◆◆◆ The Martian Behind the Curtain Martian Press is a Los Angeles-based Risograph press that publishes artwork and writing with a thematic focus in queerness, speculative fiction, and utopianism.
Martian Press was founded in Milwaukee, WI in October of 2015 by Stephanie Lane Gage, who continues to independently run it today. Gage graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design that prior spring, and moved into a co-op studio space above (now defunct) Company Brewing in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood with a gaggle of her fellow alumni. MP was born in this space, with the very same GR3770 that resides in her studio today. Gage relocated to Los Angeles from the Midwest in 2017, hauling her Riso and myriad ink drums cross-country along with her. In the fall of 2017, MP was run out of a cramped bedroom in her first LA apartment, until moving into a warehouse studio space in DTLA’s Toy District in early 2018. Gage operated MP in that location for 5.5 years, enjoying the rooftop garden, city skyline views, discovering her favorite LA dive bar around the corner (the Escondite), and throwing several pizza parties for Riso friends during Printed Matter’s various LA Art Book Fairs, then held at nearby MOCA Geffen in Little Tokyo.
In 2019, Gage was honored to be invited to speak about Martian Press at the North American Risograph Conference in Chicago, IL.
Gage graduated with an MFA from CalArts in 2023, and later that year, moved Martian Press to a new street-level studio space in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of LA where it operates today. Since its conception, MP has exhibited in over 50 art book and zine expositions worldwide.
In addition to running Martian Press, Gage has a personal art practice that occasionally forays into mediums other than Riso. She is currently a lecturer at Otis College of Art & Design, where she teaches graphic design and (surprise, surprise!) Risograph printing. In what little time she has left, she works as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, enjoys swimming and hiking, reading sci fi, drinking craft beer, going to punk shows, writing fiction, looking at the stars, and hanging out with her dog, Trout. Oh, and she also organizes a weekly informal writing group in LA called “the Society of Writers for Alcoholic Mingling & Productivity”, aka: SWAMP.
For everything else, please use our contact form or send an email to the address listed below.
Email: martianpress.riso@gmail.com
Instagram: @martian.press
Address:
3526 N Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90031
We are located at the east end of Broadway in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles. Our studio is appointment-only and closed to the public.
Bog Matter is a speculative literary magazine published biannually in the spring and fall. It seeks to publish new short fiction, poetry, and graphic shorts that could be described as science fiction, horror, fantasy, magical realism, slipstream, New Weird, utopian/dystopian, satirical, cross-genre, experimental, or exuding a general air of oddness.
◆ Issue 02 Submission Form
Submissions are currently open for our Fall 2025 issue, now until September 1. The optional theme is “the in-between”. Click the link above to submit. Please be sure to read the submission guidelines thoroughly before submitting.
◆◆◆ Letters to the Editor We publish letters to the editor in each Bog Matter issue. We welcome you to send your letters containing feedback, reviews, reactions, commentary, and other thoughts on the magazine to bogmattermag@gmail.com with the subject line “Letter to the Editor”. Please sign your email with the name you’d like to be credited with in the magazine, should your letter be chosen for publication. Full name, partial name, “Anonymous”, totally different moniker—it’s up to you. We look forward to hearing from you!
◆◆◆ Previous Issues & SubscriptionsClick below to purchase Issue 01 and explore Bog Matter subscription options.
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
Bog Matter Magazine — Issue 01$15 Print | $5 Digital
◆◆◆ Bog Matter Submission Guidelines General Info:
- Any form of writing is acceptable (prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, essay, alternative forms, etc.) along with graphic short stories/comics.
- Maximum 3500 words (submissions under 2000 words are preferred and will have a higher likelihood of acceptance).
- Submitted pieces should be formatted to roughly follow Standard Manuscript Format and uploaded as a DOC or DOCX file. Graphic short stories should be submitted as a multi-page PDF file.
- Pieces should be self-contained and complete, meaning works in progress or excerpts from larger works will not be considered.
- Please note that any use of AI involved in the creation of a submission will result in its automatic rejection.
Fiction Short Stories, Essays, & Alternative Forms
are paid at $0.02/word, with a minimum payment of $5, plus two copies of the print issue. We are looking for works that are intended for print, meaning no screenplays, please! Unless the format is intentional/experimental and ultimately intended to be read on a page. Submitted short stories, essays, and alternative forms cannot have been previously published.
Poems
are paid at $0.02/word, with a minimum payment of $5 (if your combined accepted poems do not reach 250 total words), plus two copies of the print issue. You are welcome to submit up to ten poems as long as they collectively do not exceed 2000 words. Please format them together into one single document. Multiple accepted poems from one author may be split up and/or reordered when placed in the final print magazine. Submitted poems cannot have been previously published.
Graphic Short Stories/Comics
are paid at $4/page (as laid out in Bog Matter), plus two copies of the print issue. They should be able to take up a minimum of 2 laid-out pages and a maximum of 20, but we are more likely to accept pieces that would occupy 4-12 pages. Submitted graphic shorts can have been previously published. Please note that all images will be printed in Risograph and may not look exactly the same as they do in the original digital file once printed. When submitting, please upload a PDF of your piece as is (whether that’s full-color, spot-color, grayscale, or black and white) and we will discuss printing and color options after acceptance. We do all prepress and color-processing in-house and do not require you to do any additional color separations or image editing (unless requested for content/layout).
We do not accept multiple submissions, meaning you can only submit once for each issue. Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please notify us promptly if your submitted piece gets accepted elsewhere. Please only withdraw your submission (via email) if it is accepted elsewhere, or you feel it truly isn’t up to your standards for publication. If you’ve edited your piece since submitting, we will consider your new edits after acceptance. Please do not withdraw a submission to submit a further edited version of the same piece.
Expect to hear our decision on your submission 2-6 weeks after the submission period closes.
Feel free to reach out with any questions to bogmattermag@gmail.com.
◆◆◆ USA
Reverie Bookstand
Los Angeles
Stories Books & Cafe
Los Angeles
Ooga Booga
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Burn All Books / BAB & Friends
San Diego
San Diego
Illinois
New York
Quimby’s
Chicago
Chicago
Inga
Chicago
Chicago
New York
Printer Matter, Inc.
NYC
NYC
Kansas
Wonder Fair
Lawrence
Lawrence
We offer wholesale pricing to retailers that would like to stock our products. All products are sold wholesale at a 50% list price, except for issues of Bog Matter which are sold at 67% single-issue list price ($10 each). Please reach out to us via email or the contact form above to inquire about placing a wholesale order.