The Story of Neo-opsis
- realityskimming
- Oct 20
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 24
by Karl Johanson
About the Story Thing (2025) - 11
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"About the Story Things" is a thematic series of articles, sponsored by Reality Skimming Press. Pieces will appear every other Monday Jun 2 through to the end of 2025. Query us about contributing at https://facebook.com/relskim or info@realityskimming.com
A Brief History of Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine
Stephanie and I went to the same high school, but never met while we were there. A little while after graduating, we met at a meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Victoria in 1991. Among the things we did in fandom was participate in fanzines, with art, reviews, articles, fiction, etc. The number of such zines was extensive, including Phoenix, From the Ashes, Trekada, BCSFAZine, Fosfax, Canadadapa, Neology, Novid, The Central Ganglion, and Raspberry DrinkZine. We also contributed to the numerous “WorldCon 89 at Myles Bos’ House” fliers. While a few people, hilariously, were lividly upset by the MylesCon Worldcon bid and fliers, many people loved them and reprinted huge numbers of copies of the fliers and distributed them at conventions. This technically means that they went viral before going viral was a thing.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, John Herbert and I edited the fanzine Under the Ozone Hole, with Stephanie working as the art editor and providing articles, and John’s wife Monica providing very helpful proofreading and creative feedback. Under the Ozone Hole won four Aurora Awards in the category “Best Fanzine.” (The Auroras are a Canadian “people’s choice” award for work in science fiction and fantasy.) Aurora Awards website: https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/
From 1996-2003, Stephanie and I worked at Disney Interactive’s computer game studio in Victoria, BC. We found that working full time with a team of creative artists, writers, programmers, etc. on interesting projects could be quite addictive. Disney closed the Victoria studio in 2003, in part due to the economic impact of the September 11th 2001 attacks. Having become addicts, we were hoping to continue working in an environment of team creativity. In 2003, we both applied for the Self-Employment Assistance program, through Business Victoria. This gave us both some financial support to start the magazine and some business training.
Before the first issue, we thought of several possible names for the magazine. Other publishers and some business owners we knew advised us to make it very clear what we were about. One name we considered was “Tau Factor,” which, while interesting, doesn’t spell out to potential buyers that they are looking at a science fiction magazine. Having the full name Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine describes the product well to potential buyers. We thought that “Neo-opsis” was an interesting title, as it means “new view” or “new opinion.” Another factor in deciding on a name during the internet age is having a name that doesn’t already get millions of hits on a search. “Planet,” for example, might be an interesting name, but you can expect thousands or millions of other websites to come up on a search before your site. If you search “Neo-opsis,” our site comes up first on many search engines.
When magazines are printed with lithography, as were the first few issues of Neo-opsis, they are often printed 8 double sided pages at a time. This means that a magazine with a number of pages evenly divisible by 16 (say 64) can cost a bit less than one with fewer pages than that isn’t evenly divisible by 16 (say 57). This is why print copies of Neo-opsis had 80 internal pages, along with inner and outer front and back cover pages. Many of the issues were printed with digital printers, which doesn’t have the same “16 pages issue.
Neo-opsis premiered at VCon 28 2003, at The Days Hotel, in Surrey, British Columbia. We met several new and interesting people at our dealer’s table and first issue release party. We’ve had dealer’s tables at several other conventions, and participated on the conventions’ programming.
We used the organization Magazine’s Canada as a distributor for print copies to bookstores.
Science fiction and fantasy are considered closely associated genres in much of the world, with many stories overlapping into both categories. This is reflected in Neo-opsis’ fiction content and in works which are noted in our reviews section, both of which are mostly science fiction but which also include some fantasy.
We had several people buy the magazine who claimed they didn’t like science fiction that much, but they bought it because they knew and liked us. Upon reading it they found that they liked what we published. We’ve commented many times about this, that we are recruiting new people to the genre.
Neo-opsis has been nominated multiple times for Aurora Awards in the Category “Best Work in Science Fiction: Other,” and won in 2007 and 2009. Aurora Award acceptance, Worldcon 2009 Montreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk-2zojgj2Q&pp=ygUQbmVvLW9wc2lzIGF1cm9yYQ%3D%3D
In October of 2006, Virginia O’Dine of Bundoran Press published a Best of Neo-opsis published a “Best of” anthology. This was published after issue 5.
We worked cooperatively with the Canadian publication On Spec Magazine, sharing dealer’s table space at some conventions and with deals to get subscriptions to both publications. We also exchanged ads with On Spec as well are Pulp Literature, and Polar Borealis.
The letter column for Neo-opsis has always contained one or two entire pages of comments from readers. Some were simple praises for the magazine in general, or for specific parts of issues, but many had insightful comments about the issues.
