This issue goes a long way to prove the fact that we, as writers, like to play by our own rules, that it's wholly unlikely that if given the exact same prompt, two of us will ever write the same thing. Discuss.

The gnarly space trucker story has been done more than a few times and even with the specific start of this issue everyone ran with it in different directions. They investigated the character psychologically, made him win, made him lose, made him not even real, and killed him. Ultimately no rendition of the character or the situation was the same. How odd would it be if they randomly were?

If you were flying solo on a cargo vessel several years into deep space, just like Armitage Shanks, what five items would you need to adequately pass the time?

A database or access to a network with huge amounts of music, literature, media of all types.A robot to hang out with.A solid deep space communication system.A serious meditation practice. A project/hobby/passion to work on and make progressive advancement with during the trip.

In 'The Same Effing Story,' Armitage Shanks is named after a company renowned for making certain porcelain bathroom fixings. If you could be named after any real-life company, which company would that be, and why?

If I knew that before, I would have called his ship the Universal Rundle. I would not want to be named after a company, but I'm sure the future will be filled with kids named Starbucks, Costco, and Netflix.

Is this the kind of issue you'd like to see and be a part of again? Why?

Sure, it's interesting to read them all together, as you move through the stories, they leave a memory of the character in the mind of the reader making the character become more and more complex from one story to the next. By they time you get to the last one Amitage is a more bizarre and fully flushed out character. Is he a dream? Is he real? Is he alive? Is he dead? Is he even a he at all?