RayGun Revival is a FREE e-zine (PDF format) that’s got some of the best retro art I’ve yet seen anywhere.
Its also chock full of great masses of pulpy goodness (don’t let the imagery that statement evokes put you off, its a GOOD thing).
New fiction that harkens back to an earlier era when good is good and evil is EVIL. Simple tales featuring spaceships, exploding planets and ray guns. What more could you ask for?
Well, only one thing. A little more attention to copy editing. I’m not a nitpicker (my own scribblings will attest to that) so when I start to notice missing words, misplaced commas and the like, its time to take another pass on the copy.
Otherwise – I’m a fan. If you like classic SF, you will be too.
It has some of my favorite authors there. Excellent publication.
Heya, COF (‘Crotch’ seems just wrong),
Thanks for the write-up on RGR!
We launched in July 2006 with the simple desire to provide a fast, fun, free ‘zine that celebrates space opera and golden age sci-fi. We wanted to share with this generation the same kind of stories that thrilled us when we were younger. I love me some cyberpunk and anti-heroes as much as the next guy, but variety is the spice of life, and this particular flavor of spice has gone stale in recent years or disappeared off the virtual shelves entirely. We thought that was a shame.
When we were kicking around different ideas on what we wanted to include, we thought of the classic episodic serial novels of old, ala Space Hawk, and wanted to take a stab at providing serial novels in RGR. Since we started doing that, I’ve seen a number of other publications resurrecting the serial novel. I think that’s swell! ; )
We discovered that this the perfect time to put out a publication like this. It’s a perfect storm of cheap broadband, great development software, big monitors, fast and easy communication without localization limitations, and huge harddrives for storage. In short, technology has made it possible for us to produce a pulpy zine without actual pulp. It’s fun!
Add in sites like deviantart.com where these tremendous digital artists are sharing their work online, and you have all the ingredients of a fun publication for next to nothing.
I’d like to mention our crack volunteer staff as well. We have 18 or 20 people who work very hard to help make RGR a great publication. The typos in this current issue are my fault for trying to rush something into ‘print’ without passing everything through my proofreaders and my very qualified copy editor. We have just changed over from biweekly to monthly, and we’re still working out our new system. The standard of quality is usually higher – this issue’s nits are my errors alone. We’ll get them scrubbed and swap out the issue soon so what’s available in the archive is better. Again, the fault for this one’s one me. I trust you’ll find our past issues have a higher standard of excellence, and I’ll get my act together so future ones will, as well.
All of our back issues are freely available, and we still have people finding the magazine anew each week.
The beauty of space opera and golden age sci fi is that if you do it right, it’s fun for we older readers who remember Doc Smith and Leigh Brackett, and it’s a new kind of action / adventure story for the new generation of readers. There’s something here for everybody! Just watch out for the space monkeys…
; )
Johne Cook
Overlord, Ray Gun Revival magazine
Johne,
thanks for the commentary.
I used to do PR and marketing blurbs for another industry and my personal research (and that of the publishers and editors) demonstrated quite clearly that “hype” that was ALL positive had less of a positive effect on readers than “hype” that included some mild criticism.
In other words, saying something was good and including a minor quibble made it all that more believable.
Not that my post on Ray Gun was hype except in a broader sense. I honestly got that “gosh wow” feeling when looking at it.
I’m sure anyone reading your comment will understand the necessities of keeping to deadline and will overlook the ‘minor quibbles’ as easily as I was able to.