Welcome to issue 21 of Strange. The magazine has shed its physical body and, after thirteen years of print publication, we are now officially an e-zine. We have tried hard to create a magazine look and feel, and I hope that you are pleased with the results.

Other than the fact that the illustrations and photographs are now in color, Strange 21's content is exactly the same as if the magazine was printed -- there have been no editorial changes in moving Strange to the internet. The same group of people that has been bringing you Strange since 1987 created this issue.

What I love most about going exclusively online is that anyone on the internet can purchase and read the magazine at any time, from anywhere around the world.

It is also wonderful that readers will be able to respond to articles so easily and efficiently. I look forward to hearing your opinions about our transition from paper to the web. And please let us know of any problems that you encounter so that we can work them out.

I am pleased to announce that "First Person" is back. This department, a staple of Strange for over a decade, and one of the most popular parts of the magazine, has been in hiatus since the death of First Person artist Otto Martinussen several years ago. One of the main reasons that I feel comfortable bringing back First Person is that we have a new artist, Charles Berlin, whose evocative work is very much in the fortean visual style that Otto established. Berlin is able to maintain originality in his work while consciously harkening back to the look of previous First Persons, and I know that Otto would approve of his successor.

We also welcome artist William Borde and writer Tim Swartz.

I hope that you enjoy our first online issue of Strange and I look forward to hearing from you with any questions, comments, criticisms, and ideas that you might have.

Finally, thanks for purchasing access to this issue of Strange. By doing so you are helping to insure that we will be able to continue the in-depth research and investigation that we are known for. We are supported by no grants or organizations and -- other than Strange Bookshop -- we are funded solely by access fees and your donations.

Our goal is simply to put out the best magazine of strange phenomena on the web and I think that we have taken a big step in that direction. Let us know what you think.

Mark Chorvinsky