Radon Journal
Entry updated 23 March 2025. Tagged: Publication.
US Print Magazine / Online Magazine, a Semiprozine of sf, often with horror elements. Triannual, May 2022 to current.
Devised and edited by half-anonymous volunteers (first or second name published only and communications sent collectively from the Radon Editorial Team), the journal's unconventional opaqueness lends credibility to its anti-establishment ethos. Issues comprise prose and poetry with submissions divided into overlapping categories: science fiction, transhumanist (see Posthuman), Dystopian, and anarchist. The last aligns with the journal's political leaning, with its logo featuring a stylized punk circle-A; Radon Journal seeks to embody the wholesome values of anarchism, such as equality, free association, and mutual aid. Issues, however, feature a wide range of content, including humorous Time Travel Paradoxes and reinventions of Beat Poetry.
Colleen Anderson's "Machine (r)Evolution" (September 2022) won a Rhysling Award for best long form poem and exemplifies the aesthetic of Radon Journal: experimental with a driving narrative and talk of revolution. Bruce Boston's "Double Down on Darkness" (September 2022) depicts anger with the status quo and Jean-Paul L Garnier's "Scifaiku" (January 2024) showcases some of the best of his extensive work with Haiku. Much of the prose takes influence from Harlan Ellison: dreamlike, unsettling worlds depicted tongue in cheek, particularly Dafydd McKimm's "The Ten Declarations of Bozo, Supreme Jongleur of Planet Clown" (January 2025).
The art style varies, with lush, colourful pieces on the covers, and usually a grittier style by a second artist on the back of each issue. Most of the art can be described as Cyberpunk, for example Issue 9 (January 2025) has a robot sipping coffee with a slogan in the background amended by graffiti from All You Have is Now to All You Have is Nothing. [JM]
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