Chicanonautica: Steelsnake Amok Again

by Ernest Hogan

Be on the lookout, Cultura fans! My postcyberpunk lucha libre antihero, Steelsnake, will be amok again tomorrow, June 7.

That’s because Unfit Magazine Vol. 3 is going live. You’ll be able to order electronic versions on Amazon and Smashwords, and there will also be a print version. It will include “PeaceCon,” a slapstick comedy about mind control and social unrest, starring (you guessed it) Steelsnake.

For those of you who don’t know, Steelsnake first appeared in my story “Novaheads,” about a drug derived from weaponized chili. It can be found in the anthology Super Stories of Heroes and Villains.

The release of Unfit Magazine Vol. 3 is not without a last minute pendejada. Amazon decided that Longshot Press didn’t have the rights to reprint the announced Philip K. Dick story, so there will be a Robert J. Sawyer story instead.

To make things even stranger, Google and YouTube searches revealed that there actually are a couple of real-life PeaceCons. Whoda thunk it? One is sponsored by harmless-looking folks who talk a lot and ask for donations--I wish them luck in their peacebulding. The other seems to be about cute Asian girls jumping up and down and screaming to some kind of newfangled pop music--hope they’re having fun.

Just to make things clear, here’s a disclaimer:

Any resemblance between the PeaceCon in my story of the same name and any other PeaceCons, real or imagined, is purely coincidental, and not meant in any way to offend or demean them.

My “PeaceCon” is a work of satire, intended to offend and demean a wide range of other people who totally deserve it and who will know it when and if they read it (which is unlikely). Meanwhile, there are all kinds of miscreants, ne’er do wells, and other kinds of horrible people who will get some chuckles out of it. The world needs more chuckles.

Gimme a break . . .

And go out and buy Unfit Magazine Vol. 3 while you’re at it!

Ernest Hogan is trying to finish a novel, about a science fiction writer who has lost track of where his life ends and the science fiction begins.