STRATUS
Bartłomiej Belcarz (1961–2024)
Artur Juszczak
Robert Pęczkowski
Dariusz Karnas
History
The roots of our publishing house go back to 1991, when Fanatyk Plastiku was launched as a magazine for modellers, created by modellers. The lack of magazines for plastic modellers on the Polish market — strongly felt by ourselves — led to the idea of creating such a publication. The Regional Cultural Centre in Tarnobrzeg took us under its wing and provided the funds for the first issue, printed in the impressive run of 300 copies.
The first editorial team consisted of:
MAREK BRONKOWSKI
WŁODZIMIERZ DĘBICKI
ARTUR JUSZCZAK – the originator of the magazine
DARIUSZ KARNAS
ROBERT PANEK
ROBERT PĘCZKOWSKI
The first four issues of FP were printed on a photocopier, with a circulation not exceeding 300–400 copies. These issues are now practically unobtainable, and their owners may consider themselves fortunate.
Issue 5 of FP was already published by a new publisher — editorial board member Marek Bronkowski — and printed in a print shop, giving it the appearance of a real magazine.
The editorial board at that time was as follows:
MAREK BRONKOWSKI – publisher and editor-in-chief
WŁODZIMIERZ DĘBICKI
ARTUR JUSZCZAK
DARIUSZ KARNAS
ROBERT PANEK
ROBERT PĘCZKOWSKI
with regular contributors:
BARTŁOMIEJ BELCARZ
EUGENIUSZ MOCZUK
In this line-up, we published a further 11 issues, steadily improving the print quality and, we hope, the editorial content.
In 1997, after a two-year break in publication, we returned to our first publisher, the Regional Cultural Centre in Tarnobrzeg.
The editor-in-chief then became ARTUR JUSZCZAK, while the rest of the editorial board remained unchanged.
The final issue was FP No. 20, published in 1998. Fanatyk ceased publication together with the dissolution of the Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship.
We also cooperated with AJ-Press, jointly publishing a series of books entitled MODELMANIA.
The editors of this series were:
Bartłomiej Belcarz
Artur Juszczak
Robert Pęczkowski
Books in this series included:
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MiG-15
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PZL P.11c
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P-51D Mustang
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Hawker Hurricane
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Supermarine Spitfire IX–XVI
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Mitsubishi A6M Zero
After the publication of the last title (the sixth in the series), we parted ways with AJ-Press and launched our own publishing activity.
Our long-standing cooperation with the publisher of the independent British magazine for plastic modellers, Mushroom Model Magazine, led to the joint book series:
Mushroom Model Publications
The first book in this series was published in 1999. At that time, we used the ISBN and courtesy of the Diocesan Publishing House in Sandomierz.
Since 2001, we have been operating as Wydawnictwo Stratus.