Plan Nine Publishing

Plan Nine Publishing was named after the Ed Wood film Plan 9 from Outer Space. The publisher was owned by David Allen, who worked publishing alongside his day job as a systems engineer at Financial Computing in Winston-Salem. Plan nine was started in 1996, and in January 2000 Allen left his day job to concentrate full-time on the publishing business.[1]

98% of Plan Nine's products were sold direct to customers through their website. With low print runs (typically less than 2000), the company were able to run with a profit with runs as low as 300. The low running costs meant that the company was able to have a 70% gross profit margin, and was able to give its artists a 20% royalty, more than 4 times the industrial average.[1]

In April 2008, the Plan Nine main page was replaced by a message stating: Plan Nine has gone on hiatus for re-tooling and transition to new owners. Please check back with us Sept 1st, 2008. Thanks for your support! That page remained until the site finally went offline in 2010.[2]

In addition to Kevin and Kell, Plan Nine published a number of other notable webcomics, including:

• Bastard Operator From Hell
• Buckles
• Doctor Fun
• Monty
• On the Fastrack
• Ozy and Millie
• Safe Havens
• Sluggy Freelance
• The Suburban Jungle
• User Friendly

Plan Nine also published Black Box Voting by Bev Harris, a nonfiction book discussing the issues involved in computer-based balloting.[3] In 2004, the company published I Lived With My Parents and Other Tales of Terror, a collection of nonfiction and humor essays by Mary Jo Pehl.[4][5]