Neo-opsis became digital-only starting with issue 31. We regretted having to make this decision, but increases to the costs of paper, printing, mailing/distributing, and the complications around running a business in the times of COVID-19, and other factors have made this decision a necessity. It was go digital or close down completely. We were also having increasing problems with Canada Post, which included them returning some of our correctly addressed magazines, and mistakenly claiming they were invalid addresses. We were charged for the return of the magazines, even though the magazines they returned seemed to be deliberately sliced through both the envelopes and the covers of the magazines inside. We had to send new copies to those subscribers affected. Canada Post did not take responsibility for the damage saying that they didn’t know where it happened. They refused to even attempt to see who on their staff might have been vandalizing the issues. As well, they didn’t refund us for the errors and vandalism, even though at one point they claimed that they would.
Being a paper magazine was very important to us, but we noted multiple advantages to a digital version. We could include more pages than we had with the print copies. Our first digital-only issue #31 had 104 pages, compared to the print issues with 84 pages (which includes the cover, back and front and insides.) Internet hyperlinks can be included in the text of the magazine, making them easily clickable, instead of having to retype out a link from a paper copy. Digital editions can include colour photos and art, whereas with paper editions we had to do interior images in greyscale. As well, with digital copies it is possible for the reader to enlarge text and/or images making it easier for people with vision problems. Another advantage is that issues can be rapidly emailed, taking less time to arrive than print copies. Regardless, we still have print copies of issues 1 to 30 available for purchase and we always feel happy when an order comes in.
With issue 31, we also made issues 1 to 30 available as digital copies as well. Many of the images in the first 30 issues were updated to colour from greyscale.
A few years ago, I found a website that estimated the number of stories in publications by men or women (I couldn’t find the site on a recent search). Neo-opsis came out almost an exact 50 / 50 split. I should note that we publish what we think is quality work, and that the only demographic that we made a focus on publishing was Canadian contributions to match a Canadian content percentage required by our distributor Magazines Canada. Fortunately, the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Community has a great deal of talent. Regardless, we’ve published writing and art from people from several countries around the world.
We included bonus CD-Roms "of Amazingly Neat Stuff" with issues 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24. Over time, Neo-opsis’ social media pages replaced the sort of content that was on the CDs.
A recent challenge many fiction magazines are facing is that software can now easily write entire stories, using a minimum number of prompts. This seems to have resulted in some publications receiving far more story submissions than they were used to, making it difficult for their editorial boards to read through all the submissions. With costs not going up, and hours to produce a publication increasing, it makes it difficult to support the creative arts.
We’re currently working on issue 37 of Neo-opsis, which will likely have a higher percentage of non-fiction than many of the earlier issues.
Over the years there have been many highlights to working on Neo-opsis. Seeing the creative works of writers and artists is one of them, even the work of those whose works are the best fit for out publication. Another is meeting new people and old friends at conventions, and participating on programming. One we also like is when someone orders a print copy or copies of the magazine, and we have an excuse to have a walk up to a nearby mailbox. We take lots of walks regardless, but an added sense of purpose is one more nice aspect of a walk.
We’re often asked for advice for anyone considering starting a new science fiction or fantasy publication, and some of that is in the content above. One thing to consider is that there is already a great deal of competition in the genres. We’re not saying to not do it, but to recognize you aren’t looking at an unfilled market… and have fun!
Another thing to watch for by Neo-opsis is videos. This includes videos of panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions, reviews, fiction, advice to writers and artists, and interesting science fiction visuals. Our YouTube channels have over 1.15 million views (as of October 2025). Our TikTok channel has over 135,000 views (as of October 2025).
Karl Johanson
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Karl Johanson is the editor of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, which has won two Aurora Awards, and a former editor of the four time Aurora winning magazine Under the Ozone Hole. Karl's publication credits include work in On Spec magazine, Sci Phi Journal, Monday Magazine, Perihelion, Stitches: The Magazine of Medical Humor and the anthology Here Be Monsters: 7. As a writer / designer / tester of computer games, Karl has done work for North Star Games, Disney Interactive, and Sanctuary Woods Multimedia. Many of the games were science fiction or fantasy related. (Bio credit: https://fancons.ca/guests/bio/5789/karl-johanson)
Neo-Opsis YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/karljohanson42
Neo-Opsis YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMkF4zNV1hkfvpC-uyr23Uw
Tiktok Channel: https://www.tiktok.com/@neoopsissciencefiction
Neo-opsis website: www.neo-opsis.ca
Neo-opsis Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/48525080175
Neo-opsis reviews on Karl’s IMDB page at: https://www.imdb.com/user/ur40000555/reviews/?ref_=up_ururv_sm
The photo of me with the axe was taken when I was applying to be a "mountain man" background performer for the movie "Puppystar Christmas": )