The Baffler's Back!

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 24, 2009 3:40PM

One of the best stories on the newspaper industry I ever read was in Thomas Frank's The Baffler, the Chicago based magazine for thinkers that leaned unapologetically to the far left without ever resorting to histrionics. It was also famous for stiring up the local and national arts scene and just generally being a wickedly intelligent and entertaining read unafraid to take chances.

The magazine always struggled financially (we did our best to help through buying subscription after subscription knowing that the erratic schedule might get us an issue every three months or every six months (did we mention we also subscribed to Chunklet?)) but a fire in their offices effectively shut down the magazine in 2001, and The Baffler was released every couple of years afterward.

We mourned ... until yesterday when it was announced Frank was reviving the magazine under a new publisher — and founder of the Clio Society — Conor O’Neil. No word on when we can expect the first new issue, but we're ready to renew our subscriptions.

If you want to prime the pump for the new stuff, but aren't familiar with The Baffler, a great place to start is the excellent anthology, Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from the Baffler.