Punk Planet

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Punk Planet is a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focuses most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than as simply some music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering music, Punk Planet also covers visual arts and a wide variety of progressive issues — including media criticism, feminism, and labor issues. The most notable features in Punk Planet are the interviews and album reviews. The interviews generally run two or three pages, and tend to focus on the motivations of the artist (or organizer, activist, or whoever) being interviewed. Punk Planet tries to review nearly all the records it receives, as long as the record label isn't owned or partially owned by a major label. This leads to a review section typically longer than thirty pages, covering a variety of musical styles. Although much of the music is, expectedly, aggressive rock, the reviews also cover country, folk, hip-hop, indie rock, and other genres. The Punk Planet reviews section also encompasses independently released comics, zines, and DVDs.

1 Notable Issue Topics/Subjects
2 History and Other Projects
3 Criticism
4 External links

[edit] Notable Issue Topics/Subjects

Issue 22 — first issue with full color, cardstock cover
Issues 24, 46, and 67: Art & Design 1, 2, and 3 — theme issue
Issue 34 — first issue with perfect binding
Issue 50: The Chicago Issue — theme issue
Issue 55 and 75: The Revenge of Print 1 and 2 — theme issue

[edit] History and Other Projects

The first issue of the zine was published in May 1994, in part as a response to the perception that Maximum Rock and Roll was becoming too elitist. As of September 2006, Punk Planet has printed 75 issues of their bi-monthly publication, and in the fall of 2004 launched a book publishing arm, Punk Planet Books, in conjunction with the New York-based small press Akashic Books. Punk Planet Books has published four titles as of May 2006: "Hairstyles of the Damned" by Joe Meno (August 2004, ISBN 1-888451-70-X), “All the Power: Revolution Without Illusion” by Mark Andersen (September 2004, ISBN 1-888451-72-6), “Lessons in Taxidermy” by Bee Lavender (March 2005)(ISBN 1-888451-79-3), and "100 Posters, 134 Squirrels" by Jay Ryan (November 2005, ISBN 1-888451-93-9).

In September of 2006, Punk Planet partnered with the website, ZineWiki, to publish, online, exclusive articles from past print issues.

[edit] Criticism

Like the other big national US fanzine — Maximum Rock and Roll — Punk Planet is not without its detractors. Many complain about its high price, perfect binding, and a perceived over-attention to layout and style, which has to a certain extent moved it away from the traditional punk aesthetic.