ONTHEBUS. One virtue of a small typeface...

ONTHEBUS. One virtue of a small typeface is that it allows you to pack a lot in; this is something at which ONTHEBUS excels. The most recent issue (numbered 6 & 7, it’s the first in the magazine’s new semi-annual format) contains 336 pages and 136 contributors (not counting translators and book reviewers). One might hazard that so much work can’t all be first-rate, and one would be right.

However, the sheer unfettered and unpredictable range here is refreshing in an era of coteries, categories and other curtailments of art’s free spirit. Contributors are ordered alphabetically, a truly democratic touch. In this willingness to bend, test, even offend literary tastes ONTHEBUS is riskier and more challenging to the reader than many reviews today.

Bombshelter Press, 6421 1/2 Orange Street, Los Angeles, CA 90048; $9 per issue, $24 for 3 issues.