[!@#$%!]

ello,

Here's the Village Voice blog story on our comeback -- brackets are
mine --


http://villagevoice.com/blogs/pressc...hives/2007/04/
arthur_ii_the_r.php

Arthur II: The Resurrection
posted: 10:54 AM, April 10, 2007 by Keach Hagey

Look what rose from the grave, just in time for Easter Sunday.
Arthur Magazine, pronounced dead by its editor a month ago, announced
late last week that it would come back to life in the next few months.

The afterlife for the five-year-old music, culture, politics and drug
magazine arrived courtesy of a "trusted intermediary" who got feuding
partners Jay Babcock, the LA-based editor, and Laris Kreslins, the
Philadelphia-based publisher, back to the negotiating table late last
month. Babcock bought out Kreslins' share with the help of loans from
friends and family.

The deal marks the end of a tiff that started on Jan. 3, when Kreslins
informed Babcock that he [Babcock] could no longer publish the
bimonthly magazine, but some hard feelings remain.

"I shouldn't have had to do this," Babcock said. "Now I'm in deeper
debt than before."

Kreslins, who runs the tourism website movetophilly.com with his
girlfriend, always disputed Babcock's claims that the magazine was
finished. His publishing company, Lime Publishing, seized control of
Arthur's assets, trademark and website, where it posted news that the
bimonthly publication was on "indefinite hiatus."

[...]

Kreslins' bolt for the door locked up the magazine's credit line and
killed the momentum of Issue number 26, which was schedule to lead with
a feature on Yoko Ono by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley and drop in
time for the March South By Southwest Festival. The delay has meant
much of that issue’s content was lost.

"Features walked," Babcock said. "It's a total shame."

Some of content wandered over to other websites, such as The Seth Man's
piece on Sly and the Family Stone, found its way onto Julian Cope's
Head Heritage site. But others are now posted in blog, form on the
magazine's website, now controlled by Babcock.

But the cloud of hiatus had some silver linings. Friends "came out of
the woodwork . .. and out of the woods," to offer a hand to the
magazine in its time of need, Babcock said. Plans for CD and DVD
releases are in the works, as well as a book anthology of the best of
the last five years' journalism. The sold-out "Invasion of Thunderbolt
Pagoda" DVD will be back in print June 1, and the next issue of the
50,000-circulation magazine will come out "as soon as necessary
financing is in place," he said.

[...]

Babcock speaks the language of legend when discussing the publishing
pause. For the last few weeks, the magazine’s website has featured an
Aubrey Beardley-esqe drawing of the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian
legend with the caption "Arthur is in Avalon." In some versions of the
story, he explained, the lady presides over the British island of
Avalon, where Arthur is sent to heal his wounds.

"The whole thing is that he will return in our time of need," Babcock
said. "He is supposed to die and come back."



Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.
And THANK YOU for helping Arthur.


All best,


Jay Babcock


=========

EDIT:
apparently this was already published 2 days ago, plus the rumours had been going on for a while, but i precipituously posted this as breaking news in my excitement. o well. great news anyway!