Hey! Hey! Blurb time! Not sure why I (or anyone else, you lazy buggers!) have not done a blurb about this magazine before. Before writing this I pulled out a copy of a magazine that I used to edit 20 years ago. It had a lot of good information in it, but it would not be able to compete as an independent magazine, like Orin's, now, especially as such "small magazines" are giving way to computerized versions which are not only much easier to "publish" but which depend almost entirely on advertising to meet costs. They lack that special zing of a favorite magazine arriving in the mail, though. Another big difference between my old effort and this is that
Invertebrates Magazine is printed on superior stock and the color pix, usually confined to the front and back covers, are the best that I have seen.
Editing skill and expertise on the subject matter of a magazine don't necessarily go together, but Orin manages to provide both. When you read a copy, it will not occur to you how difficult it is to fill a magazine on a regular basis, and that is a sign of good editing. Magazines like this use a single sheet to make four pages, so the question is always one of cutting down or padding out the content to fill a number of pages that are a multiple of four. There are a lot of options, like changing the font size and frame width, using a filler article saved for just such a situation, but the trick is to make them unnoticeable.
Most readers, of course, will only be interested in the content, and there is everything here on arthropods from jumping spiders to triops. There are even a few insect articles, including mantids. Christian
et al recently submitted a two-part article on
Idolomantis diabolica, the devil's flower mantis, which is a must read, and scientists contribute articles on a regular basis. On the same day that Superfreak pointed out on the forum that millipedes do indeed produce cyanide, I found a nice little diagram by Dr. Hoffman in Vol. 8,2 that showed how these critters avoid killing themselves with their own poison. Another type of article that I particularly enjoy, even if I don't put the advice into practice, gives instructions on how to raise such seriously unlikely critters as wasps and giant ramshorn snails.
Like any such creation, this magazine has a few peculiarities which are more of interest than in need of change. For example, the articles are listed by page number on the first page, but the page numbers are not printed except for the inside rear cover, and even-numbered pages are on the right instead of the left.
Finally, Annie Lastar is listed as the assistant editor for "this issue" on all of the copies that I have. Isn't she due for a promotion? :lol: