According to Editor-in-chief Jeff Boison, Pindeldyboz (that’s
PINdill-dee-boz) — now into its 3rd
volume, and currently available both online and in an ebook version – should have evolved into a print journal. “I find a printed
volume to be something special and something to cherish in a way
impossible for an ebook or electronic format to emulate,” wrote Boison
in a recent email.

Many in the small press world, no doubt, will agree.
Pindeldyboz‘s evolution, however, raises some interesting
questions: for instance, is web-to-print a viable model for new
magazines? Nerve apparently thinks so, but will the same
formula work for your ordinary, non-naughty-bit-peddling lit journal?
How will Pindeldyboz‘s current readers respond, and will it be
able to attract new ones?

My guess, and I hope I’m wrong, is that unless he’s independently
wealthy, Boison might pay dearly for his romanticism — and isn’t
that what the print vs. online debate is all about: the
romanticization — even fetishization — of the book as object/delivery
vehicle? As anyone who’s ever published an independent lit mag will
tell you, making a go of it in the ugly, expensive, often readerless
world of print is a tall order. It hardly needs mentioning that
production costs can be staggering, and for all one’s efforts, often
only a small percentage of printed copies ever find a reader’s
admiring gaze (the rest sit boxed up in someone’s basement or languish
for a donkey’s age on indie bookstore shelves only to be returned to
distributors, who wind up being the only folks to make a buck for
their trouble).

The good news is whatever happens with the print version, the
electronic Pindeldyboz won’t be going away. Boison and Senior
Editor whitney pastorek plan on maintaining the online version of the
magazine as a separate entity, with different writers appearing in
each version, although there will be some cross-pollination. In
whatever format you encounter Pindeldyboz, expect it to contain
some provocative writing, like “The Subversive and the Subway” by Rob
“Moonlight” Maitra and “The Demise of Space/Time/Kookla” by Bryson
Newhart & Doltus Effings (both in the archive).