ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
V magazine, chronicler of Roanoke arts and night life for half a decade, has gone to that great magazine rack in the sky.
Chattery, artsy, messy, bitchy, sometimes informative and always free, V deflated sometime after the February issue hit the streets, staffers say.
So, apparently, did editor and publisher Jim Cubby - who hasn't been heard from since.
``V evaporated,'' said Missy Cook, an ex-employee. ``V disappeared. And so did Jim.''
He leaves behind at least $30,000 in debts.
Cubby, who had run the giveaway monthly since 1990, moved its office to Richmond in the fall.
At that point V already owed Graphic Production Services, the commercial printing division of The Roanoke Times, $24,257, according to GPS records. That debt has been turned over to a collection agency, said Danny Webb, GPS printing coordinator.
Other debts mounted - and sometime in late February, say those who know him, Cubby simply dropped out of sight. V workers - mostly interns at the very end, ex-staffers say - who were ready to begin putting together the March issue reportedly were left in the dark.
``He never showed up. And never called anybody,'' said Joey Coakley, who left as the magazine's production manager in January. ``He's made a lot of people mad.''
Cubby did not return a reporter's phone calls to his Richmond apartment, the magazine's Richmond headquarters and his family home in Roanoke. The number for V in Roanoke has been disconnected.
So where is Cubby?
It depends whom you ask. He is in Miami. He was seen dancing at a Roanoke nightspot. He is on an ocean cruise. He is in California. He is starting another magazine. He is at his mother's home in Roanoke; hunkered down in his Richmond apartment. Anywhere, nowhere.
``A lot of people, even his closest friends, don't know what's going on,'' said Michael Vernon, who owns a travel agency in Richmond and knew Cubby. ``I hope whatever he's doing, he's having a great time.''
Indeed, the only thing clear after talking to some 25 of Cubby's intimates, employees and advertisers last week was that few of them know for sure - and the ones who do aren't talking.
That includes family members in Roanoke.
``He's not here,'' said a close relative who did not want his name revealed. ``I'd rather not disclose where he is. I feel like he has a right to his privacy.''
For seven years, Cubby's life was anything but private.
A 1969 graduate of Northside High School, Cubby returned to Roanoke from Los Angeles in 1989. He was soon editing Night Acts, the free monthly entertainment magazine that evolved into V. The magazine was distributed through bookstores, restaurants and other downtown locales.
V began publication a year later, with Cubby as editor and publisher. ``My goal is to bring this area fighting and screaming into the 20th century, if not the 21st,'' he said then.
In the years to come, Cubby and V sponsored art exhibits, fashion shows, concerts and parties. Cubby himself was a downtown fixture, cruising the nightspots and gatherings, taking pictures, talking about upcoming events on WVTF, the public radio station, serving as judge at a battle of the bands.
He served on the board of Downtown Roanoke Inc., an organization that promotes downtown Roanoke, in 1994 and 1995.
In the beginning Cubby spoke mysteriously of a woman who was backing V financially. Some speculated the woman was the late Roanoke arts patron Marion Via - and that the magazine's one letter title referred to her last name.
But Ross Breitenbach, the former associate publisher of V, said last week the mystery woman was in fact Shirley Thomas, owner of the Iroquois Restaurant. He also said he did not know what the ``V'' stood for. ``Jim was always very weird about that. He never really said, even to me.''
Thomas confirmed last week that she had paid ahead for years of advertisements in V in the beginning, just to give Cubby some start-up money. ``Jim was a nice guy,'' she said. ``He was really into the magazine.''
Thomas believes Cubby got into financial problems later, however. ``He told me once that the magazine had a lot of expenses, more than people realized. He probably didn't make enough money to pay the bills.''
There were other problems. Staffers watched the magazine's editorial content - always eclectic at best - dwindle to little more than a few fashion photographs and a monthly account of Cubby's social life. At the end, ``Everybody was sick of reading about what Jim was doing,'' said Coakley, V's ex-production manager.
Circulation had dwindled even before the magazine left Roanoke. The last issues GPS printed had a run of about 15,000, said Webb - down from a peak printing of about 30,000.
Breitenbach, who left V in October for a job in California, claimed when he left the magazine was doing fine. Although V had debts at that time to GPS and the Internal Revenue Service, it had revenues to equal them, he said.
``It was doing well. It had a great look to it. ... The last issue that my name was associated with - we had our largest sales that month."
Breitenbach and others who worked at V said that Cubby, although a hard worker, was uncomfortable with the financial side of the magazine. ``His interests were involved in the creative side,'' he said.
Others noted that Cubby was fond of trading ad space for work for the magazine, or in return for co-sponsoring parties.
``He just mismanaged the thing to death, basically,'' said a co-worker who asked not to be identified.
Said Breitenbach:
``There's a lot of people who were burned along the way, unfortunately.''
V was incorporated, and it is not clear how far Cubby himself can be held liable for its debts.
But to those who lost money, Cubby and V are one.
The last few issues of V were printed by the Hopewell News. Publisher Andy Prutsok said Cubby was supposed to provide cash upon delivery of each month's issues. But when the February issue was delivered, Prutsok charged, Cubby handed the truck driver an envelope containing no money.
Since then, ``I've called and left several messages on his [Cubby's phone] machine,'' Prutsok said.
V also was paid in advance for some ads that, it now seems clear, will never run. Barry Booher, owner of Roanoke's Blue Ridge Crafter's Emporium, said he paid $2,000 for a year's worth of ads - and got only one. ``That just blew a big hole in my advertising budget,'' Booher said. ``It really depresses me.''
When told there were reports that Cubby had recently been seen in Roanoke, Booher quipped, ``He may be hanging from a tree.''
At least one Richmond advertiser also was upset. Richard Elliott, owner of Boxers, a men's clothing store, said he paid $230 for a V ad that did not run. ``We'd like to get that back,'' Elliott said.
Several of those interviewed mourned the passing of a magazine they say had great potential.
Art critic Ann Weinstein, for one, will miss V.
``It told me what was going on on a certain level of the community - and it was my only touch with that community,'' said Weinstein, who has written art reviews for both The Roanoke Times and V. ``I think it served a purpose.''
Of Cubby himself, she said, ``He was not only my boss, but I considered him my good friend.
``I miss him.''
LENGTH: Long : 133 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Magazine editor Jim Cubby (above right), 2. and lastby CNBNovember's issue. Photo of Cubby courtesy Vicky J. Bubnell. color.