Arthur Nicole Smith RIP

End of last week we received an email from editor/co-founder Jay Babcock stating that Arthur, the magazine he and Laris Kreslins ran for five years, had ceased publication effective immediately.

Sad. Seemed like an untimely death. And it turns out there may now be some people fighting over Arthur's corpse.

On Sunday February 25th co-founder Laris Kreslins issued the following statement:

"Dear Arthur Friends,

As of Friday, Feb. 23rd, Arthur Magazine is on indefinite hiatus. We at Lime Publishing, the current publisher, had been working toward transitioning operations to a new publisher since the start of the year. A breakdown this past week in negotiations for the future of the magazine led to an unfortunate and perplexing announcement that "Arthur is Dead."

This poorly-timed message was sent out, against explicit wishes of Lime Publishing, to the public before the staff, advertisers or contributors were notified. It was disheartening to receive distressed phone calls from dedicated people in the Arthur community, who devoted their time and creative energy on the magazine....

Sincerely,
Laris Kreslins
Lime Publishing
laris@arthurmag.com"

Whereas a note from Jay Babcock explains:

"Laris Kreslins insisted that I buy him out of his 50% share in Arthur [I own the other 50%] if I wanted to continue the mag since he didn't want to do it anymore [he took a full-time job elsewhere at beginning of 2007], and I couldn't raise the cash and get someone to sign the deal that Laris wanted signed. So, mag is dead. Anyways Laris has now barred me from the Arthur website/blog/mailing lists that I've maintained for the last four years, so please help me spread the word of this party to appropriate parties ... so we can party! Please come on down if you're around! Thanks -- Jay Babcock, editor/co-owner/co-founder, Arthur Magazine) AWAKE, A WAKE! Come celebrate the happy, all-too-brief life of Arthur Magazine with free giveaways and a reading featuring Molly Frances, Oliver Hall, and Peter Relic. Thursday, March 1, 7:30pm Family Bookstore, 436 N. Fairfax Avenue (across the street from Canter's Deli), Los Angeles, 90036. We look forward to seeing you there -- dressing in black not a requirement!"

Whether or not Arthur continues and if so in what form is undetermined. As for the Arthur wake on Thursday, unfortunately we can't make it and will have to send flowers instead, cause we'll be at Bob Seger at The Forum.