to include upgrades as well as new illustrations. Patrick is a winner of the L.Ron Hubbard’s Illustrators of the Future contest in 1996 as well as providing two illustrations within the volume.Website: http://members.xoom.com/pstacyart
About this Magazine (Masthead)
Planet Magazine says: If you can keep your head while all around you are losing theirs, then the Queen still favors you
Planet Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2 (the 26th issue)
Home Site: http://www.planetmag.com
Mirror Site: http://www.etext.org/Zines/planet
Editor & Publisher
Andrew G. McCann
editor@planetmag.com
Visual Editor
Romeo Esparrago
Associate Editor
Ray Dangel
Associate Editor/Master of All Dimensions
Tom Wagner
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS PLANET MAGAZINE?
Planet Magazine is the free, award-winning quarterly Web-zine of short science fiction and fantasy by emerging writers and artists, whom we hope to encourage in their pursuit of the perfect tale or illustration. 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.
Planet is available electronically via the World Wide Web (see the clickable links at the top of this page) and from various online services, such as America Online, CompuServe, and Tin-Foil-Hat Receptron. Total circulation is “thousands” per issue worldwide. Feel free to download this zine or make a single printout, as long as you don’t charge for it or alter it in any way. That would be not only illegal but also “not nice.” Submissions are welcomed (see below). Planet does not carry advertising or offer a subscription service, but issues are always available at our Web site. Letters to the editor are also welcome and are likely to be printed.
SUBMISSIONS POLICY & WRITER GUIDELINES
Planet accepts original, unpublished short science fiction and fantasy stories and poems, as well as digital art, from anyone famous or unfamous (use the lengths in any recent issue as a guideline). We are open to the experimental but will not publish anything we judge to be porno, gore, or in violation (as far as we are able to tell) of any copyrights (such as stories that use Babylon 5 characters). Since Planet is free and carries no ads, we can’t pay anything except the spirit-sustaining currency of free publicity and life-enhancing good vibes.
E-mail text submissions as plain, unformatted files (either as an e-mail attachment or, if short enough, in the body of the e-mail message) to editor@planetmag.com. One submission at a time, please.
E-mail illustration submissions separately as e-mail attachments, but Stuff or Zip them first. Alternatively, you could send the URL for an image, and we can go look at it. Images should be 256-color, 16-color, 16-gray, or B&W GIFs or JPEGs only. Send any questions about illustrations to .
DISTRIBUTION SITES
Planet Magazine is now distributed only in Web (HTML) format, which can be read best with any version 3.0 Web browser or above, such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Opera (currently PC only), NeoPlanet (PC only), or iCab (Mac only; mirror site). Earlier issues of Planet are also available at our Web site in four other electronic formats: TEXT-ONLY (for any PC or Mac word-processing program), ACROBAT .PDF (a full-color version for PC or Mac using the free Acrobat Reader), DOCMAKER (a full-color, self-running file with sounds for Mac only), and PALMPILOT .PRC (a text version that requires a PalmPilot PDA and a DOC reader like the freeware AportisDOC). The main place to find Planet is on the Web, either at our home page http://www.planetmag.com or our mirror site http://www.etext.org/Zines/planet.
COPYRIGHTS, DISCLAIMERS
Planet Magazine as a whole, including all text, design, and illustrations, is copyright © 1999 by Andrew G. McCann. However, all individual stories and poems in this magazine are copyright © 1999 by their respective authors or artists, who have granted Planet Magazine the right to use these works for this issue in both electronic form and any resulting print-outs by readers for noncommercial, individual use. All people and events portrayed in this magazine are entirely fictitious and bear no resemblance to actual people or events. This publication, along with every past issue of Planet Magazine, is registered with the Copyright Office of the U.S. Library of Congress. Since our first issue, dated January 1994, Planet Magazine has been freely available via the Internet and has consistently used the names “Planet Magazine”, “PlanetZine”, “PlanetMag,” and “McCann’s Planet Magazine” to refer to itself. You may freely distribute this magazine electronically on a noncommercial, nonprofit basis to anyone and print one copy for your personal use, but you may not alter or excerpt Planet in any way without direct, written permission from the publisher, who can be contacted at editor@planetmag.com. Any unauthorized access, reproduction, or transmission of Planet Magazine, in whole or part, is strictly prohibited by U.S. federal law and international copyright law. Planet Magazine is published by Cranberry Street Press, Brooklyn, N.Y., USA, Andrew G. McCann, publisher.
COLOPHON
These Web pages were designed and created by Romeo A. Esparrago, Jr., using Adobe GoLive 4.0 and ImageStyler. The text is Arial/Helvetica/Geneva; the logotypes are Arquitectura. Illustrations were done in Painter 4. Equipment used: an Apple PowerMac 6400, a Wacom ArtZ tablet, and a MicroTek ScanMaker IISP. Please visit the guest artists’ Web pages to learn about the tools they used for their illustrations. This issue of Planet was extracted from human DNA by the Human Genome Project and thus, for this issue at least, comes to you unedited, directly from The Aliens
Planet Magazine ISSN: 1526-1840
