Plokta
Isse 16 November 1999
Cover by Steve Davies
Plokta is a science fiction fanzine, first published in 1996.
The editors are Alison Scott, Steve Davies and Mike Scott. "The Plokta Cabal" also includes Steven Cain, Giulia de Cesare and Sue Mason (who has won two individual Hugo Awards for Best Fan Artist).
Others contributors of writing include Brian Ameringen, James Bacon (Journey Planet), Chris Bell, Abi Brown, Steve Cain, Giulia De Cedare, Jackie Duckhawk, Victor Gonzalez (Apparatchik, Gloss), Avram Grumer, Rob Johnson (Badinage), Dave Langford (Ansible), Alasdair Mackintosh, Ken MacLeod, Sue Mason, Vicki Rosenzweig, Marcus Rowland, Jaine Weddell, Patty Wells and D West.
Other contributors of art work include Sheryl Birkhead, Glen Brown, Jo Byatt, Marianne Cain, Ben Conable, Katherine Duckworth, Brad W. Foster, Fred Gambino, Ian Gunn, Teddy Harvia, Dave Hicks, Athena Jarvis, Terry Jeeves (ERG, The Damned Patrol), Steve Jeffery, Sue Jones (Tortoise), C. Lipart, Joe Mayhew, Dave Mooring (Fuck The Tories), Alison Scott, Craig Smith, Steve Stiles, Mae Strelkov, Arthur Thomson (The ATom Anthology), Taral Wayne (DNQ), D West, and Joe Wilkins.
Photographs were by Austin Benson, Phil Bradley, Bridget Bradsaw, Steven Cain, Steve Davies, Guilia De Cesare, Moshe Feder, Alison Freebairn, Steve Green, Max, Nick Mills, Caroline Mullan, Barbara Nikke, Marcus Rowland, Alison Scott, Ian Sorenson, Patty Wells, Peter Weston (Prolapse, Relapse), Tom Womack.
Subtitled "The journal of superfluous technology" the magazine includes articles (largely unrelated to science fiction), photographs, illustrations and cartoons. Plokta is well-known for it's humorous covers that often parody various parts of popular culture. The name Plokta is taken from the humorous acronym for "Press Lots Of Keys To Abort", a technique for stopping computer program execution when one doesn't know the proper procedure to do so.
Letters came from Richard Brandt (Fanthology '87), Jerry Kaufman (Mainstream), Linda Krawecke (Six Shooter, Start Breaking Up), Dave Mooring (Fuck The Tories), Vicki Rosenzweig (Quipu), Paul Skelton (Small Friendly Dog), Ken Slater, and Harry Warner, Jr. (Horizons), among many others.
The fanzine has been nominated eight times for a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, and won in 2005 and 2006. It also won the Nova Award for Best Fanzine in 2000 and 2002.
