Tractor Beam: A Psychedelic Soilpunk Sci-Fi Magazine

Tractor Beam is a Brooklyn-based speculative fiction online magazine co-founded by Claire Gustavson and Lana Z Porter, supported by Tractor Beverage Company. It focuses on 'soilpunk'—anti-apocalyptic futures rooted in soil, food, and farming. The magazine features short stories, comics, illustrations, and expert commentary, with each issue revolving around a new theme. The newest issue, 'Underground,' explores soil as a convergence of life and death. The visual identity, created by Out Of Office (Elana Schlenker and Mark Pernice), uses strata-inspired layers and vertical navigation to evoke digging deeper. Art director Elizabeth Goodspeed pairs stories with illustrators aligned with visual references like protest art and soil strata. Stories include reader annotations similar to Genius. Influences include Imagine 2200 and The Whole Earth Catalog. The magazine aims to 'bring sci-fi back to the ground,' questioning how soil-as-technology shapes future visions.