Liam Warfield, a local writer known best for single-handedly authoring the long-running “hobo-‘zine,” War Against the Idiots, had a dream this past September.
All he could remember of his vision when he woke up was that he’d started a newspaper called the Skeleton News. Upon talking to a few friends, he decided to jump-start a publication that harkens back to the 60s radical style of do-it-yourself underground news.
Two weeks later, he assembled a meeting of 40 or so interested parties and the paper was born.
Last November’s debut issue was paid for in large part by a Halloween benefit show at the art / music storefront Mr. City that netted $1100, and the two subsequent issues have been paid for in full by advertising, a noble feat for a do-it-yourself publication with no prior exposure and no editorial staff.
Dave Lineal, a Skeleton News contributor whose article on made it to BoingBoing.net within days of the second issue’s publication, said of the free paper that “It’s remarkable in that it’s fairly anarchist. … I mean, we have no editor-in-chief or any hierarchy?of staff to speak of. It’s doubtful that many prior publications have been successful with this kind of model, but we’ve really hit stride.”
Topics thus far have covered, art, science and heath, city infrastructure, crime, corruption, statistics, music, technology, politics and various difficult-to-categorize oddities and ephemera.
In the near future, the paper, currently printed in runs of 2,000, should be available at universities (including NEIU), coffee shops and retail establishments throughout the city.
A fourth, sixteen-page issue is currently in the works and is aiming toward an even more graphically heavy, hand-drawn aesthetic.
An ever-changing list of contributors holds weekly meetings in Pilsen each week, and Warfield and others are seeking like-minded individuals to contribute articles, illustrations, comics, and general volunteer assistance in all available capacities. Their bare-bones Web site gives the following information about the paper: “The Skeleton News is a newsprint paper, comes out once a month, won’t be your MySpace friend, and would like to hear from you.”
For general inquiries, submissions, or distribution info, drop Warfield a line at theskeletonnews.com.