The inimitable Arthur as an entity on paper has just turned to dust in our memories. Jay Babcock moved the magazine to Brooklyn last year in the hopes of securing a real future -- in the publishing capital -- for the "publication" (how fast the meaning of that word is changing). But it looks like the economy got to it first. Arthur now lives online, where you can see it but not touch.

In an email to Arthur online subscribers, Babcock wrote:

Hey gang-- I am done with self-publishing Arthur, which I've been doing since July, 2007. It's too much work for one person to edit, publish and manage a national magazine, month after month, year after year.

If/when a publishing partner appears, and so on, Arthur will return to print. That could be in three days, three months or three years.

Or never, given how the internet plus leveraged capital has hollowed out almost all existing analog mass media in favor of stuff that, in almost all cases, is qualitatively worse for almost everybody.

Anyway, we're gonna hibernate the mag for the time being, and focus on the stuff that doesn't have as much financial risk or management burden. Thanks to the work of a lot of Arthur folks, the arthurmag internet presence will upgrade and expand greatly in the coming days. Also, two new cds and a dvd are being prepared, the book(s) are on the way, and so on.

We're staying busy, staying focused on what we can handle, and pushing homegrown counter-culture forward. We hope you can, too. And if you need more Arthur mags right now...well, there's 31 back issues available in the store.

All love and R.I.P. Ron Asheton,

Jay Babcock editor/publisher, Arthur Magazine

Three days, three months, three years, or three times never. How's that for a four-sided triangle? Chicken Corner plans to keep reading Arthur online.