InformingElk // everything you need to know but can't be bothered to ask

The two people responsible for Stalking Elk are the editor, Kit Caless and the art director Chris Smisson. They have been friends since the great Westgate Kebab Riots of 1996 in cathedral city of Canterbury, Kent. All brainstorming, idea construction and pun creation is generally conducted over a fry-up on a Sunday morning or over a pint of the black stuff in the evening. They need each other more than they like to admit.

We make Stalking Elk so you don’t have to. No, that’s a lie. We make Stalking Elk because we want to create a magazine that makes you laugh and acts as a platform for writers and illustrators who don’t get an audience because the world is too damn serious. Everyone likes jokes but very few publications are willing to base their entire magazine on them. It’s something we’re really proud of and something we think is adding a positive contribution to people’s lives rather than existing in that negative space of the ironic ‘Nothing’. We’re not going to slag of other publications by name, but there’s only so much sneering and fashion crap we can take before reaching for the chainsaw and heading to Shoreditch on a decapitation binge.

The short answer is no. We self fund this thing. We have tried to make the cover price as close to cost price as possible so the reader is getting their true money’s worth. We do small print runs too, so our production costs are higher than your average glossy-print-the-fuck-out-of-this-thing magazine. We also are ideologically opposed to advertising any product that we do not completely respect and like. This severely limits our potential for advertising revenue.

At the moment we cannot pay contributors so everyone who is involved with Stalking Elk is doing it for free. Perhaps in the future if we start selling in bigger units this will change, but for now... it’s all love.

Yeah, we’ve heard of the Internet. We use it sometimes too. In fact, Stalking Elk’s ancestor existed as pdf downloads and purely web-based magazine, !nspired. We print Stalking Elk because we appreciate the physical qualities of print and understand that staring at a screen just isn’t the same as reading off paper, particularly for illustration. We also think that putting money behind a print publication means that you take things more seriously. This is ironic, of course, considering the fact that we are so fixated on the laugh, we have decided seriousness is our mortal enemy.

Nevertheless, we are backing ourselves by going to print. Let’s face it, anyone with basic coding skills and some unemployed mates can make a website. Pick up a copy of the Elk and see for yourself – it is different to hold something in your hand. It is small enough to fit in your bag or pocket (A5 size) but big enough in content and delivery to fill up your head.

Each issue of Stalking Elk has a theme. If you want to submit an unsolicited piece of writing to us it is advisable that you try to fit it to the theme of the issue. You can find out what the theme is by following us on twitter. We will also post up the theme in the Contact section of this website - You will find the details of where to send your sub there.
If you want to submit an illustration it’s advisable to send us a link to your portfolio. You can send an illustration to fit the theme, however, we tend to commission illustrations to accompany already written articles. If we like your style we will get in contact to see if you want to illustrate something particular for us.