Our Plokta World

This has been such an exciting Winter Spring Summer for everyone here at Cosmoplokta! We have survived the usual highs and lows that come with putting together a wonderful -- and controversial -- fanzine like Cosmoplokta! We're really excited by the result and we hope you will be too. As the ultimate fanzine for young women, we're continuing to evolve in entire unexpected directions. Cosmoplokta is famous for its mature yet fun-filled attitude to love, sex and relationships. But we're not afraid of printing hard-hitting reportage as well. This issue, we investigate the degrading life of professional SF drag queens. And on page 97, we expose the appalling treatment of young fannish women in Croydon. With photographs! These poor, degraded young lasses are chained to duplicators and forced to slave over fanzine production on little more than a bucket thimble of Laphroaig a day. It is terrible to think of fanzines being produced in these circumstances and we urge our readers to boycott any fanzine that considers whips, chains and black leather corsets to be an essential part of its production process. Apart from this one of course. [NB. Better have the lawyers run an eye over this story, just in case. Ed]

Then on page 3 we have an in-depth exposé of decadent goings-on in that mecca of clubbing and indie bands, Manchester. If you want to know where it's really all happening, read Cosmoplokta! Then you won't want to know any more.

And of course, we're quick to pick up the latest fashions in the entertainment world. On page 6, we're delighted to welcome Kari to our pages, with her in-depth look at bare-breasted young oriental boys Hong Kong action movies.

This month's unrivalled fashion & beauty pages show you how to recreate our gorgeous cover look, and, as usual, we have some pointless articles about sex which we only put in to sell more copies of the fanzine.

We've also got all your letters (well, the ones we haven't lost, anyhow). Keep writing in, girls! Send your problems to Dr Plokta, or send us your comments on how wonderful you think we are.

To top it all off, we have hundreds of glossy advertisements for doubtful beauty products, and lots of pictures of anorexic young girls to make you depressed about being a size 12 (of course the Plokta cabal average out at about a size 86). We're sure you'll love Cosmoplokta! And remember, there's Dr Plokta's spare Pentium 90 for this month's star letter.

Steve Davies & Alison Scott, Editors

On the cover: Photograph of Chris Treganza by Steve Davies. Clothes styled by the Wild Women of Wombat; Jess Bennet, M**k* B*nzl*r and Tanya Brown. Hair by Brylcreem. Recreate this look using a range of charity shops near you, entirely too much cheap makeup and a pair of old socks.

On this page: Lady Pat McMurray models the latest design of Femidom.

This issue finally hammered together on a baking hot August Bank Holiday, a mere speaker's throw away from the Reading Rock Festival who appear to be making attempts to break the record for 'Most Obtrusive Event Audible In More Than 6 Counties.' Guests at this session were famous Hugo-nominated fanzine editor Pam Wells and globe-trotting SMOF Cheryl Morgan on a rare stopover from California.

In the next issue: Alison explains about fish fingers and gay sex, Dr Plokta explains why he isn't married to Alison, and Steve wonders about getting a new co-editor. Meanwhile, we should also have a review of the 1998 Worldcon, Bucconeer, together with our master plan for not running the next British Worldcon. It's not ready yet, not by any manner of means, and we can always use good articles and fillos (or indeed fine artwork). Of course, we have to shoehorn all contributions into the inimitable Plokta style, but the results are still sometimes recognisable.