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).